Hey everyone, had my Punto coming up for a year now and to be honest it's been off of the road more than on it, which sucks as it's a joy to drive when it's working. Just hoping that some of you people who probably know a lot more than me could help me out!

The symtoms of the problem are you go to start the car after leaving it for a few days and it won't even turn over. To a layman that would signal a dead battery, no such luck as I've gone through three now and it's still happening and I've been drop testing all the batteries anyway and they're fine.

Next port of call was the starter, but that seems to be fine, as does the solinoid. One thing that's weird is that it will always start if I charge the battery up. Yesterday morning the thing wouldn't start and the battery was reading 11.6V, charge it up to 12.3 I think it was and away she goes. I've disconnected my sub/amp and the alarm as well just incase and Im checking the voltage every few hours but so far it's been fine. I know there isn't a drain though as I've paid to have a mechanic check it all out just for a second opinion.

Anyway, just gone outside and the power steering won't work either. This has always been an intermitent problem. If I use the city button it used to cut out sometimes but restarting the car would usually fix that. A couple months ago it didn't fix it but recharging the battery would, but now that won't work either.

I don't know if anyone could shed any light on this? I'd be eternally grateful. I know electrics are hard to diagnose but any ideas would give me another port of call. If I knew a garage would fix it I would pay but I'll be damned if i'm paying 50 quid for them to say they can't find it, which will probably happen.

Just for reference I've got a banner battery, 40AH, 330 startup. At the moment its sitting at 12.25V with the engine off, 13.75 on tickover (Which is a bit low I think? Could that be cutting the streering out?). And also, before this steering problem if I was driver the car every day it worked fine so the alternator should be ok.

Sorry for the wall of text, it's just that i'd like to do at least 1000 miles in the car before I have to pay for another years insurance haha.

As for the steering wheel, is the red steering wheel warning light on? If so you power steering is knackered this is bloody expensive cost me £550 about 18-20mths ago but that was from fiat. You can buy reconditioned unit for £300ish I think meant to be straight forward to replace.

As for the battery have you removed and cleaned all the earth points, checked the boot light goes out all the common things really. Do you do lots of short journey with your amp alarm fitted, maybe the battery isn't recharging quick enough to start fine the next day? The voltage of the battery should be 14-15v so yours isn't too bad when the car engine is running and obviously 12 or around 12v switched off.

Spikey101,

How did you determine that the starter motor was OK? It could have shorted windings that wouldn't be too apparent except that it would seriously cane the battery.

Your charging voltage of 13.75V sounds OK so I wouldn't suspect the alternator.

red.

I don't do short journeys but im guilty of leaving the car for extended periods. But this is happening after just 3-4 days, and it struggles to turn over after just 1-2 days of being left. All the obvious things have been checked. The steering light is on, but I suspect this is a power problem and the feed to the power steering is the first thing to drop out. This is all assumption though, maybe it really is ****ed ;P

I figured the starter was ok because if the windings were degrading/shorting I'd get a big drop in voltage on startup but I didn't drop below 10V. Maybe that is a big drop I don't know?

Min 10V doesn't sound like a big drop if that is while cranking but dependent on how you measure it you could be seeing an average. I used a scope on one once to measure cranking current and there were four distinct deep dips per cycle (it's an indirect way of checking compression).

red.

The fact that recharging the battery makes it work ok suggests that something is draining the battery. Also the fact that it's time dependant suggests that the drain is occurring while the engine is not running. Whip the - lead off and connect your multimeter across the gap on current setting and see if there is current flowing.

The starter motor doesn't draw a steady current, as stated, because the loading is cyclical as you turn each cylinder past compression in turn. The multimeter will probably see what is effectively an RMS value for the voltage, so could be misleading.

If the battery is being overloaded then it could kill it quite quickly, especially if it is being constantly run down. And yes, the battery is a known cause of the steering issue, as the current drain at high angles of turn is more than the alternator can deal with, and so the battery is used to boost it, and if the battery is fnorked then there is insufficient power available so the steering cuts off to protect the electrics.