Panda Newbie power steering fix

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Panda Newbie power steering fix

Satyr Icon

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Hello all Members

Had electric power steering failure on 2005 Panda 1.2.
Found Fiat Forum and a post by 'bluepanda' regarding replacement of steering sensor.
Purchased new sensor from Italian site for £70 including shipping.
After several attempts managed to fit new sensor with correct centering of steering. No expensive visit to Fiat main dealer or the £2000 bill they wanted to fix it. Outstanding!!!!! :worship:

After fix driver airbag light stays on and horn no longer works.
Will post more details in Panda forum.
 
Hi Sweetsixteen

The Italian site is on the BAY. The Portuguese site mentioned by 'bluepanda' in another post is not.
You can find this part and for other cars by typing this (121283889495) in the Bay search window. It is an 'ebay Item No.' offered by evolution3-srl.

Unlike 'inovauto' mentioned by 'bluepanda' they seem not to specialize in outomotive parts. 'inovauto' have a more comprehensive offering and specialize in car parts.

Navigating the 'inovauto' site is a bit tedious if you get it in Portuguese but it is available in English as well.

These sensors are offered on the Bay by Brit. outfits but they are asking £129.99 PLUS £20 shipping as opposed to £59.99 PLUS £10 shipping by 'evolution3-srl' The Portuguese site wants 80 EUROS which I think equates to about £60.

I was a bit wary of buying any of these bearing in mind the discrepancy in price, but I was faced with scrapping a very clean 2005 PANDA 1.2 with 70,000 miles on the clock because Fiat main dealers wanted £1,600 Plus VAT just to fix the steering and it was time for a new cam belt as well. Bought the cheapest sensor in case things went belly up.
Very disappointed after first fit when steering turned fully to the right all on its own as soon as the ignition was turned on but persevered and learned the absolute DO's and DON'Ts about fitting these with the exception of ONE thing not to do which I now know has stopped the horn from working and the airbag warning light staying on.

If you are contemplating fixing your Electric Power Steering (EPS) with a new sensor I would have to give you a precise and detailed procedure to follow with the new information recently learned. You do not actually need ANY of the complex computer and program stuff AT ALL and no need to go to Fiat main dealer.


The procedure probably looks long winded in print but is actually very easy and would take me less than an hour to fit one successfully now I know how but who needs to race, slow and methodical wins every time.


Regards

Satyr Icon
 
It would be great if you could take the time to do a full write-up.
We could ask for it to become a sticky so that others with this common problem don't get fleeced.

Great job. Congrats.
 
Yes please, I second that. A write up for those of us wanting to maintain our own cars would be fantastic please......

Bergi.
 
Hi Sweetsixteen and Bergi,

Thanks for your enthusiasm and the invite.


I would have to post in two separate posts, the first with all the history of how the aberrations in the steering start and how they develop if a driver continues to use the vehicle after the warning light appears (scary) and the second, with the procedure in detail of how I fitted the sensor, for those who just want to get on with it.

Both posts would be massive compared to most of the posts I have seen on this forum.

I'm not a big forum user so I am unsure if stuff that size is appropriate or wanted. Maybe if I post it you will be able to edit it or just say scrub it.

Personally, I think most of the history of the symptoms that eventually led to replacement are essential reading but like I have mentioned above, I am a novice at posting although have read many posts on electronics forums.

In the meantime, I still can't find a coherent description of how to remove the airbag so I can fix the horn and bag connection, In this forum it is referred to as a ''clock spring''.:bang:

Regards

Satyr Icon

 
Hi Sweetsixteen and Bergi,

Thanks for your enthusiasm and the invite.


I would have to post in two separate posts, the first with all the history of how the aberrations in the steering start and how they develop if a driver continues to use the vehicle after the warning light appears (scary) and the second, with the procedure in detail of how I fitted the sensor, for those who just want to get on with it.

Yep - great.
Just do it.
Guaranteed it will be well received. This kinda info that potentially saves giving money to dealers and helps us get to know our cars better is very valuable.
 
