Technical powered steering nightmare with garage advice needed please

[dazjtd]

OK had a bit of a nightmare and am at my wits end with what to do.
Heres what happened.
The powered steering light kept coming on intermittently, with the steering going heavy. It started doing it about once a week. Engine off and back on would clear it. It got more frequent until it eventually was on all the time so we bit the bullet and sent it to our local garage. They advised that the electronic powered steering unit had gone and needed replacing, FIAT new unit very expensive about £700, car only worth £1000 so wasnt worth a new part, so the chap got a part from a breakers that he deals with. Garage fitted the breakers part gave us the car back. Fantastic, but after a week went to the car started it and BANG light on and nothing would clear it. So we phoned the garage, had it back in not happy that £200 of work should last longer than a week. They contacted the breaker who insisted that the part had been tested and refused to refund the money to the garage. The garage not wanting to take the loss argues back with the breaker who still refused to refund but agreed that the next punto rack in his yard would be ours to swap for the broken one. Weeks we waited and nothing happening. The garage man has a punto JTD himself and mentioned to one of our friends who uses the garage that on one or two occasions that the light had come on on his own but been ok after. with us chasing him he stated that he would take the part off his own and put it on ours as goodwill so we can be on our way. So nine weeks later we have the car back and 3 days later the light is now back on again.
I dont know what to do, I feel that i have been fobbed off with a part from his own car that was also starting to fail. Didnt want to really send it back to him as it took nine weeks last time. Cant afford to send it somewhere else for the work to be done again. Cant trade it in as would get nothing for it with broken steering, same story with selling for spares or auction.
Any ideas anyone.

 

[inki]

Hi, sorry to hear of the problems you've had, as you have probably seen on here that the battery can cause this problem if weak/worn out & turning off & on again can clear the powersteering light but as the powersteering draws a lot of power the light will reappear.If your battery is old it's worth having it checked.

 

[a1ant]

Hi mate and WELCOME TO THE FORUM :wave:

Check the condition of your battery and charging system. A weak battery or alternator will cause the problems you are encountering. The fact that you have replaced almost all of the EPAS would suggest to me that its probably a power supply problem.

Im deducing from your post that you have a JTD? If this is the case then its VERY important that you have the correct battery fitted. Many people mistakenly fit an underpowered battery to the JTD as they are cheaper and its "just a punto". If you have an underpowered battery, this too will throw your EPAS.

Hope that helps,
Alan

 

[rallycinq]

Have a word with your local Trading Standards office.

Repairs have to be of 'acceptable standard'.

Its clearly not acceptable to fail after 7 days, doesn't matter if he has to take a loss on the part, thats between him and his supplier, nothing to do with you.

Having said that, I think he's diagnosed it wrongly, its an electrical issue, be it battery, alternator or earth.

Cheers

D

 

[dazjtd]

thanks for the replied folks. I also thought about the trading standards issue as we still paid £150 for a part even if it was used so it should last longer than a week.

Battery route, have not 'officially' had it tested but have had the multimeter on it and it was giving strong readings engine on and off and the car worked for a good 2 months fine without any probs on this battery before the initial problems started, so not sure where that leaves the power problems

 

[dazjtd]

although the voltage on my meter is high i checked to see if someone put a cheap bettery on my JTD that was maybe underpowered. It is a 450A 50ah battery, checked a few websites which say it should be a 60ah and 510A but you never know if they are just trying to upsell you sometimes.​

 

[inki]

Hi, could you give us the battery readings, i.e with the engine running & rested voltage, having the battery drop tested would give a better indication though. Do you know how old the battery is.

 

[dazjtd]

dont know how old the battery is as it was on the car when we got it. Its a banner battery and is sealed.

the multimeter readings were about 14.5 and seemed to be about the same with the engine not runnig also.

the battery was off the car and had over a full days charge just a day or 2 ago so it shoudl be upto its max performance at the moment anyway.

 

[inki]

Hi, 14.5volts engine running sounds about right, if you've used the car today check the voltage of the battery in the morning(engine not started) as it would have stabilized, a good one should be 12.6volts at least, anything under this i.e 12.4volts will only be 75% charged.

 

[a1ant]

Hi mate,

The only way to have the battery tested properly is to have it load/drop tested. Most garages will do this for you. Voltage is a useful check to ensure that the battery is being charged when the alternator is turning, and also useful to tell if a battery is holding its charge, however its not very accurate at telling the overall condition of the battery.

The fact the fault started intermittently and then gradually got worse could also point to a battery thats dying.

A common thing on the JTD is that people put a smaller battery in it so that it fits in the plastic battery box, as its hard to find a battery with the correct ratings that is not too large for the box UNLESS you know where to look. As a result many people simply fit the size down. The undersized battery can just about cope when its 100% condition, but once its been fitted for a while and starts to degrade, it only needs a few % drop in its efficiency to start causing problems.

Places like Kwik-Fit and Halfords will do a free battery load test for you... HOWEVER... i recommend that you watch when they do it, and see the readings for yourself, as obv they are going to WANT to sell you a new battery even if its not the problem.

Hope that helps,
Alan

EDIT:
If you do replace the battery, you can mod the plastic battery box if necessary.

 

[rallycinq]

Volts are all very well, but its current thats more important.

Battery needs drop tested.

Cheers

D

 

[DaveMcT]

My clapped out battery was tested by Halfords using an electronic battery test meter. It showed 40% charge and the bloke thought it was probably ok - just run the car for a while. But 10 mins before I had jump started the car with a totally dead battery. So dead in fact the jump leads had to be connected for a few minutes before the engine would turn over fast enough.

The meter showed 40% but that was nearly half of nothing as no way could the battery have picked up so much charge in 10 mins. A proper drop tester would have shown its true state. I bought a new battery which also solved my steering problems.

Mine is the HGT and I preferred to use the best spec battery so got the Bosch Silver. At the time, Halfords was my only option though it might be cheaper elsewhere,
Halfords ref HSB012 Bosch ref S5002 530A (EN) 54AH

That size may suit the JTD but if it needs bigger I would still reccomend the Bosch Silvers for quality.

Power steering columns can be got as service exchange for about £180 with a 2 years warranty. Used part are always a risky option.

BBA Remanufacturuing 01634 687222 http://www.bba-reman.com/uk/index.aspx
Ebay advert

 

[colinf1]

dont the codes have to match up ie Engine ECU version and steering ECU?
i read on the FiatECUscan forum about a guy who replaced his column with a working one from breakers, put it in & worked for a few miles then went off again....said somtin about it needed to be calibrated..

Id take it back to the garage and have them use a new battery to see if it would work then..
only other cost effective option is to have them check the motor for broken solder joints, its just a case of resoldering them and hopefully it will work..