The stilo and other fiats have electric power steering and can suffer from voltage drop the punto is very bad for this..so hows the condition of the battery..also if you have a code reader see if its logged a code on the ecu..

Best bet is fiat dealer they can delete the fault if need be for you as well..quite common problem and as i said it works from vaultage from the battery so a good sound battery is always a must on a fiat..if the worst happens and the column os unit its self need replacing it can be an expensive job to get done..I know places where you can get a reconditioned unit at a fraction of fiats cost but i would advise it be replaced.fitted by fiat if it needs replacement because the car will need to go on their examiner so the steering eps can be aligned after fiting..

http://www.bba-reman.com/content.asp...power_steering

http://www.bba-reman.com/content.asp...eering_failure

Becoming a very common problem on the panda as well..

Originally Posted by sbailey45

i dont have a code reader, is there anywhere to get it read? i will test the battery tomorrow.
cheers

i believe nearly every local garage should have the code readers for the punto's as they are more common than the stilo's...

Originally Posted by x3me

i believe nearly every local garage should have the code readers for the punto's as they are more common than the stilo's...

Yes most places should have them..one quiery is you say Punto abarth..so is that the new grande or the old HGT 1.8..? not heard of an abarth 1.2 punto..