Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locking

Hi!

We have a 52 plate 1.2 active sport punto 3 door. Recently the central locking has stopped working (no remote central locking on this car just a key), you have to lock both doors individually.

We have now started to have a problem locking the doors at all nevermind the central locking not working. The key will not turn in the door and the knob will not go down or even up if the door is already locked. Obviously this is when the door is closed. This happens on both doors but more so on the drivers side. Both keys we have looked quite worn. Have tried wd40 in the drivers lock and this seamed to do the job, but only for a while. I have only recently herd of graphite spray which is meant to help with worn or difficuly locks. Not got any yet.

Then the power steering stopped working whilst driving the car. We stopped, turned the car off, waited a min then re-started the car and the power steering was working fine and has done ever since.

My girlfriend was at the end of her teather because she now cant lock the car at all, so she took it to Fiat! Doh!

I have yet to speak to them myself but from what my girlfriend has told me they are talking about the possiblilty of a new body computer. min £350.

Do you think it is possible this could be the cause? I cant understand why the physical operation of the door locks would be affected by an electrical box. That to me sounds like a seperate issue.

Any advice would be grateful. I have inspected the inside of both doors and all seamed fine. Someone had previously been into the drivers door though.

Cheers

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

Did they do any checks on the battery?

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

Dont know until I can speak with them tomorrow. Do you think a bad battery could have that affect?

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

A bad battery is common to cause the power steering to die so i would asume fiat would start with that, dont know if that would effect the locking.

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

IF the steering light has come on once be you can ignore it possibly

but the battery is usual cause - or just lack of charge due to winter drainage

As for the CL
I'd be checking for power to the CL units

Ziggy

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

im surprised a fiat dealer still has a bsi for these
whats the guess its got 2 inches of dust on it in the back room under those mags that the boss said to throw out and they are looking for a schmuck to offload it onto
me?
i wouldnt go da fiat tommos because its difficult to walk after youve had a leg pulled off

power steering=nothing to do with bsi on this vintage
central locking=obviously something to do with a mechanism/s in the door

s and b said:

im surprised a fiat dealer still has a bsi for these
whats the guess its got 2 inches of dust on it in the back room under those mags that the boss said to throw out and they are looking for a schmuck to offload it onto
me?
i wouldnt go da fiat tommos because its difficult to walk after youve had a leg pulled off

power steering=nothing to do with bsi on this vintage
central locking=obviously something to do with a mechanism/s in the door

Click to expand...

My thoughts exactly. only thing related to bsi is the sound of the relay clicking inside it.
more likely a faulty connection somewhere or central door locking actuater or solenoid,whatever they are called. and worn locks.

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

Please say you have checked the obvious fuses etc the reason I say this is....

The car has remote locking but warn keys which suggests for a long time the key has been used maybe because the fuse blew in the past and wasnt checked for a long time. it may well be worth investing in a new cut key which if done using one of the old keys can still be much better, as you have two (I assume working) keys you can get a new one programmed ok

Please check the fuses and give all the wiring plugs between the doors and the body a good wiggle not sure that the body computer has much to do with the central locking on this model however I do remember the remote on puntos of this age could be fitted as an aftermarket part by the fiat dealers do you have the little round remote that is separate to the key, a fault in this ad on could cause the central locking to stop working

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

Hi, yes checked the fuse and its fine, also changed it for a new one and just to make sure, i checked every single fuse on the car, all fine. Checked all connections and cleaned them and disconnected/re-connected them many times to make sure it werent them that was to fault. The car does not and has never had remote central locking, its just the good old fashioned use of a key, remote locking has never been fitted to the car.

The car appears not to have a seperate relay for the central locking, it seams to be inside the body computer. We also disconnected all the wiring plugs to the fuse box and body computer to make sure they were seated correctly.

Cheers

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

joimoi289 said:

Hi, yes checked the fuse and its fine, also changed it for a new one and just to make sure, i checked every single fuse on the car, all fine. Checked all connections and cleaned them and disconnected/re-connected them many times to make sure it werent them that was to fault. The car does not and has never had remote central locking, its just the good old fashioned use of a key, remote locking has never been fitted to the car.

The car appears not to have a seperate relay for the central locking, it seams to be inside the body computer. We also disconnected all the wiring plugs to the fuse box and body computer to make sure they were seated correctly.

Cheers

Click to expand...

You've got the standard C/L
Not Remote C/L

Upgrading with an aftermarket is cheap
But only if the locks work

If the doors refuse to lock - i'd be looking for a Bent linkage somewhere, or the cabin handle to be jamming it, making it unlockable

Ziggy

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

Ok. Spoke to the Fiat garage today.

They said the central locking has failed because of a bad earth and this has damaged the body computer, which would need to be replaced if we wanted the central locking to work again. But obviously the bad earth would have to be located first. They think it could be under the drivers seat beacuse thats where some wires go to do with the central locking, according to their workshop diagram.

Obviously I told them not to start ripping the car apart.

They told me that they have had no problems with the door locks themselves at all but have lubricated them anyway. They suggested that the locks could be slightly dirty or worn causing them to stick now and then. They said the key is slightly worn but not bad enough.

The cost to locate the bad earth would be £50, the cost to replace the body computer is £275, that includes labour. With VAT thats £390! Probably half the value of the car, so I told them to leave it and just to make sure the door locks were working freely.

I will attempt to find the bad earth myself when I have time and if we decide to get the central locking working again then I have located a company on ebay that is a Punto specialist thats sells complete body computer kits from donor cars, comes with everything you need. £125 for electric window cars and I will fit it myself.
Ebay item number: 180781234325

Has anybody had any earthing problems with therir car?

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

still not convinced

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

s and b said:

still not convinced

Click to expand...

What are you not convinced by?

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

bsi earthing issue

Re: Is faulty body computer the cause of Faulty power steering & broken central locki

s and b said:

bsi earthing issue

Click to expand...

Somebody at work thought the same thing, how would they know without positively testing a new replacement bsi and seeing if the central locking worked.