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Technical power steering advice - accident near miss

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Technical power steering advice - accident near miss

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whatnext

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I know that there have been posts about this before but I am looking for some help and advice.

I have just suffered from loss of power steering this happened twice on one occasion I could not turn the steering wheel at all, luckily I was at very low speed but the only way I could avoid hitting the other care near me was by braking hard like an emergency stop. I was in a state of shock, I waited until I had calmed down, switched the engine back on pulled over to side of road, calmed myself and drove carefully the few metres back home. I have not driven the car since as when it happens I cannot turn the steering wheel at all. My fiat dealer have told me the ECU steering component has failed and must be replace at cost of almost £700. I have refused to pay.

It was after this happened (which I thought was a fault in the steering column lock) that I can across a lot of people who have had the same problem and seen the Watchdog programme. I do not have £700 lying around. I telephoned Fiat customer services and got a broken record response, the car was out of warranty and there was no recall for this issue.

The car has only done 2000 miles! Will it fail again after another 20000 miles?
I am going to take this further, I have no alternative, but I was told by Fait that no payments towards the costs have been made but I have read here that some people have had payments from Fiat. I also intend taking this up with VOSA as it is a safety issue as far as I am concerned having a car which suddenly I cannot steer is dangerous. it is not just hard it is impossible!

Anyway I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has had this problem and how they sorted it out with Fiat. I cannot afford £700

Thanks a lot.
 
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my power steering failure seemed to be down to an unhealthy battery & cold weather battery changed no re occurrence does the power assistance return after a restart?
 
Just 2,000 miles and out of warranty, so the car must be at least 3 years old, and it sounds like the car barely leaves the drive as the problem happened nearby and you "drove carefully the few metres back home". Do you also make a habit of driving the car out of the garage and then turning the engine off straightaway before the car has even warmed up or gone for a decent run. A lot of older generation people do and it kills their cars.

If there is one thing a modern car doesn't like it's a life of being left standing and very short journeys. I suspect that corrosion/lack of use has had a hand here. Otherwise of course, any part failing after just 2,000 miles is ridiculous.

I do wonder whether a freshly-charged battery and a decent long drive would help to get things working better, but I suspect if your journeys are always extremely short these sorts of problems are likely to plague you.

Honest John (The Telegraph) always warns his readers of the dangers of the very low mileage car.

Nontheless, I do hope you manage to get it sorted.
 
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Hi,
Unknown to me at the time it is a known fault which Fiat are ducking out off taking responsibility, it is intermittent and can happened again even if a new sealed electron box is put in/replaced. There are links in internet to previous thread on this forum and to BCC site which are relevant to this but I cannot post them for some reason.

I am still upset and a bit shaken up. I was hoping that someone who had managed to get a response for Fiat (the previous thread seems that some did) would see the post and share their experience.

Thanks for the link Hollis, I will have to find a cheaper option! I know it is the electrics which I was told is in a sealed box rather than a pump which has failed, not sure if the part on ebay is the same thing. But I will make enquiries. thanks for heads up.


Hi Jo mine in and electrical unit failure as the car was plugged into the Fiat diagnostics machine and that was what computer said! She started up again but a few metres further distance it failed again, not able to turn the wheel when power asst goes. The two times it has happen steering came back when I restarted engine. Panda is now sitting on my drive while I work out what to do. I don’t have a £700 to spend, a service engineer said it is something which is a non wear and tear sealed electric unit, a known fault and not something you would budget for, I expect power steering to work for more that the small mileage I have done. Thanks for your reply.
Anyone else got any experience of this?
Thanks
 
Hi Hollister, The car is used every day and it is used for long journeys so it has had general use not just a “quick trip to the shops”. I love my panda but find Fiats approach unbelievable! It is a fault in manufacture that should last a long time I cannot post a link to a website yet because I haven't posted enough times but on the website an Automotive Engineer stated that "The problem with the power steering lies on the electrical side, which develops an intermittent fault that in turn causes the loss of power steering. Given the fault lies with the electrical side of the steering column, which I think shouldn't happen in the lifetime of a car, I really think that Fiat ought to be paying to replace these units."
 
So far Fiat have just said I have to pay.. so much for customer care.
 
