Hi, i've just bought a Y reg Mk2 Punto, everything has been fine for 2 weeks but when I was pulling into a parking space at work yesterday the steering seemed to lock, the engine cut out all the dash lights went out. Turned the ignition off and back on, everything came back but the trip counter had reset and the radio had reset itself prompting for the code.

The same thing happend today at the supermarket (pulling into a space again), however this time after turning the ignition off and back on the car would not re start, the dash remained unlit. I pushed the car into the space and sat there for about 30secs (to get my breath back) with key still turned in the ignition, suddenly it seemed to reset itself and the dash sprang back into life.

This problem only seems to be happening when pulling into spaces at low speeds. I've had a look around the forum, although there seem to be plenty of steering faults there are none quite like this.

Any advice given will be very gratefully received!

Cheers

Tom

Does the dash clock reset after this? If so the likely fault is the battery might need replacing.

Thanks for getting back so quickly. The clock, trip counter and radio all reset. Are you thinking that at low RPM the added load on the system from the power steerig motor is too great?

I just checked and the earth connection to the battery was loose, tightend it up now, don't know if this would be the problem? I think the battery is the original Fiat one so it is probably due for replacement.

Cheers

Sounds like a loose battery connection or earth strap to me.

Steve

tom220580 said:

I just checked and the earth connection to the battery was loose, tightend it up

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Think you have answered your own question