Technical EPS electric power steering faults

[RFollia]

Hi, sorry for late reply. Don't have the graph. Lent it to a friend and "forgot" to give it back. ASAP will upload pic.
But.. there are more news. 2 days after performing the not so successful repair, SWMBO told me EPS worked all day but light was on.
One day later, light was still on and no EPS.
I forgot to tell. The negative earth wire was not good in continuity when tested with multimeter (no beep), and after a lot of sanding the earth strap (which had no corrosion), still showed resistance and no beep.
My earth lead is the "weird" one. I mean, according to EPER the part number has been superceded and now the 51750228 should be used.
But I say "weird" because my earth strap has 2 earth points: one in gearbox and 2nd one in front monocoque leg (ther is no proper "chassis leg", leave that for old land rovers).
The now supplied part only has one earth point. I mean One terminal goes to battery terminal and the other one I think goes to frame, does not look so long so as to reach the gearbox.
What should I do? Fit the new one? But linking battery and body frame or battery and gearbox?. Or should I run another earth lead between gearbox and body?
Best regards

 

[A3jeroen]

I would run one between battery and gearbox and another between battery and chassis.

gr J

 

[koalar]

Hi, sorry for late reply. Don't have the graph. Lent it to a friend and "forgot" to give it back. ASAP will upload pic.
But.. there are more news. 2 days after performing the not so successful repair, SWMBO told me EPS worked all day but light was on.
One day later, light was still on and no EPS.
I forgot to tell. The negative earth wire was not good in continuity when tested with multimeter (no beep), and after a lot of sanding the earth strap (which had no corrosion), still showed resistance and no beep.
My earth lead is the "weird" one. I mean, according to EPER the part number has been superceded and now the 51750228 should be used.
But I say "weird" because my earth strap has 2 earth points: one in gearbox and 2nd one in front monocoque leg (ther is no proper "chassis leg", leave that for old land rovers).
The now supplied part only has one earth point. I mean One terminal goes to battery terminal and the other one I think goes to frame, does not look so long so as to reach the gearbox.
What should I do? Fit the new one? But linking battery and body frame or battery and gearbox?. Or should I run another earth lead between gearbox and body?
Best regards

Does not need to be a fiat part

From most motor factors just measure what you need

Earth strap eye both ends

One battery to chassis leg
One chassis leg to gearbox

 

[RFollia]

Thank you all. I think I know what I will use... some excellent earth lead from scrpped vehicles my local mechanic has. Used to keep big gauge wire leads for "just in case". Terminal eye hole I think is 10mm because the nut is 13mm. Will crimp and solder the inner cable to terminal and see if that solves problem...
Best regards
Robert

 

[acloveday]

Hi, seems like this is a good place to ask about steering issues! I'll try to keep this brief while including as much relevant information as I can.

My power steering failed while driving a few weeks ago - suddenly no assistance and the steering warning light came on. I've not had any power steering since then. The car is a 59 plate Panda, 1.2 8v, ~22k miles (it was my grandmas!). Here's where we stand:

- Power steering light is on. After turning on the ignition, it goes off with the other warning lights, then comes back on (with a soft "click" sound) after a couple of seconds. This happens even after the battery has been disconnected for a while, and stays on whatever I do (I've cycled the ignition lots of times, I've tried starting the engine and letting it run). No other warning lights

What I've done:

• Charged the battery. It charges normally and holds a proper voltage. Even with me messing around with the car (starting the engine multiple times without letting it recharge etc) it's at a good voltage (12.5-12.6V). The engine starts quickly, with a multimeter the voltage at the cigarette lighter was ~10.5V when cranking. The car charges fine, no belt slipping, ~14.2V with the engine running.
• Measured the voltage where the big power leads go into the EPS column - using probes I could touch the connector terminals while it's all connected. Nothing unusual - I get the same voltages as elsewhere
• Sent the steering column out for repair (yes I now know I should have done more diagnosis before doing this, but it seemed like I had covered the basics) to Essex Recons. They called me and said they couldnt find a fault - they had tested it and opened it up, no problems visually either. They refunded me most of the cost, I think I paid £40 for diagnosis + the post back to me, seems pretty fair
• Refitted it - no change (unsurprisingly)
• Checked and cleaned power connections - all the bolted down cables on the battery terminals, the 60A fuse (F05), the other steering fuse (F24 I think it was), the power connector on the EPS column. All look good - with such low miles, everything is really clean on this car. Basically zero signs of corrosion, nice shiny metal on the contacts.
• Attempted to read the steering fault code, with no luck. I've modified my ELM327 OBD reader (connected pins 1, 7, 9 together). I can connect to the engine ECU fine with basic OBD apps, but I've had no luck trying to use the demo of Alfa OBD to connect to the power steering (or the ABS module). It appears to connect, then fails saying there was no response from the ECU

I can see from reading more on here that most of the time it's a power supply problem, either from a weak battery or bad connections. However, it sounds like usually these are intermittent faults that happen while driving when the battery is struggling for other reasons - cold weather, heavy load etc. I've not come across many examples where the warning light comes on without even attempting to steer, and when the battery has been disconnected (presumably ruling out it being a stored fault code). I can't see how I'd be getting a low voltage at the EPS unit straight after the ignition is turned on, when I'm not loading the battery much at all, so I must be missing something or it's a different issue.

I know I'm making some assumptions here, so please let me know if I'm wrong anywhere. Should I put more effort into trying to read the fault code? Should I just replace the battery?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I'd love to get this figured out. Sorry for the essay, just trying to include relevant info and avoid unnecessary back and forth.