Quote:
"drove carefully the few metres back home". Do you also make a habit of driving the car out of the garage and then turning the engine off straight away before the car has even warmed up or gone for a decent run. A lot of older generation people do and it kills their cars."

Oh dear..............in answer
Yes I "drove carefully "because I was concerned the steering would go again and roads in the village are very narrow {not that this is at all relevant).

FYI I do not drive out of the garage and turn the engine off !!, I drive straight off drive as garage is full of motor bikes and having driven the mountain course in the Island and numerous hill climbs I really do know how to drive and don't feel an ageist and patronising post is really in the spirit of things do you? I have a racing licence for #*@~ 'S sake! :bang:
 
I'm sorry, but are you being completly serious saying you couldn't steer the car without the operation of the EPS system? Yes it makes it heavier, but completely unutterable :confused:

TBH Fiat have nothing to do with the issue if your car is majorly out of warrantee, you don't say how old your car is.

Having only done 20,000 miles it sounds like it does a lot of stop start, and with winter setting in I suspect your battery is probably on its way out. Common cause of EPS to fail is a failing battery as I'm sure you've seen from your searches on the web. Have you had the battery checked out of interest?
 
I was also going to ask the same question as above. When you say you can not steer the car, is that what really happens or is the steering just without assist making it really heavy. If you can not steer at all it may be nothing to do with the electric assist, it may be a fault with the steering gear itself, or some other mechanical fault on the column. Although it is a possibility I think it's very, very unlikely to be the case.

If it just heavy steering, then I have to agree with other comments about the battery being a possible cause. I too had the light on the dash come on and have heavy steering and immediately assumed it to be the electric motor, but when a few people mentioned the battery, it began to make sense. The times I had the problem was after the car had been sitting for a period of time followed by several short journeys.

If you are convinced you can not steer the car, do not use it, get a garage to come and take it away and pay the money to get it fixed, after all how much do you value yours or somebody elses life at, I'm sure it's more than £700.

I do hope you get it fixed, but being clear on what is wrong in the first place will help the garage and others make sure they give the right advice. I used to be the Quality Manager for an automotive component manufacturer for 12 years and there is nothing worse when you get warranty returns which are not correctly diagnosed, there is so much invetigation you need to do for safety critical items like steering, and most of the time they are no fault found, and down to dealers randomly changing parts to satisfy the customer. So while you may be frustrated at FIAT I fully understand where they are coming from.

Mike
 
It is experiences others may have had in dealings with Fiat dealers and customer services as per the previous thread on this forum “Steering Fail Notification, Panda, Just Me? [FONT=&quot]https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/151366-steering-fail-notification-panda-just-me.html [/FONT] as it had been my understanding that this fault was not uncommon.
So, as I am not asking for advice about technical or legal issues. I though a Fiat forum would be a good place to ask people about their experience with Fiat as a new thread rather than adding to the previous older thread on this forum which I came across when I googled “Fiat Panda steering”.
As I said in my post, I know what is wrong with my Panda, I have been told this my the Fiat dealer after it went in and looked at and plugged into the Fiat diagnostic computer.
BTW There is nothing unusual about this car. I got it from new from Fiat dealership 5 years 6 months ago year has had regular services as per handbook, just be “winterised” and serviced, battery is fine (checked). I know the law. And yes it felt like the steering column had locked, I know what driving a car with no power steering feels like and it’s not this. I am not in my dotage I own classis cars.
 
Seriously, have a look at the battery like MEP said. If sometimes when I jump into the 500 in the morning, crank it over and drive away almost straight away then the power steering can take a second or two to kick in.
 
whatnext said:
Quote:
"drove carefully the few metres back home". Do you also make a habit of driving the car out of the garage and then turning the engine off straight away before the car has even warmed up or gone for a decent run. A lot of older generation people do and it kills their cars."

Oh dear..............in answer
Yes I "drove carefully "because I was concerned the steering would go again and roads in the village are very narrow {not that this is at all relevant).

FYI I do not drive out of the garage and turn the engine off !!, I drive straight off drive as garage is full of motor bikes and having driven the mountain course in the Island and numerous hill climbs I really do know how to drive and don't feel an ageist and patronising post is really in the spirit of things do you? I have a racing licence for #*@~ 'S sake! :bang:
Click to expand...

