My daughter has a 58 plate Punto Grande which has a number of problems which I am hoping someone can help. When she purchased the car we noticed it had scrapes up both sides.
It appeared to have been in a minor bump, and we noticed warning lights on the dashboard at the time too.
Upon investigation we noticed the centre section of the steering wheel where the airbag is housed is not fitting right (it's stuck up a bit and you can see beneath it, I'm sure that isn't right).

When put on the diagnostics reader the codes it came up with were:
Steering angle sensor NGE,
1st +2nd level drivers airbag resist,
and Gear level sensor 1 of 4.

Once we had the codes the mech tried to get them to cancel but they all refuse to clear, he tried several times but they are still there.

My daughter has looked up a few of the items and they are pretty horrendous in price - especially the steering angle sensor which she has found appears to be around £133!!
Does anyone know anywhere we could get the items to sort it out for her at a better cost. Also does anyone know what the code for the Gear level sensor is for as we can't find out??? We still have a problem with the 'Hill Holder unavailable' message - as even with the handbrake on it will roll if you're not careful (it is a semi auto) - nobody seems to know what can be done about it.
Also does anyone know if it would pass an mot with a straight through exhaust?
All help greatly appreciated Thanks all!

Hi, sounds like a lot going on here!
Definitely been in a bump and sounds like the airbag's gone off, which would be an MOT fail in itself. The exhaust might fail if the emissions are too high (ie. no cat) and if it's considered too noisy by the tester.

The gear level sensor I suspect is talking about the gearbox oil level, so get that checked. Also get the battery health checked as dying batteries tend to throw up a lot of errors (particularly regards hill holder).

Hi,

seems the airbag has lift-off and someone tryed to dissimulate it by putting-back the central wheel cover... Need to be fixed before any attempt to MOT since it's a major safety device !
I thought the angle sensor was part of the column and coudn't be replaced separately, so I would consider myself lucky to pay only £133 to get one ! I believe there is a company in Holland that re-furbish such columns, they may be helpfull here !?
About the 3rd error: it is not gear level, but gear leveR I guess ... So not talking about oil level here but leveR position sensor. They are located under the gear leveR (access by underneath the car) and electricaly (drive by wire) connected to the gearbox robot's brain. Could explain why the car is tending to roll by itself... Strange is that one can start the engine, don't have to be in neutral to start such semi-auto ??

Last but no least: the battery. Have it and the earth connections aswell checked . If needing replacement, go for the largest that you can fit. I know some forumers will say it's just moving a problem a bit further but it really help to get a few more VA available and it's well known that Fiat tends to use the as small as possible battery.

When we 2nd hand-sell cars in Belgium, it HAVE to go thru kind of MOT before selling, so the buyer won't worry too much about exhaust, smoke, noise, etc :-D

Regards, Bernie