Technical Red steering wheel light

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Technical Red steering wheel light

Thank you all. My gut tells me it must be to do with the battery holding charge, but I obviously can’t just continually ignore what the car is telling me. I will ask them to make sure the battery and connections are all in working order and perhaps suggest changing the battery in the first instance just to see if this resolves the issue. I’d much rather pay our for a new cheap battery in the first instance. I will also mention that Earth connections have been mentioned as a possible cause as well.
 
This garage has been going over 50 years and claims to have expert staff. I wouldn't use them if their services were free. Look at the advice on Fiat steering faults.

https://www.woodstockmotors.co.uk/repairs/common-car-faults.html

"typically fail around 60-80k miles"


I have been lucky then

11 80K
05 150K
06 200K

and over 100K on a Mercedes

except the 11 Panda I have had the full history on the cars and the steering has never been changed.
 
my 11 has a different type of earthing strapping compared to the 05/06 models


there no insulation on the outside. They get quite corroded but it only appears to be on the surface and doesn't appear to cause any problems.


The only ones I have seen fail are Punto. Where water would find its way inside. This couldn't happen on the 05/06 Panda as the ends are covered in heat shrink to stop this from happening


no idea why its been changed again but I am yet to here of one fail even if they don't look too good.

Thanks for this. My lead is a bit green and after the chat I have been concerned. I have long since flooded it with WD 40 and perhaps will just remove it inspect clean and grease it and clean the connections as a precaution. Thanks for this!
 
"typically fail around 60-80k miles"


I have been lucky then

11 80K
05 150K
06 200K

and over 100K on a Mercedes

except the 11 Panda I have had the full history on the cars and the steering has never been changed.

My 11 has 51000, The 100HP has 106K when sold on the other 3 have a combined 58K without issues touch wood. Any advance anywhere on 200K?
 
Thank you all. My gut tells me it must be to do with the battery holding charge, but I obviously can’t just continually ignore what the car is telling me. I will ask them to make sure the battery and connections are all in working order and perhaps suggest changing the battery in the first instance just to see if this resolves the issue. I’d much rather pay our for a new cheap battery in the first instance. I will also mention that Earth connections have been mentioned as a possible cause as well.

Sound decision. It might just cure it or at least put the light out long enough for you to change if you decide to do so. I have an Aldi automatic battery charger that I have used often during lockdown. You can leave it connected if you can park near by to a plug (with and RCD) All the car batteries have got lowish after 2 weeks or more not being run so One get put away on charge and we rotate the others to get them used, The change each week and give the one indoors a good charge. The battery charger was only about £13. If you don't have an automatic charger it could be worth acquiring when next they have some. One warning tho these chargers will not work on totally flat batteries so have limitations!
 
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Heard back from garage. Same fault code appeared. They spoke to a Fiat specialist who suggested alternator or battery (shock horror). Alternator is charging so they are replacing the battery.
 
Heard back from garage. Same fault code appeared. They spoke to a Fiat specialist who suggested alternator or battery (shock horror). Alternator is charging so they are replacing the battery.

Let’s hope it solves your problem and you can carry on motoring safely in your panda for the time being and that will save you some more money for a new future car
 
I replaced the battery on our 1.2 but the effect was temporary. The alternator was charging because we never had a flat battery, but when I checked the voltage (while driving), it was sitting low for a long time. The replacement immediately gave a better voltage and the steering warning light issue stopped for good.
 
For those interested, this is what the report came back as.
 

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My trusty friend has returned - time for new battery I guess. Is it usual for older cars to need batteries replacing so often? Admittedly, my car is only doing short journeys a lot of the time.

I did however notice that within my breakdown cover I am covered for battery replacement, so have called them this morning.
 
My trusty friend has returned - time for new battery I guess. Is it usual for older cars to need batteries replacing so often? Admittedly, my car is only doing short journeys a lot of the time.

I did however notice that within my breakdown cover I am covered for battery replacement, so have called them this morning.

Had a quick skim read but have to ever had the main earth cables changed?
When there corrode they can give lower voltages then they should be which can causes issues like steering faults
 
My trusty friend has returned - time for new battery I guess. Is it usual for older cars to need batteries replacing so often? Admittedly, my car is only doing short journeys a lot of the time.

