eribiste said:

That noise is the starter motor remaining engaged for a second or two after the engine starts. Normally the starter pinion gear (a moving part on the starter that rotates the flywheel during starting) is automatically flung out of engagement as soon as the engine starts. Yours is a bit sticky, which could be just a cold weather thing.

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I agree with that diagnosis.

could be ignition switch contacts sticking...ask any doblo owner with a burnt out starter (quite a few) and seen this on GP aswell.

its definately the way that you switch the car on that causes this,it only happens to me after the car has been stood for longer than 8 hours.
if put the key in and switch the motor on straight away..no steering failure message.
if i put the key in and turn it to MR is it ? then actually turn the engine on once all the dashboard lights go out then i'm guarenteed to get the power failure message.
no idea what cuses this and neither do my dealer,my car has been hooked to the diagnostic kit twice,had a new battery and is awaiting a new "brain".

got my 500 to the service. It was battery problem(low voltage and cold weather) that was causing the power steering warning and the difficulty to start up the engine (creating the sound on my video).
Since they changed my battery with a new one, everything works great

With the temperature at around zero degrees this evening, the power steering warning light lit again (on start up) for the first time since it came from being looked at by dealer at the beginning of January. Now, along with this the car is pulling to the right hand side - it happened pretty much instantly on the way home tonight and has not developed over time. Not had time to check tyre pressures etc just wondered if the steering has anything to do with warning light?!

P.S. Had the 16" Abarth Alloys fitted two weeks ago.

Ref the steering concern (will produce a U1700 error code, power steering node can not communicate with the body computer via CAN) and odds on will also detect a battery voltage issue in the ABS Module

The starter motor clicking out is also a known related concern ive found along side the steering concern

Check your battery and ull prob find you have a 250 or 300 both of which have been modified part numbers to 350 now.

Tou to get it changed under warranty the midtronic's used by your dealers will require the battery to state that its faulty and require replacement (Most of which do). Others may simply require a good charge

But from experience of these, Battery always fixes both concern's


Worst case scenario, have had 1 where the starting concern had gone un-reported and the starter motor chewed up the ring gear... Ended up needing a new starter, flywheel and battery

Plophole.

I had exactly the same problem. I have a Fiat 500, 09 1.2 dualdrive which over the last week or so has been coming up with "check power steering" message. :bang: It was also struggling to start too. I originally put it down to cold weather. It drives fine with no loss of power steering and the warning goes out after i start car again after a run. Took it to garage and they upgraded my battery from 300amp to a 420amp and it solved the problem - NO MORE WARNING LIGHT!!!:slayer:. I think power is drained from such a small battery to do all its checks that it fails checking the last thing in its system and flags up an electrical fault. Also insulated the battery in the engine bay to protect it against cold weather as they can lose power in cold temperatures that we are having at the mo. It's now nice and cosy and my car is running like a dream. Try changing your battery it might work for you!! Good Luck.

I've had the power steering warning too but only when it was a really cold -9 deg. Happened twice but always reset ok after warmed up. If I drive with the fault I also get fluctuating revs at idle. Weird, but car due a service in new year and I'm not overly concerned as then car drives absolutely fine.

Well another December and another 500 with this issue. Time to break out the multimeter by the sound of it....

Yes, you can tell its winter again. Our 1.2 has this Power Steering Check fault again but it always clears so TBH it doesn't bother me.

Lets hope these are only worn-out batteries and not the torque sensors like those that cause grief on Panda's, Punto's etc. I can't see some 500 customers (many ex-Mini etc) being quite so accomodating to Fiat's inconsistent customer service where this fault is concerned as those of us who've owned many Fiat's.

Start preparing now Fiat - don't bury your head in the sand & hope the power steering is suddenly tonnes better than it has been for the last 10 years!

Both our Panda and 500 have started doing that this winter, 500 worse then the Panda though. But I was putting it down to there being a drain on the battery. Both have the original installed and as the 500 has more electrical goodies installed compared to the Panda I have been putting it down to the power draw more then anything else.
As it clears after a power off and back on again.

Plus I can remember from my Brava, when the car was 3 years old its original battery was completely shot.

But this has been the first year of ever seeing these messages after having electric power steering fiats since 2003 (Stilo then the Punto before the current two)

JTD_Liam said:

Lets hope these are only worn-out batteries and not the torque sensors like those that cause grief on Panda's, Punto's etc. I can't see some 500 customers (many ex-Mini etc) being quite so accomodating to Fiat's inconsistent customer service where this fault is concerned as those of us who've owned many Fiat's.

Start preparing now Fiat - don't bury your head in the sand & hope the power steering is suddenly tonnes better than it has been for the last 10 years!

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Having correlated the timing of the light to when the battery is under stress (cold, headlights on, after a few short runs etc.) I'm almost certain it is. With the car c. 3 months out of warranty I hope so anyway...

All started last month for us, right in the middle of the heavy freeze days, so im really thinking it is

Judging by the timing of it happening, i'd imagine it is the battery in both these instances. My Mk2 Punto JTD started doing this at 6 years old when the weather turned cold and the battery was wearing out. The column did fail in the end, but not until 8.5 years old - the week after i sold it, oops!

The Stilo (and new Bravo) has a different make of steering column and failure of these is virtually unheard of. It's the Delphi columns on Punto's & Panda's (which are also used on 500s) that are known to cause trouble, though it's Mk2 Punto's and Grande Punto's that seem to fail most. Punto Evo's and 500s could follow suit, they're still abit new to tell, but the Panda has been out long enough and that seems to be better than the Punto's, so the columns may be improved.

Having posted earlier about my power steering warning light, I checked out the condition of the original battery on my 59 plate pop with a simple led tester and it gave a reading of "very good" this on a car which is left out in all weathers and only does very short journeys not really giving the battery a good charge. I shall ignore this problem untill the better weather comes and if needed fit a new battery, if it still persists then there is no way I shall be forking out for a new or reconditioned steering coloum, it will be traded in for a different make of manufacture.

there is no way that an led tester will give you a proper result. It will probably be your battery.

306maxi said:

there is no way that an led tester will give you a proper result. It will probably be your battery.

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Agreed. The battery needs to be tested under heavy load or the results will be essentially meaningless.

Modern car systems are far less tolerant of weak batteries and the days when you could 'get by' with a dubious battery and the occasional push start on very cold mornings are long gone.

Interesting that JTD referred to ex-Mini owners earlier. I had one of the "Mk 1" (2004) BMW Minis, and they commonly suffered from problems with the electric PAS rack. The failure mode was sometimes the rack catching fire! Luckily, mine wasn't afflicted by this.

jrkitching said:

Agreed. The battery needs to be tested under heavy load or the results will be essentially meaningless.

Modern car systems are far less tolerant of weak batteries and the days when you could 'get by' with a dubious battery and the occasional push start on very cold mornings are long gone.

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I jump started my Audi A2 twice because i would leave it for around 2 weeks when i would go on holiday and left the immobiliser on which drained the battery! Fun experience. The third time i went on holiday i turned off the immobiliser, left it for 1 month in the cold, and it started again without any assitance. However, with my dualogic auto, a dead battery means i am going nowhere unless someone comes to my assistance with jump leads!