Steering wheel warning light on Punto.. help please

jobucks

I'm having a problem lately with the steering on my Punto,the steering wheel warning light comes on on the dash and the power steering doesn't seem to be working.. anybody have any ideas on this?
its a '00 punto and I can't find anywhere under the hood for the power steering fluid so I'm assuming its electric.
If anybody has any ideas or has had a similiar problem I'd appreciate your reply. Thanks.:)

blackbox

You are correct - Puntos have electric power steering.

It sounds like you are not a whiz at mechanics/electrics, so I suggest you should take the car to a mechanic or auto-electrician.

I'm sure it must be very difficult to steer without the power-assist, and very dangerous if it works intermittently.

wee bear

hi i had a fiat punto aswell, that happened to me too,
it is electric,so no fluid required!!
it could be one of two things!!
1) the punto has that locking mechanism in place so if you turn the wheel too harshly it will lock itself. you just stop the car and start it again and it will be fine, now that should really only happen on occasion if you are really turning the wheel!! (its a stupid thing in the first place!!)

or it could be (2)
the steering rack or column is gone, this is what happened to me, in this case the locking of the wheel happens a LOT!!. in my case and i believe is quite common in puntos, when you turn left! wahtever thats all about!!:rolleyes:

i would defo bring it into a garage because i had to have the whole steering column replaced!! if this is whats wrong try get a second hand one, which is prob gonna cost you like 500 quid or something. new it will cost you about 1000-1500!! and if your car is a 2000 model like mine was your car is prob only worth that much in the first place.
so weigh up your options. sounds like that whats wrong to me though, so bring it in a see what they say,..puntos.. a complete pain!!!:mad:

jobucks

you're right there, am definitely not a whizz at mechanics...

This has happened 3 times now, each time only for a minute or two and only when I start her up, seems to rectify itself after a couple of mins. I am worried though that this would kick in while I am driving. Just looking to see if anyone else had a similar experience.

According to the fiat forum website It does look like the whole steering shaft will have to be replaced, costing near enough to €1k ..:eek:

L1011

The electric PAS in Puntos is about €800 to get replaced in a dealer as far as I can remember, but it was ages back I got a quote on it. You can also get the PAS unit reconditioned a lot cheaper: http://ecu-testing.com/fiat_punto__brava__bravo_power.html but you need a lot of technical knowledge of the car to fit it...

jobucks

wee bear wrote: »

hi i had a fiat punto aswell, that happened to me too,
it is electric,so no fluid required!!
it could be one of two things!!
1) the punto has that locking mechanism in place so if you turn the wheel too harshly it will lock itself. you just stop the car and start it again and it will be fine, now that should really only happen on occasion if you are really turning the wheel!! (its a stupid thing in the first place!!)

or it could be (2)
the steering rack or column is gone, this is what happened to me, in this case the locking of the wheel happens a LOT!!. in my case and i believe is quite common in puntos, when you turn left! wahtever thats all about!!:rolleyes:

i would defo bring it into a garage because i had to have the whole steering column replaced!! if this is whats wrong try get a second hand one, which is prob gonna cost you like 500 quid or something. new it will cost you about 1000-1500!! and if your car is a 2000 model like mine was your car is prob only worth that much in the first place.
so weigh up your options. sounds like that whats wrong to me though, so bring it in a see what they say,..puntos.. a complete pain!!!:mad:

Thanks for that wee bear.... ya am going to bring it in this week and see what the outcome is... I agree I will NEVER buy a punto again. At the time though it was the cheapest option (I know why now)

Did this ever happen while you were driving or did it only happen when you went to start the car? The reason I ask is I'm scheduled to do my driving test tomorrow and this happened at lunch time today for the 1st time in about 5 months.

wee bear

hi yeah unfortunetly this does happen when you are driving!! its unbelievable really,it used to happen to me when i would be taking a left turn, so i was always very cautious turning because its very easy to swing to wide to oncoming traffic, i once had to stop on the middle of the dual carriage way after turning onto it and pull over, thankfully if you just turn off the car and turn it back on again it should just go away.

mine started like yours, it was only occasionally but after a while it was pretty much every day, you may be lucky and get away with it for your test, the only advice i can give you is to be very gentle with the wheel. and if it does lock jsut expain to the exmainer you have to pull over and stop and restart the car, not sure how well this will go down with the examiner because they usually require the car to be in perfect running order for a test, but if it does just stay calm because it wil come back on if you do that!!

i did my test in it and about 15 mins after i finished the clutch started making a mad sound!! stupid puntos!!

bring it to the garage!!