Technical Fiat Panda 100hp | Steering pulling to the left, calms down after driving for a short amount of time

[ewyogs]

Hello!

I'm a recent proud owner of a Panda 100hp. Really enjoying the car, it's actually my first.

I'm having an issue where it seems the car is pulling strongly to the left, the steering wheel itself pulls to the left also. I'm negating this issue at the moment by just keeping my right hand on the right side of the steering wheel. I've checked the steering fluid and seems to be fine, the break discs were changed recently before I purchased. The issue seems to stop after driving for ~10 mins.

I've seen people having issues with the electric steeling wheel and I'm wondering if it might be this.

I'm sure the car will fail its coming MOT because of this - does anyone have any thoughts regarding this matter, what could be the issue?

Thank you in advance!

 

[koalar]

Before you drive off lift the near side front wheel off the ground and spin it, make sure it's not binding

Assuming it's not

Swap the fronts wheels over and see if the car starts pulling to the right

steering fluid and seems to be fine

Lost on this the assistance is electric


The fact it improves over time points more to something binding than the electric steering itself


When the cars not moving and you turn the steering lock to lock, does it feel the same in each direction

 

[ewyogs]

Before you drive off lift the near side front wheel off the ground and spin it, make sure it's not binding

Assuming it's not

Swap the fronts wheels over and see if the car starts pulling to the right



Lost on this the assistance is electric


The fact it improves over time points more to something binding than the electric steering itself


When the cars not moving and you turn the steering lock to lock, does it feel the same in each direction

The steering is noticeably harder to turn to the right than the left, if that answers your last question. I had a friend jump in the driver seat and test it too, said it's much harder to turn right than left.

My bad about steering fluid, still new to the car itself!

I'll try and find time to swap the two front wheels over and see how this affects it.

Thank you for your help!

 

[The Panda Nut]

When I bought my 100HP it pulled like mad to the left. It was massively out of track. resetting the steering wheel to central and a complete retrack cured it. No futher problems for the 80K I had it afterwards.

 

[SPORTPACK50]

Swap the fronts wheels over and see if the car starts pulling to the right

Just make sure you don't have directional tyres on it.

 

[koalar]

Are we moving forwards with this

The fact it fixes it's itself after 10 minutes points to wear or binding

I'd.start.with the checking the brakes

Go a few hundred yards and check the nearside discs for heat, yes I know they are new, no guarantee they were done correctly

 

[Scotty100hp]

Hello!

I'm a recent proud owner of a Panda 100hp. Really enjoying the car, it's actually my first.

I'm having an issue where it seems the car is pulling strongly to the left, the steering wheel itself pulls to the left also. I'm negating this issue at the moment by just keeping my right hand on the right side of the steering wheel. I've checked the steering fluid and seems to be fine, the break discs were changed recently before I purchased. The issue seems to stop after driving for ~10 mins.

I've seen people having issues with the electric steeling wheel and I'm wondering if it might be this.

I'm sure the car will fail its coming MOT because of this - does anyone have any thoughts regarding this matter, what could be the issue?

Thank you in advance!

How healthy is your battery? Could this not be caused by low voltage at start up which then improves as the battery charges?

 

[DaveMcT]

Just make sure you don't have directional tyres on it.

Tyre direction wont matter for a steering test.

My 100HP pulled left. Part of the problem was worn bottom arm bushes. I believe the other part was the LHS hub carrier (aka steering knuckle) was worn. The ball joint pin clamp gets loose if the bolt strips (or gets forgotten). I had this problem on the Multijet (same from hubs as 100HP) - it clunked randomly and pulled Left. It tracked perfectly after replacing the hub carrier.

 

[koalar]

Tyre direction wont matter for a steering test.

My 100HP pulled left. Part of the problem was worn bottom arm bushes. I believe the other part was the LHS hub carrier (aka steering knuckle) was worn. The ball joint pin clamp gets loose if the bolt strips (or gets forgotten). I had this problem on the Multijet (same from hubs as 100HP) - it clunked randomly and pulled Left. It tracked perfectly after replacing the hub carrier.

You had this problem

It pulls badly for the first 10 minutes

And is then fine aftwards

 

[ewyogs]

Hello folks, apologies for the late reply.

I'm taking it in tomorrow to get a 2-wheel alignment done.

Hopefully this will sort it, if not get to the bottom of the issue.

Will update once it's done for future reference!

Thanks for all your help so far.

 

[Mike1alike]

So, you have hydraulic steering pump?!
Pulling to the left is clear column steering angle sensor fault on electrical power steering on FIAT. Might be the same on hydraulic. The sensor is set to report the physical position of the steer and the steering module usually centers the steering without resisting you to steer one way or another. When that sensor goes bad, the steering pulls to the left, sometimes very violent. Like... you start the engine and the steer goes quickly maximum left, by itself.

 

[koalar]

Hello folks, apologies for the late reply.

I'm taking it in tomorrow to get a 2-wheel alignment done.

Hopefully this will sort it, if not get to the bottom of the issue.

Will update once it's done for future reference!

Thanks for all your help so far.

Alignment has nothing to do with it, if it fixes itself after 10 minutes

Does the left brake disc get hot in the first minute of driving

 

[koalar]

Any further forwards yet

Do any of the discs or bearing get hot in the 5 minutes

Yes or no

It's highly likely to be brakes

But assuming it's not, you could pull the electric steering fuse and eliminate the EPS

Without feedback, we can't move forwards

You will just end up with long list of every possibilities