Hi again Satyr Icon.
It seems a bit strange to be sitting here in the far corner of the world asking someone to please take up their time to help me out but a guide to what you have done and how it worked out would be fantastic.....

Everyone here seems to agree these are fine little cars but one of the most annoying problems many develop over time is faulty electric steering. Anything to de-mystify the repair and make it do-able for other owners would be very much appreciated.

Bergi.
 
In the meantime, I still can't find a coherent description of how to remove the airbag so I can fix the horn and bag connection, In this forum it is referred to as a ''clock spring''

I don't understand how you managed to replace the sensor without removing the steering wheel, but now you are asking how to? If you did not remove the wheel, you have probably broken something. Good luck with that.

The airbag is held in with three spring clips.
In the back of the wheel are three holes. A flat bladed screwdriver inserted here is used to push the spring clips off their hooks. Each clip has to be eased away from the centre of the wheel, if I remember correctly.

Disconnect the battery and go have a cup of tea. Then remove it. Must give time for the airbag capacitors to discharge to prevent airbag going off.
 
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
 
You're allowed to go to work, but only to earn enough money to carry on typing!

Thanks for what you've written up so far.
 
Hello to All,

Many thanks Sweetsixteen and portland_bill.

I actually caved in and stopped at a Fiat dealer to get a quote on replacing the clock spring connector in the steering wheel boss. They insisted on charging £115 +VAT to put Panda on computer diagnosis. I said I already know what is wrong and what needs to be replaced, can you please quote a price for doing just that. NO.
They won't even give me a ballpark figure.

They want £115 + cost of parts + labour + VAT. These guys really have a nerve considering the stuff thats' been in the News about VW and the emission fraud. Apparently this sort of thing is widespread among EUROpean manufacturers.
Tell us something we don't already know.

Left the forecourt even more determined to help more people beat extortion racket they are running.

Thanks portland_bill for the info regarding removal of horn push and bag.
Logic tells me that it is unlikely a manufacturer would make provision for a safety device like an air bag to deploy when the ignition is off and the key is removed i.e. parked. The possibility is still there so will treat this thing with some caution.
Are the springs you mention coil springs or strip metal??

Where do I post the first big 'intro' part of the sensor fix, here or in Panda??

Regards
Satyr Icon
 
The spring clips appear as a single strip if you can get a torch and mirror to the small hole in the back of the wheel. They just push aside and pop off the hook on the airbag module. It all appears simple once it is off, but a real pain before. I think it is better to do the centre one first, but sadly my memory is now hazy as mine was apart for a nearly three weeks. Having to change the column gave me the opportunity to send the wheel away to be covered in leather, very lovely. (The advantage of having a second vehicle)

Haynes say wheel must be off to remove the cowlings, and when I did mine this appeared to be correct. You must have had a struggle.
 
Hi portland_bill,

Many thanks for that info. I can approach fixing the horn/bag connection with a little more confidence.
The upper cowling comes off after removing two small self tapping posidrive screws directly behind the steering boss. I had to get upside down underneath with a flashlight to see them. Refitting these screws with the steering wheel in place would be difficult but I have a magnetic screwdriver for these things so not too bad.
Have refitted upper cowling temporarily without these screws and it seems not to need them. The upper cowling clips together with the lower cowling which IS secured with three screws and it seems fine so far.

Sorry to hear you had to go down the 'whole column' route. That is a nasty expense for a component that really is a very simple bit of kit. I dismantled the sensor I removed from my Panda and will going into detail of what I found in a sort of intro to actually changing the thing.
Was it just the sensor that gave up or were there other ''issues'' as they say now days?
I run two cars as well, the Panda belongs to 'the government' ''er indoors'' 'the gracious ladywife', she flat refused to even get in the thing once it started to show signs of demonic possession so I wind up driving all over the country in a meant for the shopping run. The sooner I can coax her back into it the better.

Thanks again.

Regards
Satyr Icon
 
Hi 'sweetsixteen' and 'Bergi',

Many thanks for your enthusiasm and the invitation.

