hi, my friend has just bought a 05 plate 1242 petrol panda. the power steering went " heavy" as if it was,nt working.( logo of red steering wheel on dash.) turned a corner and steering was back to normal, fault light off.this has happened a few times. city option seems not to work, but logo is lit when button pressed. any ideas guys ? thanks, steve.

There have been issues with torque sensors within the steering's electric motor, but usually it's due to old or low batteries.

The EPAS (Electric Power Assisted Steering) is very power hungry and an old or duff battery causes them to act up.

So first stop would be a new battery.

hi, do you know how low the battery voltage would be to cause the steering failure? we will try another battery to see if this cures the steering problem. thank you for your help. regards. steve.

It's difficult to say, the demands on the battery will vary as you drive and the battery performance is dependent on things like temperature.
If it can't pull the power it needs it throws a wobbler that usually clears until the next time it can't get enough.

Most owners have come across this problem at some point, there are plenty of posts about it.
These cars a generally short trip cars and even the factory fit battery can struggle after two or three years.
So if the battery history is a few years old, it's probably that

You might want to check the battery earth strap to the body (also the one on the engine), they can get a bit rusty over the years.

Never did find out what causes this

Battery seems fine volts wise

On idle it's 14 volts

But come winter occasionally the power steering will cut out
More often than not it's the extra load of the reversing light and brake light at low revs

Errors logged are power

New battery has fixed it.

Obviously if the error codes are for the torque sensor then a new sensor would be needed instead.

hi, many thanks for the help/info. will try a new battery, and will post the results, if this does fix it. thanks again, steve.

hi, my friend has fitted a replacement battery 50 amp instead of the standard 40 amp pandas are fitted with. has not had any more problems. regards, steve.

That good to know. Great to get some feedback.

See Fiat fitted 50AH batteries as standard from about 2009 onward.

And higher on cars with start stop

Help with Fiat panda electric power steering faults



The Fiat panda produced between 2003 – 2012 (169 chassis), uses an electric power steering column, the Fiat panda electric power steering column (EPS) is unique to the Fiat panda and shares no part with the Fiat Punto power steering systems.

The Fiat Panda power steering column consists of a torque position sensor and motor control unit. The Fiat panda power steering can suffer from the following faults;

A faulty torque position sensor is the most common cause of failure in Fiat Panda power steering; this can cause the steering to fail, sometimes this will cause the steering wheel to groan and vibrate when turning sometimes the power steering will become lighter in one direction than the other. A faulty panda torque position sensor may also cause the EPS system to completely fail, the steering will go heavy and the steering failure light will illuminate.

If a scanner is plugged into the vehicle it will show a fault code of; C1002 for a faulty torque position sensor. It is possible to have just the torque position sensor column replaced without replacing the motor control unit, if this is done however the control unit will need to be recalibrated, we can supply a torque position sensor column.
https://shop.westernpowersteering.co.uk/category-67.html

koalar said:

But come winter occasionally the power steering will cut out
More often than not it's the extra load of the reversing light and brake light at low revs

Click to expand...

My wife's 1.2 Dynamic did this in cold weather even with a new battery. Then we had the alternator light staying on for a few hundred yards. Immediately that went out, the steering was all fine again. Lights on or off made no difference. The alternator can deliver nearly 1KW at full load so it's quite a brute presumably to keep the steering happy.

New battery no obvious effect.
Replaced the main earth leads to no effect.
Cleaned the main positive power lead connections from alternator to starter to battery - no effect.
Replaced alternator with a used item and problem solved.

The brushes on the old unit look ok but there is some green verdegris around the regulator circuit so I suspect that's where the problem lies.

A voltmeter permanently wired to an ignition controlled live would have given a clue as to what was actually going on. Doing that you can watch the voltage and see if the battery or charging are weak.

But then you'd only be able to check the Voltage. Voltage without (significant) Amps equals zero.

gr J

A3jeroen said:

But then you'd only be able to check the Voltage. Voltage without (significant) Amps equals zero.

gr J

Click to expand...

You watch the trend "significant amps" come from the load on the system.

Volts drop on engine start? What does steering do to the volts? How long does it take to get back to 14.2 after starting? etc, etc.

Amps alone are misleading because excessive volt drop will cause the current to increase to compensate. A voltmeter shows that drop so there's no need to know the current value.

Fiat panda electric power steering column faults


The fiat panda produced between 2003 – 2012 (169 chassis), uses and electric power steering column, the fiat panda electric power steering column (EPS) is unique to the panda and shares no part with other fiat EPS systems.

The steering column in the fiat panda consists of a torque position sensor, motor control unit. The fiat panda eps can suffer from the following faults;

A faulty torque position sensor is the most common cause of failure; this can cause the steering to fail sometimes this will cause the steering wheel to groan and vibrate when turning sometimes the power steering will become lighter in one direction than the other. A faulty panda torque position sensor may also cause the EPS system to completely fail, the steering will go heavy and the steering failure light will illuminate.

If a scanner is plugged into the vehicle it will show a fault code of; C1002 for a faulty torque position sensor. It is possible to have just the torque position sensor column replaced without replacing the motor control unit, if this is done however the control unit will need to be recalibrated, we can supply a torque position sensor column. https://shop.westernpowersteering.co.uk/category-67/fiapc.html


The fiat panda EPS can also suffer from a failure of the motor control unit; this can begin as an intermittent failure whereby the steering wheel will go heavy and the failure light will illuminate on the dash. Usually if the vehicle is switched off and then started again the system will temporarily reset unit the fault reoccurs, which it always will do. This will eventually lead to a complete failure of the system. If a scanner is plugged into the vehicle it will show a fault code of; C1001 motor control unit failure. If this fault is present, the complete fiat panda steering column needs to be replaced. We can supply a complete column, which includes the torque position sensor together with motor and control unit. we test and calibrate the complete column so the unit can be fitted without the need for any further programming. https://shop.westernpowersteering.co.uk/category-67/fiapc.html

In short, if the new battery is not solving the problem and your alternator is charging well, you should get another column on service exchange. Leave it struggling for too long risks steering motor damage and higher repair costs.

Those of us with 100HPs should note the default steering setting is equivalent to City on other Pandas. The 100HP works the steering harder most of the time.

Non Sport = Normal on a100HP
Sport = Less Powersteering

When my sensor went it buzzed around the center and Sport or non Sport made no difference. Both felt normal.

gr J

wasn't this all resolved in March last year ?

"hi, my friend has fitted a replacement battery 50 amp instead of the standard 40 amp pandas are fitted with. has not had any more problems. regards, steve."