My fiancé has a 2013 Fiat 500, which has been a great little car. Great gas mileage, easy to drive, hardly any issues in almost 60,000 miles! The window regulator broke on the passenger side, which was fixed at the dealer for $300, just out of warranty. The steering wheel column cover also broke, and the dealer wanted $600 to fix that, so I decided to see what I could do.

The steering column cover is 2 pieces of plastic that sit around the steering column, and has openings for the ignition, wiper stalk, and turn signal stalk. The bottom plastic piece is attached to the column by 2 short screws (shown above), which sit on small plastic spacer sections of the lower piece. These plastic pieces are fragile, and broke about a year ago. This means the 2 pieces of plastic are just flapping around while driving, not secured to anything.

I took the entire assembly off, found 2 longer screws and washers that would secure the plastic bottom piece to the steering column. I attached both and tightened them up, but found that it made the ignition hard to use, and the turn signal stalk was obstructed. It was secured too tight. I ended up removed 1 of the screw and washer sets, so that just 1 remains, and it is as secure as it was when new, but it won’t break this time!