I was referred to this forum by an electronics engineer who found the post from 'captainsaltry' and 'bluepanda' under the heading Power Steering Torque Sensor Info after I suggested I was going to scrap my Panda and go sulking in my hideout in Portugal in disgust after getting a £2,500 estimate from FIAT maindealer.

Analysis of vintage analogue power amplifier circuits with my very impressive 'nerd' friend was easy compared to dealing with the wall of fear and over dramatized 'we won't touch the sensor, only supply a complete column' attitude of Fiat garage.
This EPS thing is a much overrated dragon and Perhaps with the help of the posts from 'captainsaltry' and the offered photos from 'bluepanda' we can slay it once and for all , at least for Fiat owners. Overcoming the 'Big Business' agenda of beating the crap out of its customers with technology is very do-able but it has to be done very carefully and the legal implications below should be noted.

I do strongly recommend reading the posts from 'captainsaltry' and 'bluepanda' under the heading ''Power Steering Torque Sensor Info'' in conjunction with anything I post. 'captainsaltry' has approached the task in the appropriate 'tech' way but a more 'anybody can do it' method is also valid here.

As mentioned above, there is much LEGAL history associated with EPS particularly from the USA. It was argued that stories of some very dangerous vehicle behaviour, when these EPS units malfunctioned suddenly, rendered the manufacturers liable and at least justified a re-call where manufacturers should correct the fault at their own expense. The up-shot is Big Business won as usual. They argued that the deterioration of the sensor is progressive and that in most cases of complaint, the drivers continued to use the vehicle long after the EPS warning light appeared and that the chance of the software failing catastrophically is about the same as a front tire blow-out and therefore within acceptable margins.
Personally, I used my Panda for around five weeks after the warning light came on and the signal from the TORQUE SENSOR did indeed deteriorate to the point where car was pulling hard to the left. A life that is dependent on a small cheap component fitted to a vehicle is a sad one.

The implication here is that, if you continue to drive a vehicle with the EPS warning light illuminated, you deserve what you get. I only try to give the flavour of this stuff here, the actual documentation is vast and you would die of boredom if you have not already.

A FEW OBSERVATIONS
I have actually dismantled the failed Torque Position Sensor removed from my 2005 Panda Dynamic 1.2 to see what all the fuss is about and to see if it could be repaired with a bit of cleaning or something. This component is NOT packed with complex circuits, chips, diodes, resitors or any digitally programmed 'heavy duty' technology. It is simply 14 very thin, concentric, electrically conductive, circular printed carbon tracks on one disc and 14 corresponding spring steel 'tongues', mounted at an angle relative to the disc they are mounted on, which are precisely positioned to make contact with their associated tracks on the lower disc. THAT'S IT.
Imagine 14 1965 Morris 1000 horn-push assemblies, miniaturized. This is not TECHNO TECHNO TECHNO. No Harry Potter, Camelot etc. more Blair Witch than anything else. The carbon tracks do present a differing electrical resistance depending on length. It is this difference in resistance which is utilized to send an electrical, as opposed to a digital signal or, indication of which direction the car driver is turning the wheel..

The spring steel 'tongues' which make electrical contact with the carbon tracks are very thin and delicate and each is further divided into 5 even smaller 'tongues' forming a structure similar to a brush. The contact ends of these 'brushes' are formed into a semi-circle, ( a bit like the 'ticks' in a box ticking tax form but with the pointy bit rounded off) since they stay in contact with the carbon track for 180 Degrees+ in both directions and would slide in one direction and dig into the carbon track in the other direction if they were not formed thus.

