I went to pick up my panda today and whilst giving it one final check over before parting with my money the flaming eps steering light came on. Damn it! So he offered to give me my deposit back, repair it or knock off £475. So I went for the £475 off.
First thing I did when I got home was check the earth leads then I put on a new Bosch S4 battery and the light is still coming on only on nearly full lock turning to the right. Turn it to the left and it goes off. Fault code is c1002 torque sensor failure. The steering occasionally goes heavy.
I just need to know which supplier to use as there's a couple on eBay.
Has anyone on here fitted their own new eps unit? Any pointers would be appreciated.

Easiest repair is to swap the upper column assembly for a reconditioned one.
A few have replaced just the torque sensor itself, apparently successfully, but this is a little more work. Do a search on the Panda forum to find it.
Meanwhile, these guys did me proud. https://www.fiatforum.com/western-power-steering/342222-panda-electric-power-steering-problems.html

Thanks, I saw them on eBay selling a complete recon steering column for £215. It says no calibration will be necessary. If I knew it was straight forward to do I'd give it a go fitting it myself. Otherwise I've been quoted £150 to fit it.

Not difficult, just time consuming.

Have to remove the airbag, so battery disconnected, leave for at least 10 mins, ideally longer, then pop it out.
Remove column shrouds, steering wheel, stalks, bottom pinch bolt, then four bolts hold column in. Awkward and a bit heavy (for a wimp like me).
Western Power Steering's unit comes with ignition switch, so swap key lock over, no need to disturb shear bolts.

Can be done in a day, but a whole weekend will allow a leisurely job, with time to rest and think.

Get a Haynes manual, save yourself £150. With the £475 discount, you're onto a winner.
You are a bit far from me, or I'd have offered to help.

Wound If a realignment would fix it ? You would need the full version of multiecuscan I believe ?

Noticed that the sensor is now widely available for £50-£80 plus postage.

There is a video on YouTube on how to fit one.

Second hand columns are around £80 local breaker might supply one with a warranty

Fitted a new sensor a few weeks ago. Take of the shroud (philips heads not Torx... Took me 15 minutes to realize) and check which colour is your cable.
Order a new sensor and leave the shroud off.
Wheels straight and steeringlock on.
Undo all connectors (no need to disconnect battery) 8 in total incl steeringcontrol. Undo the nuts in the front of the column, but leave the last threads (long socket 13). Undo the bolts in the rear (13 mm with long extension). Then the last threads of the nuts. Slide column to the side and towards you and undo the bolt in the Ujoint. Take the complete column to your workbench (or in my case the dinnertable) and use a circlipplieer (Knipex J31 worked great for me) and slide the part with the steeringwheel off (Mark the position of the circlip and the cover on the sensorhousing first)
Turn the steeringaxle 180 degrees till the arrow on the sensor points to the spline. You should be able to remove the old sensor now. Carefully try to slide the new sensor a few mm in. Make small adjustments in the position of the axle until the new sensor slides in without the two parts turning. If you are satisfied you can slide the new sensor in all the way and remove the clip that held the two parts in position.
Turn the axle back 180 degrees, slide the part with your steeringwheel back in (one spline is bigger so this can only in the right position), check the markings you made and put the circlip back.
Mount the whole assembly back in the car.
Try if everything is working. Recallibrate (MES or Examiner)
Enjoy a job well done.

gr J

Thank you very much chaps. Much appreciated, I'm going to give it a go. I'll let you know how it goes. It'll probably be next weekend.

koalar said:

Wound If a realignment would fix it ?

Click to expand...

No.

The fault is due to the sensor electrical tracks wearing. Replacement is necessary.

Despite what A3jeroen says, I'd recommend disconnecting the battery, and ensure at least ten minutes have passed before disconnecting any connectors at the column.
Airbags have a small capacitor that stores a charge, to be able to fire the airbag even during a crash when the power supply is severed. This takes a few minutes to discharge. There have been incidents where airbags have fired when connectors are disconnected, shouldn't happen, but can. The Fire Service have also had issues when cutting people out of cars, although that might be due to joining two wires whilst cutting through. Better safe than sorry, disconnect battery, allow capacitors to discharge.

"The fault is due to the sensor electrical tracks wearing. Replacement is necessary."

I was thinking the history of the car is unknown. Maybe its already been changed but not aligned. Bit of a long shot I know.

I don't know the error code for a senor before its aligned ?

If it's not alligned/callibrated it'll pull to one side.

Before I replaced mine I was pretty unsure if it would cure my problem (noisy), but it cured even problems I was unaware off they existed.

gr J

A3jeroen said:

If it's not alligned/callibrated it'll pull to one side.

Before I replaced mine I was pretty unsure if it would cure my problem (noisy), but it cured even problems I was unaware off they existed.

gr J

Click to expand...

Cheers for that.

I replaced the complete steering column from western power steering this evening. From start to finish it took just under 2 hours. This included waiting 10 mins from disconnecting the battery for the airbag to be safe. It's a straight forward job really. The only thing I can think of that could puzzle someone is the bolts that hold the ignition barrel to the column. The heads of the bolts are a bit like coach bolts so I used a pair of good pliers on the end of the thread and wound them out until I could grip the opposite end. So in hindsight I would next time have two M6 x 40 or 50 mm long hex head bolts. Well they looked like M6! It all went back as easy as it came apart and did not need calibrating. Excellent service from WPS. It cost £205 inclusive of delivery and the collection of old unit. I then changed the gearbox oil for peace of mind. I changed the engine oil last weekend and it's still clean. Every other diesel car I've had the oil has turned Black almost straight away. IMO it backs up the fsh to verify the 37k miles.