Sorry if I hit a nerve, I don't really think my post was ageist, I suppose I was trying to read between the lines. Your OP said that the he car has only done 2000 miles (two thousand!), but if your garage is full of motorbikes (lucky you!) then does that mean it has been sitting on the drive for five and a half years? I just can't imagine Fiat offering anything after that amount of time and a car that has barely been used – best of luck though, by the way is it a 4x4?
 
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I suspect that the original note had a typo:

"The car has only done 2000 miles! Will it fail again after another 20000 miles?"

He probably meant the car has done 20000 miles and so, though still low at 5 years old, is not quite as bad as folks are thinking.

Like 306 Maxi said, our 500 would often be slow to enable PAS when first started and I'd be rolling down our driveway bricking myself because I thought the steering was locked - but it was just my brain/arms not expecting to need effort to turn the wheel. This may or may not have been the case with the OP.

Anyway, moot point. Whilst I'd agree that it's slack of FIAT not to have done some form of recall (like Toyota have) I guess they just shrug - because all previous cases it's the 'assistance' that fails and so not consideerd dangerous.

If that was the case for me, I'd probably just drive it and enjoy the workout without having PAS rather than stumping up the cash.

For the OP, it's worth trying the car again when it's quiet. You're now prepared for this to happen to some degree and when it does you can give pause and then take your time to properly 'try' the steering when it fails, to see if it's only the PAS. Maybe drive with the lights, heated window etc on just to suck all the juice from the batttery.

Sorry we have no more answers.
 
AB100 said:
I suspect that the original note had a typo:

"The car has only done 2000 miles! Will it fail again after another 20000 miles?"

He probably meant the car has done 20000 miles and so, though still low at 5 years old, is not quite as bad as folks are thinking.
Click to expand...

Yes, that would explain things better, I had this happy picture of an elderly moustached English gent in tweed jacket who only used the car to drive to the post box at bottom of 'road. In the nicest possible way - no ageism intended! – LOL
 
HI Hollister,
Thanks for pointing out my typo. (Thanks also to AB100) My Panda has done 20,000 miles or to be accurate 20300. Sorry if went off on one too, you are right you did hit a nerve but it was about my illness and peoples reaction (I am not in my box yet!) that hits a nerve so I apologise to you, I am told I won’t make old bones so I guess am overly sensitive to oldie jokes. for personal reason not being able to use my car is difficult.

AB100 thanks for all your suggestions, the battery is just over a year old, replaced last service and it was checked at garage when the diagnostics test was done the other day.

Most easterly pandas I was not ignoring you, I only use lap top in evenings and my voice recognition software is difficult to use on the forum, i lost two posts yesterday pm. I know it has nothing to do with the battery and as I have said I am not asking for fault finding advice just experience from anyone else who has had this problem and particularly their responses from Fiat. This is clear, I thought, from my posts.

Thank you all for taking time to respond


 
whatnext said:
Most easterly pandas I was not ignoring you, I only use lap top in evenings and my voice recognition software is difficult to use on the forum, i lost two posts yesterday pm. I know it has nothing to do with the battery and as I have said I am not asking for fault finding advice just experience from anyone else who has had this problem and particularly their responses from Fiat. This is clear, I thought, from my posts.

Thank you all for taking time to respond
Click to expand...

But advise from someone who has had this issue, and seen this issue often enough to know the regular causes I'm advising it is most likely to be the battery failing and not the steering.

You've asked for advise and plenty have given it, as have I. By all means you can spend £700 on a replacement unit, but like you say this is awfully costly, and not reasonable, or alternatively the battery could be replaced for £40-£70 and will probably resolve the issue.

If the battery is the original I'd almost be willing to put the price of a replacement battery on this being the issue. The EPS system is very power demanding and as a result the battery needs to be in tip top condition for it to function properly, and it is this time of year, when the weather gets cooler and batterys are placed under more stress that they tend to fail.

I've never had a response from Fiat as I've never had a need to involve them, but would have thought that trying to get the issue resolve as quickly and cheaply as possible would be a priority. After all how will taking legal action look if it's turned out the battery, which is a consumable part, has caused the problem :confused:

I'm not trying to be awkward, only trying to help.

Jon.
 
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