After a few thousand car park maneuvers etc. these contact points wear through the contact area, the turned up end of the 'foot' part of the brush drops off and the then sharpened end of the spring steel 'tongue' digs into the carbon track in one direction and starts to destroy the carbon track. Furthermore, the now detached turn-ups are floating around and interfering with the function of the remaining tracks.
This 'signal', no matter how corrupted or aberrant, is nevertheless transmitted to the 'brain' (( The steering column has it's own dedicated logic processor or controller)) in the steering column. It increasingly desperately attempts to ignore the spurious elements of the signal fed to it from the ''FAWLTY '' Torque Position Sensor and act only on those voltages (signals) it has been programmed to respond to.
Eventually it all becomes too much for it and it says''f--- this'' and sends out a request to the main ECU to flash or display the power steering warning light but still continues to try to do it's job. Eventually it will say ''that's IT'' and sends a request to the main ECU, ''Please shut me down completely, I can't do this anymore'', '' Get me 'outa' here before I catch fire'' etc. and then there is no power steering assistance at all.
All electronic data processing creates heat in the device doing the processing, deciding what is spurious or unreadable corrupted data is still 'processing'. The worse the sensors innards get scrambled, the more 'crap' it sends out, the chip gets hot trying to operate outside its' envelope and begins to output bad data. Turn off ignition for a minute or two, chip cools down and will function again until it cooks again. I think you all know the rest of the scenario.
There will, of course, be many variations of the above all with much the same result ERR ERR etc. OFF.

Now for the TRULY frightening

Limited but not that limited knowledge of production costing, injection moulding robotic assembly, final testing (Quality control ) and labour costs suggests the sensor is more than likely produced for under a fiver, possibly close to£2. Manual assembly and testing of the final product I can see could be done in less than two minutes.
The rest is Business.


My own experience of this steering malfunction manifested itself as a slight off-centre, i.e. a constant slightly heavy right hand was required to maintain a straight ahead condition. Eventually this malfunction was augmented with an occasional buzzing judder and an even heavier right hand, again, to maintain a straight ahead course on a motorway for example. Carry on driving, 'gotta pay the bank back, the TV license, the rates, blah....blah... blah you all know the story, and the vibrating is constant and 'The Jolly Green Giant wants to turn left'. Seventy miles later ( one commute ) ''Good grief, this thing is possessed. It's trying to kill me'' Pulling hard to the left, constant loud juddering followed by periods of no ASSISTANCE to the steering. It's like a workout in the gym steering this thing with no assistance. No self centering. Five minutes ignition off, thrash Panda with branch of eucalyptus, ignition back on, power steering back on but same conditions as above. Repeat, repeat, total surrender, must press on, vast amount of worse things to deal with. Pulled the fuse on the EPS, 475 miles of upper torso workout later getting stronger and looking good in the mirror, a bit like Arnie in The Terminator, too bad about the legs though.
Took Panda to expensive EXORCIST (Fiat dealer). Diagnosis: 'Possessed' Torque Position Steering Sensor. Remedy: ''loads a money mate, can't really exorcise these things, you gotta buy a whole new steering column, loads a money mate, 'ave a look at our selection of previously owned vehicles, they're loads a money an all ..........mate. ''

Up until the point of £45 Fiat diagnosis I was convinced a relay was at fault because the judder was reminiscent of the frequency that a relay will open and close the electric circuit it is meant to control when it starts to 'chatter'. This is a condition which occurs when the voltage to the electromagnet assembly ( inside the relay ) is fluctuating. This fluctuation can be caused by various circuit abnormalities too complex for this posting but one which the average home mechanic can deal with is 'connection oxidation '. REMEDY: pull spade connections apart several times to clear the contact surfaces of this crusty stuff. Oxidation raises the resistance of the connection and therefore drops the voltage. Low voltage can also be caused by a crap battery, crap Batt. and oxidation equals demonically possessed wiring loom.
I mention relays here because I have read a posting on this forum from somebody who took one of the relays apart and rebuilt it believing that these are no longer available. Can't be certain without wiring diagram but it looks like the two circuit board mounted relays on the end of the EPS motor simply reverse the DC supply to the DC motor and therefore it's direction of rotation. One relay activates to: assist turn right, other relay activates to: assist turn left.
It should be noted that most commercially viable relays will have a finite number of times they can reliably activate ( open and close contacts - make and break a circuit). Under 'chatter' condition your relay is using up its' life at several hundred times the rate it is designed for. Big DC spark at contact points burns and sometimes welds the points together also.

Going by the posts under ''Power Steering Torque Sensor Info'' in this forum, I think I would agree that 99% of EPS failures are probably caused by deterioration of the 'SENSOR' because the rest of the system is almost bullet proof with the exception of the two or three examples above, dodgy battery being responsible for most of the remaining 1%.

