Help with Fiat 500 L Electric steering column problems

The Fiat 500 L is the small MPV that was introduced in 2013 and was produced until 2019. The electric power steering column in the 500 us a new TRW unit that shares no parts with the smaller Fiat 500 Units.

Common Fault Codes will be;

C1001: Electric Motor Failure

C1002: Steering Column Torque Sensor Failure

Any of these faults will require a replacement column.

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.

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 a signal, which will cause ECU to shut the system down.

We sell a replacement unit for the 500 L on an exchange basis that will cure the loss of assistance that usually happens when the column has started to fail.