Hello! I own a used 1.2L Fiat 500 Lounge. It’s my first ever car and I love it so much! It was brilliant for the first few weeks until I had issues with the steering.

The steering completely cut out whilst I was driving down the road, causing me to be unable to steer the car around most slight bends. I had to try to pull the car over but ended up mounting the pavement to get it out the way as it was the only place I could get to. Thankfully it was 5am so there wasn’t anyone around, it could’ve been very dangerous had the circumstances been different.

I took it to a garage who said I’d need a complete column replacement. I left it with them and after a couple of weeks the replacement was done. I was so happy to have my car back until I jumped in and turned the engine on to hear a loud beep and read ‘CHECK ENGINE’ on my dashboard. This had not been a problem until after the car left the garage.

I quickly nipped it back round to the garage to express my concern, and they very helpfully plugged it in again and cleared the computer system so the message would go away. They told me that the car may just be reacting to the new column and the fact it’d been sat still for a couple of weeks at the garage. The message cleared and it seemed fine after that. After a couple of weeks I started to run out of petrol - I got to the last bar of fuel and the beeping ‘check engine’ message reappeared. I went to get more petrol to see if it would fix the issue and it did! The message disappeared again! I was quite relieved and presumed it must just be an error in the system which is confusing my fuel levels with the engine fault...

A couple of days later, still with a full tank, the message came back whilst I was out driving which concerned me as it’s the first time it’s appeared when I’ve had plenty of fuel.

I am considering returning to the garage but I’ve already paid a crazy amount for the column replacement and I cannot afford another problem!!!!

I would really appreciate it if anyone has any advice or experience in this area to help me out. Thank you!!

Not a lot we an do from here
Especially as we don't know what the fault code is it may have nothing at all to do with the steering replacement

CHECK ENGINE means that the ECU has detected a fault, exactly what the fault is will be recorded by the ECU and can be read with MultiECUScan. Possibly even the free version will allow this, but you will need to buy the appropriate cables and own a Windows laptop. Alternatively, if you let us know where in the world you are, perhaps some kind local will be able to read the code(s) and point you in the right direction

If the power steering failed why change the column ? not the rack?
You need to find out what code the EML( engine management light ) light is showing, note this is engine related not likely to be steering related so is going to crop up again until fixed?

John202020 said:

If the power steering failed why change the column ? not the rack?
You need to find out what code the EML( engine management light ) light is showing, note this is engine related not likely to be steering related so is going to crop up again until fixed?

Click to expand...

The electric power steering is all in the column on these, the rack is purely mechanical.

I agree that the fault code for the engine is probably unrelated to the steering. Maybe fuel vapour canister or something like that, unless the refuelling clearing the fault was just a coincidence. Who knows, until the code is read... a simple thing to do. The workshop probably ignored it because they couldn’t see how it was related.

-Alex

alexGS said:

The electric power steering is all in the column on these, the rack is purely mechanical.

I agree that the fault code for the engine is probably unrelated to the steering. Maybe fuel vapour canister or something like that, unless the refuelling clearing the fault was just a coincidence. Who knows, until the code is read... a simple thing to do. The workshop probably ignored it because they couldn’t see how it was related.

-Alex

Click to expand...

Ah I'm used to "all in the rack" thinking whether Elec or hydraulic, that clears it up.

John202020 said:

Ah I'm used to "all in the rack" thinking whether Elec or hydraulic, that clears it up.

Click to expand...

Cheers yes, electric motor and torque sensors, safety collapsing section, etc. and even the ECU are all built into the one unit. Earlier models (Punto Mk2 etc.) had a motor that could be replaced separately from the column, but these days the failures are much less common and it’s usual to replace the whole column unit.

Anyway, summarizing this thread for the original poster, I think we can all agree that we’d go back to the garage that did the work, get them to scan again for fault codes (one will now be stored, even though it was cleared before), and we would expect that they explain the significance of the fault and how it is related or not related to the work they have done.

Coincidences do happen and it is quite likely the fault is unrelated, but I think it is within your rights as a customer to find this out at no further cost, since the arrival of the fault coincided with the work being done on the car.

Then once the fault is identified, the cost to fix can be figured out by the workshop and, if it helps, feel free to share that fault here with us so we can discuss.

Thanks,
-Alex