IF we accept the above is true, why give FIAT dealer £45 to tell you the sensor is defective?. Use the £45 toward a new sensor, why feed the Vampire.

I have laid out my experiences of the sensor failure so any reader can compare their own notes against them and decide for themselves if it is worth taking a £70 risk and trying to fit the thing.

My decision to try replacing the sensor was easy, I don't have a spare £2,000 just lying around for FIAT to Hoover up, or to buy another car. Very much a forced gamble and had to be done quickly so some errors were made and I will be as precise as I can in my next posting, on how to avoid them altogether.

I'd like to express my gratitude to 'portland_bill' for his assistance in getting started rectifying one of these errors, specifically the damage to the 'strip circuit' connection to the horn/air bag in the steering wheel boss. This is sometimes referred to as the ''clock spring'' and is more a description of what it looks like and the fact that it is secured at both ends. This error is easily avoided . Details in next post with step by step procedure.

Please make an effort to watch the 'Dormans video' on You Tube relating to replacing the steering sensor. This will give you a good idea of how easy it is to replace this component but bear in mind that if you follow the guide in MY post, you will be replacing the sensor without removing the entire steering column, only the top half. By doing the fix with the lower half of the column still connected to the steering rack you avoid all the re-synchronizing problems many have experienced.

Please also read posts from 'Bluepanda' relating to replacing the sensor.

Let's get smart and get lucky.

Regards

Satyr Icon
 
Awesome is a word that's badly overused in English today but I feel this could be an appropriate time..... Keep up the fantastic work on this Satyr Icon.
 
Hi Bergi,

Thanks again.

As promised, below is a reasonably detailed account of the procedure I used to replace the steering sensor on my Panda.
I will presume that any reader of this post has acquainted themselves with my previous postings and has accurately identified and obtained the correct sensor for the car they are repairing.

Also it is important to purchase an appropriate pair of circlip pliers particularly if performing this 'FIX' without any assistance or helper. The circlip which secures the upper column to the sensor housing, and thereby to the lower column, is very strong and requires a lot of squeeze to remove it. Something like this ( E-Bay Item No. 231067643979, £8 ) should do the trick. These are 300mm bent nose pliers but you may decide to use strait nose pliers but read the following text to make a decision.

THE FIX

Park vehicle on level ground with the steering in the straight ahead position. My Pandas steering locked in this position when the key is removed and the wheel is 'rocked ' a bit to engage the steering lock. It is important that there is no pre-load on the lock. An example of pre-load is when you have to turn the wheel a bit to relieve this pre-load in order to turn ignition key and start the car. It may be necessary to go through the process a few times to eliminate pre-load.

Once you have achieved this 'strait ahead position', remove ignition key. This condition where the steering wheel and upper column are locked in position MUST be maintained from this point onward. The battery should be disconnected at this point.

Once the 'upper' column is removed from the 'lower' column, the s/wheel would be free to rotate in both directions an infinite number of times if the steering lock were not engaged. More than TWO complete rotations in any direction after 'strait ahead position', will almost certainly tear the 'strip circuit' or 'clock spring' connection of the horn push and airbag from where it is soldered to its' terminals.

Remove lower Dash panel and lower casing from steering column, refer to earlier posting, and upper plastic casing after releasing the column height adjustment clamp lever and dropping the column to its' lowest position.. The two screws securing upper plastic casing are situated close to the back of the steering wheel and you will need to be upside down to see them with a torch. Replacement will require a magnetic screwdriver if you don't want to remove steering wheel.

A mild steel bowl shaped 'guard' panel secured with a 'torx' head bolt at either side of column should be visible. Remove both 'torx' and guard.

Any accessible 'plug' connectors from wiring loom to steering column should now be disconnected with the exception of the sensor plug.

