Fiat Punto Evo help with electric steering faults

5 February 2019 | Admin

Fiat Punto Evo; help with electric steering faults

The Fiat Grande Punto was facelifted in Sept 2008 and as renamed the Punto Evo.

The electric power steering column was essentially the same, two types of column fitted to the new Punto, one with and one without vehicle dynamic control or V.D.C. usually fitted to sports models and cars with traction control or ASR.

The columns fitted to the new Punto still suffered from the same potential faults as the Evo model, the most common failure being the torque /position sensor, other faults include motor/control unit faults, either type of fault will result in the steering column requiring replacement.

There are numerous part numbers fitted to the Punto range, we can tell from the vehicle registration number which column number you require and we try to keep as many part numbers as possible in stock.

The electric power steering column fitted to the previous Grande Punto was also revised and whilst looking the same was actually a completely new design that operates on the later Delphi 3 software meaning that the earlier Grande Punto and later Punto Evo eps columns cannot be interchanged.

The Evo Punto E.P.S steering system is flawed and prone to either intermittent or total failure.

Common Fault Codes will be;

C1001: Electric Motor Failure

C1002: Steering Column Torque Sensor Failure

Any of these faults will require a replacement column.

Signs that you may notice that may indicate that there is a power steering failure in your Fiat Punto is that the EPS (Electric Power Steering) system fault light may light up the dash as a warning. You may also notice that the steering of the vehicle has become very heavy and hard to manage.

These failures can present themselves in the following ways:

1. Motor failure, sometimes intermittent to begin with but always leads to terminal failure, due to components within the internal control board inside the motor burning out.

2. E.C.U. Failure, the ECU contains several chips which control both function of the column and also the self-test and failure system. One or more of these chips can fail and cause the system to shut down, sometimes the ECU can give an erroneous fault code that appears to be a motor failure if scanned, but is actually a fault of the ECU itself. Importantly the ECU also controls the left/right balance of the column and is used to calibrate the output from the torque/position sensor contained in the column, for this reason, the ECU should be matched and calibrated to the torque sensor.

3. Torque and position sensor. This is inbuilt into the centre of the column and gives the ECU information on the position of the steering wheel and also how much assistance is required from the motor. The sensor can go out of balance and steering becomes lighter in one direction, also can fail to give the signal, which will cause ECU to shut the system down. When a torque sensor is replaced the column needs to be re-calibrated to ensure it is in balance. We believe the only way to do this is for us to supply a complete column with all components tested and calibrated.

No coding or programming will be required, this unit is simply plug and play.

Take a look at our Evo Columns here; https://shop.westernpowersteering.co.uk/category-303.html