Further to the above post about my successful steering torque sensor replacement, here is the old faulty one cut up to show the innards....
As you can see it's electro/mechanical and the small copper "fingers" track around on the carbon "rings" when you turn the steering wheel. You can see the carbon "filings that have worn away next to the tracks. Easy to see how this could cause electrical malfunction and electric power steering failure...
Been 24 hours now and repair still working perfectly!
Also, for those wanting to give this very easy repair a go here is a link to someone performing a similar torque sensor replacement on a Ford. The video goes into some detail about getting the alignment right but it's not that hard...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubP30rSK_AE
As you can see the sensor is almost identical to the Fiat one and although in the video an alignment tool is used, you do not need one.
So, an easy, cheap repair for the seemingly catastrophic steering failure on our Fiats.
Bergi
Hi, happy to answer your questions...
Yes, the whole steering wheel with airbag and upper column and stalks comes off as one when you have removed the large circlip.
That circlip does have the two "eyes" at the end that the tips of the circlip pliers engage in. Sorry, I tried to get a picture of it during removal but it was blurred.
The clip is big and strong because it holds the upper and lower parts of the steering column together.
As Saryr Icon and I have indicated, removing the circlip is by far the hardest part of this repair and with big circlip pliers, it's not that hard.
Bergi
Thanks Dave for your reply I didn't notice it on the test drive before I purchased it ive only had it a few days thought it was the brakes at first and was going to inspect when I got her home as was told she was sat for a while and brake binding was an advisory on the mot? it wasn't until researched the net and came across this owners group and thread about the torque sensor ? But thanks for your help ?
Hi where can i find the mini journals please.Hi portland_bill, Bergi and Sweetsixteen,
There is no need to remove the steering wheel from the steering shaft and the sensor is not housed under the horn push/airbag thing.
The sensor is in a housing approximately half way between the back of the steering wheel and the floor and the steering shaft passes through the centre of it. It is actually behind the dashboard and below it. Access is by removing lower dash closing panel (2 posidrive screws) and the lower steering column plastic cowling (3posidrive screws, 2 upper and 1 at the bottom). This lower cowling also has two points where it clips to the upper plastic cowling along the joint line. You must force these apart but they clip back together on reassembly OK. Getting the lower cowling off the column height adjustment handle is a fiddle but it will happen after a bit of trial and error.
What you will see is a mild steel guard secured by two female TORX head bolts.
Remove these and the shield. Now the sensor housing flange is visible and the huge and very strong circlip will be visible.
Be aware that if you intend to replace the sensor you should do all of the above in order to get a look at the colour of the sheath coming out of the flange. This sheath contains the wires from the sensor and terminates at an eight pin plug.
These sensors are available with four or five different colour sheaths.
Basically, if your sheath is green as mine was, buy a green sheath sensor,
if it's yellow, order a yellow. The colour of the sheath identifies which sensor you have. Confirmation is necessary before ordering and therefore the dismantling mentioned above is also necessary.
The bunch of wires coming from the column in the sheathing are plugged into a box with other plug terminals. The eight wire plug ( only six wires are actually used ) is locked into its' docking port with a smaller plastic wedge which is a different colour to aid identification but is part of the plug body. This securing wedge MUST be prised out before attempting to pull the plug from the terminal port. Don't worry about mashing it a bit, you get a new plug with a securing wedge on the new sensor.
All of the above is what you have to do in order to identify which colur sheathing your sensor has so you can order the correct sensor. I mention the plug stuff because you may want to try pulling and re-plugging the terminal a few times to clean the contacts. It's a long shot but you may as well try.
Getting back to this air bag thing, everybody should be aware that not all capacitors, particularly electrolytic ones, discharge simply by depriving them of current. Some caps. will hold residual charge for weeks or even months until they are properly discharged to earth.
A method that may work would be to leave the ignition key in the ON position after disconnecting the supply/battery. Very difficult to say for certain without schematic (wiring diagram).
Will post two complete mini journals with all the detail. Both are probably essential reading but I have to stress again that the posts from 'bluepanda' and 'captainsaltry' should be read as well. There is a link to a Dormans video which shows how to fit the sensor with the entire steering column removed (totally unnecessary - removal by disconnection from the steering rack may make FIAT re-programming mandatory.
04:30 hours in UK gotta go to work, turn a wheel while Venus is by other dogs enjoyed.
Regards
Satyr Icon