The column height adjustment clamp should now be disassembled and removed complete with the bracket securing the clamp bolt to the bulkhead. Two 13mm self locking nuts secure the bracket but the long clamping bolt will need to be removed first and careful attention should be paid to how the bolt head is orientated with the clamp bracket. ( An oblong slot in the bracket is a securing keyway for a similarly shaped male key at the back of the bolt head). Take note of the sequence of washer and spring washer at the self locking nut end as well.

The entire steering column will now drop to a position where the lower part of the steering wheel will be resting on the drivers seat cushion. The 3.5inch diameter circlip securing upper and lower column together at the sensor housing should be visible. The 'ears' with the holes may be at any point of the circumference of the sensor housing. Mine were at the 12o'clock position which was a nuisance because I only had bent nose pliers big enough to compress the clip and what I needed was strait nosed pliers with the clip in this position. I had to tap the clip with a punch and small hammer to get the ears at the 6o'clock position to access the 'ears'. Spinning the clip from the 12o'clock position to the 6o'clock position at the lower quadrant of the sensor housing MUST be done in a CLOCKWISE direction only.
Removing this clip was hard work with 200mm pliers and I suggest the 300mm pliers mentioned above for this. Be warned, this clip is the Mike Tyson of circlips .

Once the clip is removed, the upper column can be removed completely and once the lower securing flange connected to it is out of the way, the sensor will be exposed. Disconnect the sensor plug from the port by prying the contrasting coloured securing wedge from the plug body first before attempting to remove the plug connector from its' socket.

Before you can slide the sensor up the splined steering shaft, a small silver wire external securing ring must be removed from the center of the sensor. This is easily done with a thin screwdriver. You get a new one with the new sensor. Once this has been removed the plastic splines at the center of the sensor are no longer gripping the shaft and the sensor can be slid upward and off the splined inner column shaft. Start at the point where the wires exit the sensor housing and lever the other side with a small screwdriver.

Your new sensor will come with a locking pin inserted at 90degrees to its' upper surface. Leave this pin in place until the sensor has been fitted in the housing. Close inspection of the pin location will reveal that the opening for the pin to pass through the casing of the sensor body is in fact oblong and about 4mm long. The exact 'strait ahead' position of the sensor is when the pin is equidistant from both ends of this 4mm slot. (( If this pin is up against one end or the other of this slot once the sensor has been fitted to the housing and pressed fully home, the self centering of the steering will be wrong. The correct position of the pin is right in the middle unless you are happy to go to FIAT and get the thing programmed. That is assuming they don't refuse to do it since you are 'cheating them out of £2000 fix'.))

To get the centre steering point fixed properly I removed the small clip ring from the plastic splines of the new sensor. This is only to make fitting and removing the sensor easier. Once the locking pin is still in the middle of the slot after pushing the sensor fully home and the sensor position has been tested by reconnecting battery and turning on ignition, this ring should be replaced since it applies pressure to the plastic splines of the sensor and tightens the association of the sensor and inner steering shaft.

The sensor is precisely 'located' in its' housing mainly by the exit lug for the bundle of wires coming from it and by the rubber grommet around that lug. The grommet must sit in the sensor housing without any twisting of the rubber or distortion.
My experience was that when the center point of the steering and the sensor fitted to the splined inner shaft matched perfectly and the locking pin was in the middle of the slot, the sensor almost fell into place with minimal force required to press the sensor ''HOME'' in its' housing. Achieving this ideal position can take several attempts. If the location pin in the sensor is at one end of the slot or the other, the front wheels must be turned left or right by hand until the locating pin is in the middle of the slot. This will involve moving the circumference of the tyre as little 4 or 5mm left or right by hand until the locating pin is as far from one end of the slot as the other. A safer way to do this is by removing and refitting the entire sensor after each nudge on the tyre and observe where the pin is after fitting the sensor again. This was the purpose of removing the small tightening ring from the sensor at the start. Never force the wheels in one direction or the other while the pin is still in the slot. Bend the pin and destroy the hole it fits into in the 'inner disc' and you may have to buy another sensor.

Do not
be tempted to move the wheels with the aid of pliers on the splined inner shaft. This shaft and its' splines are encased in black plastic and distortion of this plastic on the splines or the beveled insertion end of the shaft makes refitting the upper column very difficult.