Alex

 

[koalar]

Is that the steering light come back on after a few seconds, just ignition on or with the engine running

 

[acloveday]

Same either way, the light comes back on about 3 seconds after going out. As in - if I just turn on the ignition, or if I start the engine after the warning lights have gone off

 

[koalar]

Right we are shooting in the dark without the error code

Plug your scanner in and turn the ignition on

Download elm327 identifier

Run the test should tell you if your elm327 is accepting commands about 2/3 of the the cheap china ones don't

 

[acloveday]

I get everything except v2.3 turning green on the ELM identifier. Reading standard OBD data works ok, I get engine RPM etc using another app (car scanner), but I can't get Alfa OBD to connect, this is what I see (in order).

It is a cheap ebay OBD adapter so it could still be dodgy I suppose.

Is it possible that it's just the battery still? It's 5 years old, Bosch, would have been short journeys only and barely used for a year or so before I got the car a few months ago, which is obviously not ideal. It seems fine to me but it sounds like that doesnt count for much when it comes to these steering issues. Yes I'd ideally get the fault code figured out but it seems like I'd have to buy a bunch of kit and software licences to do that. Unfortunately there isnt anyone near me on the list of forum members with multiecuscan.

thanks so much for the help and the quick replies, really appreciated

edit: went on the alfaOBD website and i quote:
"If AlfaOBD displays "Interface reports NO DATA" or "Interface reports CAN ERROR" message when attempting the connection to a control module, this is most probably a sign that you have one of these defective interfaces. Such an interface may work fine with an OBDII / EOBD diagnostic software, it has issues with AlfaOBD because a different diagnostic protocol is used. "

so it definitely is my OBD reader! Will get my hands on a less **** one and report back!

 

[koalar]

Doesn't sound like a battery


Use car scanner and graph the battery voltage while cranking


Here's one of mine on a faulty battery

A new battery drops to around 10 volts,.there's no hard and fast rule, generally below 8 volts and it's time to be looking for a replacement

Below 6.5v body computer will rest and the clocks flash

Not much below this the ECU will loose its 5V reference voltage and the car will not start

 

[irc]

Agree with @koalar - doesn't sound like typical battery problem.
Just a thought... have you, by any chance, changed out the radio? These symptoms are fairly similar to a Panda I helped out with last year.
New owner lost EPS and got a few random other faults after fitting an aftermarket radio, which interfered with the CANBUS communications to various ECUs. He also couldn't get OBD dongles to work.
Unplugged radio, all was well, fortunately he had not butchered the wiring loom too badly so it was an easy fix.

 

[acloveday]

The car is all standard, and I had'nt touched anything when the steering failed.

I got a KKL adapter and have been able to connect to the steering controller using the demo of AlfaOBD. Here's a summary of what I get from scanning faults and checking the system status and "more info"

___________________________
Reading faults for: Electric steering DELPHI
___________________
Faults reported:

11/10/2025 16:04:39
Faults found.
C1001
C1003
C1004
U1601
___________________
Battery voltage: 14.13 V
Steering column axial position: 1.40 °
Alternator status: Under charge
Key position: On
Driving mode: Sport
Warning lamp: On
Current consumed: Too high
Steering column position sensor: Absent
______________________
Error code: U1601
CAN line error
Error present

Signal not valid

Error code: U1601
CAN line error
Error present

Signal not valid

Error code: C1004
Alternator
Error present

No signal

Error code: C1003
Vehicle speed (from CAN)
Error present

Signal not valid

Error code: C1001
Electric motor
Error present

Signal not valid

Error code: C1004
Alternator
Error present

No signal

Error code: C1003
Vehicle speed (from CAN)
Error present

Signal not valid

Error code: C1004
Alternator
Error present

No signal


Failure lamp 'ON': Requested
Test complete or not applicable
Battery voltage: 14.19 V
Supplier error code: 53
Torque signal difference: 8.00 Nm
Vehicle speed: 0 km/h
Steering column axial position: 0.00 °
Motor control current: 0 A

I cleared the faults and the same errors came back on straight away.

I tried driving (slowly) and doing the "more info" command - which is what reports the vehicle speed and steering column position. The vehicle speed reported by the steering controller stayed at zero, and I tried the same with the steering angle - no change in the reported steering angle after turning the wheel. The speedometer is working on the dash so the car can sense vehicle speed just fine. I don't have any other warning lights on, just the steering one.

At first I thought it must be the CAN lines into the steering controller, but then I saw these lines in the log:

Current consumed: Too high
Steering column position sensor: Absent

both of which are within the steering column, so I cant believe they're going over the CAN bus. So the steering controller is doing something weird, even though it must be working to some extent since I can connect to it and read the diagnostic info.

I think my next port of call will be to speak to the folks who looked at the steering column, ask them what tests they did and whether they have any suggestions.

Anyone seen a similar set of issues before?

 

[koalar]

You have errors for

EPS motor
Alternator
ABS
Can line

All over the place

I'd suspect they are all connected to the ABS

But first we need to do some basic tests

Multimeter on volts

One probe on the engine block the other on battery negative, clean them up with scotch brute or wire wool or similar first

What the voltage while cranking,

I cleared the faults and the same errors came back on straight away.

the errors are present, they can not be cleared until the fault is rectified, regardless of what the software is telling you

 

[koalar]

Are we moving forwards

What was the voltage