This is the most bizarre experience I have had so far with my Stilo...
I was driving home from work last night, when out of the blue I get a warning message: Alternator Failure (together with a little red battery light that came on). Having had previous experience with warning lights, I ignored it.

About 3 miles down the road I noticed the steering felt funny (driving on a motorway in a straight line), so I thought I would slow down and pull over... but when I slowed down, I noticed that the power steering had stopped working!

I stopped on the side of the road, switched the car off and back on again... and got the same alternator failure message... and the power steering was still not working.

I was in the middle of nowhere, so I decided to drive home without power steering. Needless to say, whenever I drove below 40mph, I had to really hang on the steering wheel with both hands, just to change direction. Darn 17" low profiles...

My hunch is that it's something to do with the battery, but what I don't understand is why the power steering would stop working (and without any power steering failure warning) ??

I rode my bike to work this morning... in the wet... so I am not too amused at the moment.

Luckily a friend of mine is an auto electician at Fiat / Alfa, so he will have a look at it for me on Friday... otherwise I have to wait two weeks before Fiat can book it in to sort out the problem. :bang:

SLOVAC, I've had the alternator warning followed by power steering failure messages at startup (all disappear after a restart) so I wouldn't mind betting it's due to connection issues in the usual place behind the battery.

Argonought said:

SLOVAC, I've had the alternator warning followed by power steering failure messages at startup (all disappear after a restart) so I wouldn't mind betting it's due to connection issues in the usual place behind the battery.

Click to expand...

Are you referring to the D4 connection Argonaught ?

Indeed he is Phil

:idea: noticed, more so in cold weather on first start up 'alternator fail' message and red battery light on, accompanied by no power steering, usually just blipping throttle briefly puts off warnings and power steering ok then.
Had a new alternator fitted under warranty to attempt to cure this but made no difference..........think its just a low voltage thing when car first started and computer does its checks!!!!
Think there was a post ages ago and someone fitted a new battery

Sid,
I tried blipping the throttle... but it made no difference. The power steering still does not work. I did notice that the lights on the instrument cluster dim slightly when I start the car.(which it normally doesn't do)
Maybe you are right about the battery... I'm having it looked at tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for the advice guys...

The power steering on stilo, seicento, punto, grande, panda and idea are all electric.

They work by using a motor to drive the steering column when assistance is needed. This means they take alot of current and as such can only be allowed to work when the alternator is charging, no charge no epas.

Check the alternator output!

NumanR

SLOVAC said:

This is the most bizarre experience I have had so far with my Stilo...
I get a warning message: Alternator Failure (together with a little red battery light that came on)

Click to expand...

Be careful! I had the same problem and three miles down the road the belt tensioner dropped off. Cost me an arm and a leg as the bolt (fixing) had sheared in the casting and couldn't remove. Waranty doesn't cover fixings!!!

Have you been over any half sleeping police. You know the ones where you put a tyre either side. I bottomed out on one and I think this is what caused it but it could be a more general fault. I'd have it checked on the ramps if I were you, look to see if it's siezed up, any excessive ware on the belt. Let us know if right as lots of eople apear to have same problem. It could be mine was exagerated by the knock.

Just an update of my car...
I had my auto electric friend check the car out and after about 5 minutes he informed that the battery was indeed dead, but it was caused by the alternator not generating any current at all, and thus not charging it.
Because the car is still under warrantee, I took it to my local Fiat dealer. They phoned me this morning (after they've had the car since Tuesday last week) to inform me that the alternator belt tensioner was missing... the bolt had sheered off.
According to them, it looks like the bolt sheered off due to excessive vibration, rather than a hard knock by something. I have asked them to keep the part of the bolt that stayed behind so I can also have a look at it.

Thanks for the info Lesbquick. Looks like this is a more common problem after all.

Thanks for the info Lesbquick. Looks like this is a more common problem after all.[/QUOTE]

Wish I could say it was no problem but I'm rather worried now as I've been roung Nurburgring, Donnington and now Snetterton with another trip to the ring next year and Euro Enduro 3000 miles not looking forward to stearing going at over 90 on one of the corners, talk about needing new pants

I have the same problem. The mechanic said that the only thing that was not working were the coals, and the charge regulators. Fiat only sell the complete alternator and is very expensive. Anyone know where I can buy only the top parts?

Thanks

Ok, "coals" are probably what we would call the Carbon Brushes.
You can expect that the voltage regulator would be still OK. It's worth putting in new brushes first (that will probably solve the problem).

You'll need to remove the brushes and take them to an auto electrician - there will be brushes of similar size available. You can use a file or sandpaper to make larger brushes smaller. The brushes have copper braids that you can carefully solder in place. Or, just get the auto electrician to do it.

-Alex