To test the sensor position only a small amount of reassembly is necessary.
Remove locating pin from sensor.
Push the sensor plug into its' port without driving the securing wedge in.
Carefully refit the upper column assembly back onto the inner shaft splines and reconnect all loom plugs to upper column before sliding upper column fully down onto the sensor and its' housing. You do not have to replace the big circlip for the test.
Connect battery and hold steering wheel tightly in case sensor position is wrong, ( assistance will try to turn right or left if position of sensor is wrong so be ready for it). Maintain the straight ahead position of the steering wheel even if the assistance tries to turn one way or the other after turning on the ignition. If all is well switch on the engine an give a few revs. If steering stays in 'straight ahead' position when you let go of the wheel and power steering works in both directions, switch off, disconnect loom, lift off upper column.
Press the securing wedge on the sensors plug home, place thin tightening ring over splined shaft and drop it to the center of sensor and fit it over the plastic spline followers of the sensor so they grip the inner shaft.
Don't forget big circlip. My upper column flange and lower column sensor housing had felt tip pen markings to synchronize the indicator cancellation. These are only approximate and not critical.

It should be noted here that the splines of the inner shaft are offset so the steering wheel and therefore the entire column will only go back together in the exact orientation they were in when they were dismantled.

Reassemble and road test.
Be brave, the steering cannot misbehave any worse than it did before the FIX.

IF THE SENSOR POSITION IS WRONG

You will have to go through all of the above again until it works. It took me six times but I was learning with no instructions. You might get it on the first go.

The one thing that will have to be done that has not been mentioned yet is the center point of the sensor will have to be obtained again. This is quite simple.

On the upper face of the sensor at some point on the circumference of the central aperture you will see a small triangular position indicator pointing toward the centre of the central aperture. The internal splines of the sensor have one follower which is bigger than the rest and has a smaller triangular pointer on it. When both triangular pointing indicators are in line and pointing toward each other, the hole that the centralizing PIN fits into should be visible in the 4mm slot. Replace the pin and repeat the sensor fitting procedure.

All this sounds longwinded and complex but is pretty quick for an experienced mechanic. Aim for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. You will spend more time absorbing the post on this FIX than actually doing it.

A final thought here. I work on a freelance basis all over the country and could be available to do this FIX for forum members. Not sure of the rules here.
My main objective as a bit of an ECO-WARRIOR is to keep perfectly serviceable vehicles from the breakers yards by breaking the strangle hold the manufacturers have over often already struggling owners. The greed and avarice of the big manufacturers is hard to measure but I for one am happy to do battle with it whenever it shows itself.

Be lucky and be enterprising with it.

Satyr Icon



















 
Great write-up.
Thanks.
You've probably denied all Fiat dealers a big fat bonus, and helped many Panda owners fix their cars!
Well worth copying this thread and filing away for future reference.
 
My steering wheel red light often comes on but the power steering has never failed.
Then battery has been renewed and the problem persists.
The car (55 plate 4x4) is in for an mot at an independent garage who are talking about replacing the ECU.
They have yet to come back to me whether they will issue an mot without the problem fixed or not.
I was planning on selling the car with the fresh mot as I now have a mk2 4x4 as well.

I'll wait to hear back from the garage, but it's good to know there's a less expensive solution, even if I have to get the garage to do the work.
 
Hi 'panda panda'

MoT testers are technically only allowed to fail a vehicle on faults that manifest themselves 'during and at the time the test is taking place'.

If however they are aware of an intermittent fault such as the one you describe, they are only obliged to mention it on the ''advice'' notice.

You can save time and money sometimes by using a FIAT diagnostic program. My own sensor problem was diagnosed by main dealer for £45 before I went ahead and purchased a new sensor.

In your situation, I would just pull out the connector plugs associated with the power steering a few times before I got involved with anything more complicated.
Even the FIAT diagnostic fee is a waste of money if the fault is not showing itself at the time they perform the test.

If the ECU was faulty I would expect other erratic symptoms to be evident.

Regards
Satyr Icon
 
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