Hello All,
My Grande Punto (17000 KM) started giving me "airbag failure" message about a month ago. Later, the audio controls on the steering wheels stopped working. A week after that, the honk stopped working - it works sometimes though. Fiat dealer and garage is out of business here in Damascus due to the war. I managed to get in touch with a mechanic who used to work for them and I had him run a diagnostic. After checking the sensors under the seats, he said there is a part in the steering wheel that connects the airbag, honk and audio controls that needs to be replaced. I could not find such part in the market here. Another mechanic, who is not Italian cars expert, claimed he'd fixed a similar fault with a Bravo by drilling two holes in the steering wheel and fixing the part without replacing it (don't know why he wants to drill two holes to pull out the part). He didn't seem so confident and he would charge me a lot of money just for trying. He says if he couldn't get it fixed, I would need to replace the whole steering system which would cost 30% of what's the whole car is worth in market
Should I trust this guy since I don't have a lot of options? Please help.
My Grande Punto (17000 KM) started giving me "airbag failure" message about a month ago. Later, the audio controls on the steering wheels stopped working. A week after that, the honk stopped working - it works sometimes though. Fiat dealer and garage is out of business here in Damascus due to the war. I managed to get in touch with a mechanic who used to work for them and I had him run a diagnostic. After checking the sensors under the seats, he said there is a part in the steering wheel that connects the airbag, honk and audio controls that needs to be replaced. I could not find such part in the market here. Another mechanic, who is not Italian cars expert, claimed he'd fixed a similar fault with a Bravo by drilling two holes in the steering wheel and fixing the part without replacing it (don't know why he wants to drill two holes to pull out the part). He didn't seem so confident and he would charge me a lot of money just for trying. He says if he couldn't get it fixed, I would need to replace the whole steering system which would cost 30% of what's the whole car is worth in market
Should I trust this guy since I don't have a lot of options? Please help.