so i was drivin to the store and with out warning just heard a thud like i ran over a squirell or something and then the most horrendus squealing sound in the world and knew exactly what happened when i tried to pull over and my powerstearing was out, fack.
so any ideas what causes the belts to just pop off? never heard of such a thing...any how to's on doing a belt job? heard the front end pretty much needs to come off.
thanks guys

 

i wrote a DIY article for the belts but i guess it got deleted when they switched the forum. you gotta remove the front clip. for that you can use the timing belt DIY on www.audidiy.com

once you do that here are the pics i had saved from that DIY, they should be enough

main belt comes on and off w/ a tensioner


a/c belt


you need to remove this pulley to do the waterpump belt

 

i'm guessing you're talking about the accessory belt since you lost power steering? it's probably your tensioner spring that's gone bad over the years. yes your front end will need to come off but it's a pretty straight forward process
this is the diy for the timing belt for the 1.8t but the front end removal is pretty much the same. the haynes manual covers it pretty well too
http://www.audiworld.com/tech/eng.html