Hi all
This is for my wife shes just past her test and is a bit miffed as few things wrong with motor (2001 punto) shes owned for around 5 months and has been fine except a few niggles which ill move onto in a bit but first
I would be very grateful for any info on the power steering I have read about it on this forum and others and hoping its not fooked about a week after passing test which was 2 weeks ago she was parking and power steering stopped working it was at night so I left it until morning and started it up it was fine, however she went for approx 20m drive all was fine parked up and let it sit for 2hrs and started it up no power steering again, same thing the next day all right first time starting but any time after no good well I had a look yesterday checked voltage on battery 12.70v before taking her out with no steering up the motorway and back battery 13.40v just thought id mention this also have noticed clock reset itself every now and then like its been disconnected any how I got back from motorway and let it sit for 5 mins still no joy so had a poke round under neath steering and also in engine looking for anything loose or not connected properly and it was all looking fine how ever when I jumped back after poking around power steering was fine and was fine for the rest of the day whith lots of starts stops ect to see would it go off again but it was fine until this morning,has any one any ideas could it be bad earth, alternator ,battery ect ect if so how do I check, currently out of work with back and debts are mounting so cant afford garage at mo , is it safe to drive with no power steering will it do any more damage to anything else, I want to have another poke around and unplug any plugs and reconnect them is this alright I wont mess up the ecu or anything will I ? I had a vectra once and it played holy fook when I unplugged it all
Thanks all for reading and hopefully some one can help us out a bit

If you have read all about it on this forum there is nothing else to add.

thanks for the help m8 really good reply to my questions thank god there are some helpfull people out there

IF you have read about it on the forum (especially the guide) then you would know your only option is to let dealer look at it....what more do you want me to say

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-guides/70703-punto-steering-column.html

if youd read what id asked m8 u would have seen i asked quite a few things like how can i check if its the alternator is it getting the right current/voltage is it a bad earth where do i check also can i safely unplug plugs ie ecu and any other plugs connected to steering column with out buggering anything else up, as could be dust ect ect most of all is it safe to drive? without power steering u havent answered my questions at all

could un plug every thing snap a few plugs on the way get a bit of crap in some, then take it to the dealer and pay even more

kellym said:

if youd read what id asked m8 u would have seen i asked quite a few things like how can i check if its the alternator is it getting the right current/voltage is it a bad earth where do i check also can i safely unplug plugs ie ecu and any other plugs connected to steering column with out buggering anything else up, as could be dust ect ect most of all is it safe to drive? without power steering u havent answered my questions at all

Click to expand...

...because this question comes up everyday here,in the interests of safety it is advised to get it checked properly by a dealer using dedicated diagnostic equipment.Yes it could be a charging problem,could also be one of many things contributing to the fault.It is very difficult to diagnose a fault when you cant see the car,has the steering warning light came on for instance?
As for safe to drive....is any vehicle safe to drive with faulty steering?

is any vehicle safe to drive with faulty steering?

Click to expand...

No

ok sorry yes the light is on i ask is it safe to drive because i thought it was just like a car with no power steering can it do any more damage as for unplugging stuff im pretty carefull i just want to make sure its not a dodgy connection and wanted to know if ecu or anything would need to be reset if i unplugged anything, i understand u get asked this all the time as i have read through forums before asking but couldnt find out the things i wanted to know all it says is take to main dealer is the ecu simlair to a vectra where u could do the paperclip trick and read the codes your self, didnt mean to sound ****ty but the first reply i got wasnt to helpfull and sounded a tad off

since the light is on mate, seek a dealer. if not something could happen when driveing and cause a serious accident.

it can completly lock up

ok i didnt read it could lock up on you maybe i missed that in other threads an theres me nipping up the motorway earlier at some silly speeds its just going to have to sit there on the drive as cant afford to get looked at, thanks for the reply's i appreciate it as i would have told her to carry on driving it

getting it actually looked at may only cost £30 then if its only speed sensor a few more pounds, but only way to tell is with the dealers machine.
am sure its been in a few threads before that it can lock and only steer one way or lock and not steer at all

kellym said:

i have read through forums before asking but couldnt find out the things i wanted to know all it says is take to main dealer is the ecu simlair to a vectra where u could do the paperclip trick and read the codes your self, didnt mean to sound ****ty but the first reply i got wasnt to helpfull and sounded a tad off

Click to expand...

No cant do 'paperclip' trick,steering codes need dedicated Fiat equipment.

First reply wasn't 'off/unhelpful'...it was the truth & like I said this appears on this forum everyday therefore I (and others here) have better things to do than continually repeat ourselves...which is why I wrote the 'steering guide'.

I understand you might be hoping for a cheap miracle cure but there isn't one,the electric steering is CAN operated & contains no servicable parts...if your lucky you might get away with a wiring fault or VSS fault which you wont know until the errors have been extracted from the EPS ECU.

thanks again for the replys and help, does it need to goto fiat or will other garages have this equipment to test it, at the mo £30 is a lot but we will just have to put it on credit card with the rest of the bills like i said outta work with back and it aint getting no better i dont wish to give you all sob story just wanted u to know why i was eager to try anything i could myself first, whats the worst that could happen balliffs could take the fiat away when cards not paid lol cheers and sorry if any bad feeling caused by me

Needs 'dedicated' equipment as no error code numbers are produced except for EPS voltage fault.

At worst it will need a column,however if you get the codes read come back & let us know what they are and we might be able to save you some dosh