I did however notice that within my breakdown cover I am covered for battery replacement, so have called them this morning.

simple answer NO

should be fine for a few years. As long as the car gets a run out every week or so. lead acid battery dont like being left for long periods


A one off could just be a glitch. I wouldn't be too concerned until it happens again


But worth doing some basic checks. Is the alternator belt tight ! does the battery connectors look clean ! are they tight !


at least 3 people have had success by plugging the battery overnight to a battery charger over night.
 
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Well both battery and alternator are charging, cables are all good and earths are all good - the guy tested everything for me. So, he's cleared the fault (our good old friend the C1002 torque sensor code), but seemed surprised that i had no juddering of the steering or that nothing cut out - so he was a stumped as me.
 
I have also decided that I will be changing my car in March/April, so I have more time to save up a deposit. Anyone know the best place to source a used Fiat?
 
simple answer NO

should be fine for a few years. As long as the car gets a run out every week or so. lead acid battery dont like being left for long periods


A one off could just be a glitch. I wouldn't be too concerned until it happens again


But worth doing some basic checks. Is the alternator belt tight ! does the battery connectors look clean ! are they tight !


at least 3 people have had success by plugging the battery overnight to a battery charger over night.

Hi Koalar

I am sue you must be familiar with my history of red light steering wheel fault.
 
Tanya Batteries do the Yuasa HSB072 "silver" with five years warranty for about £60 delivered. Mine spins the engine really well, better then the new cheapie I fitted two years ago has ever done. If nothing else, it's excellent insurance for the coming winter.

Saying that your battery is not old so the alternator could well be weak. An auto-electrician should be able to do a proper stress test to find out.

A new alternator complete with pulley costs about £100. They are a pig to fit with seized bolts and horrible access so choose people you know. Not a job you'll want but if all else fails that's the likely fix.
 
Tanya Batteries do the Yuasa HSB072 "silver" with five years warranty for about £60 delivered. Mine spins the engine really well, better then the new cheapie I fitted two years ago has ever done. If nothing else, it's excellent insurance for the coming winter.

Saying that your battery is not old so the alternator could well be weak. An auto-electrician should be able to do a proper stress test to find out.

A new alternator complete with pulley costs about £100. They are a pig to fit with seized bolts and horrible access so choose people you know. Not a job you'll want but if all else fails that's the likely fix.

He checked the alternator, no issues with that either. It's like there's a glitch in the system but actually nothing wrong with the car.
 
My panda 100hp will put the PAS light on if i haven't driven it for a month or two, but only ever the once on the first start, then it goes away never to return unless leave it parked for a while again. I've never worried about it myself, just one of them foibles of the car in my experience.
Further to which if there really is a problem with the torque sensor you do have issues with the PAS, we've had a mk2 punto that was totally fine but if you turned the steering all the way to full lock it would sometime put the PAS light on and the PAS wouldnt work until you turned the car off/on again, always the same error of torque sensor. I replaced the torque sensor and it never happened again. And on that train of thought, in the panda if i do leave it and the light comes on it usually goes straight out again if i turn the wheel all the way to full lock - Italian weirdness at its finest :shrug: although i've not had it come up in a long long time and the car does sit for a week or so quite regularly.

So without reading the whole thread back again i suspect there is very probably nothing wrong with yours if you don't use the car all that often - fiat and garages seem to tell you that replacing the torque sensor means a whole column but it doesn't - you can source a torque sensor on its own, no too difficult to change but do have to take the column off to do it and needs calibrating after (MultiEcuScan can do it).

Battery wise, it should last at least 5-6 years in my experience, might be a parasitic draw somewhere perhaps. You can test it with a multimeter quite easily, put the meter in DC current, disconnect the earth from the battery and put one side of the meter on the earth lead and the other on the battery -ve terminal and read the current draw - there will be some but it should be negligible, if there is current you can then start pulling fuses one by one and seeing what circuit is drawing a current, a dirty and poor connection on a circuit thats permanently live with cause a higher current and drain the battery. Again that mk2 punto had this and it turned out to be the switch panel on the dash, it had clearly got water or something on it and i just wiped it all clean and fault disappeared.
 
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