Well the start-stophas now started to kick in frequently (having only done it afew times dince having it)...however...it restarts without touching the clutch or anthing else within seconds!!! The other day it stopped..then started...then stopped again and brought up a Unavailable warning (which required me to restart via ignition). It is booked in at dealer on Thursday...lets see what happens?
On another issue....has Bossa Nova white changed to a whiter shade now? I ask because our Twinair looks whiter than other Bossa nova whites I have seen (and no...they were not all Funk white). I was parked very close to an 09 reg lounge and could def see mine waswhiter...my 20 yr old son agreed.

if a bnw car is dirty it will look a lot less white. Sometimes you won't even realise it's dirty till you wipe it with your finger

306maxi said:

if a bnw car is dirty it will look a lot less white.

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Park it next to a pure white car & it will look a lot less white, however clean it is.

But IIRC there are at least two different touch-up sticks for BNW, so it's essential to quote the specific car's paint code when ordering.

No not dirt...the car I saw was shiny but looked more cream...as have several others. I put a italian coloured 500 domed sticker on the back of ours but the white zero blends in a bit too easy

Our Stop-Start has stopped & then re-started again after a minute & displayed *Start&Stop Unavailable*. Didn't bother me, it's probably just the system realising the battery isn't sufficiently charged to deal with the demands on it (ie heater fan on etc) so it re-starts before the battery goes too flat to perform an automatic start.

The time when it stopped and then said *Start&Stop Unavailable* & i had to re-start manually was slightly annoying, but i was in a lay-by at the time so no harm done.

It's quite a clever system with lots of reasons for not kicking in, but with that many parameters there's bound to be complications. For the amount of fuel/CO2 it saves i'm inclined to just switch it off most of the time. If you're only pootling around town (which many 500s are) then you can't expect it to function 100% because the battery won't be fully charged. I do think a few people are abit over-critical over something that doesn't have fixed rules for working/not working.

believe me they can look clean but still be dirty

Stopping and restarting within 5 to 10 secs is a bit much! Software cant be much cop if it doesnt allow for some sort of deadband re. battery charge.
Until a few days back it never kicked in after 10 mile runs...yet it comes out of the garage now and stops and starts at will!
As for colour...somebody mention 2 diff colour codes for touch up paint...is this not the difference. Ours was cleaned only yesterday for 1 st time in months...but still looks a whiter shade than others.
I will get to the bottom of this

Stupidmia said:

Stopping and restarting within 5 to 10 secs is a bit much! Software cant be much cop if it doesnt allow for some sort of deadband re. battery charge.
Until a few days back it never kicked in after 10 mile runs...yet it comes out of the garage now and stops and starts at will!
As for colour...somebody mention 2 diff colour codes for touch up paint...is this not the difference. Ours was cleaned only yesterday for 1 st time in months...but still looks a whiter shade than others.
I will get to the bottom of this

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There are a full thread dedicated to Stop start and recently some new threads started by Flashyphotos where the alternator was the identified as the issue.
In relation to your TA being whiter than older models there's another thread called 'bnw paint problem' where a newish 500 in BNW went 'yellow' prematurely.
Personally I prefer the more creamer look of a BNW than a white look. The Biancospino white is more sought after than the Gardenia white in the MiTo since it's the more creamy colour of the two.

My SS does that - I've noticed the weather temp has alot to do with it - the warmer it is outside the less it happens.

This is what I was talking about about BNW changing colour depending on whether it's dirty or not. Thing about BNW is that it can be surprisingly dirty yet not show it up until you actually clean it


The pictures don't show it well, but where there wasn't obvious dirt on the car, it still looked quite clean and looked very creamy.

Then when cleaned it looked very white although the photo doesn't show the difference that well.

Mine has only started doing it as the weather warms up!

Personally I prefer the whiter white on sportier models...but the creamier white looks good with the more classic style with chrome.

Stupidmia said:

Stopping and restarting within 5 to 10 secs is a bit much! Software cant be much cop if it doesnt allow for some sort of deadband re. battery charge.
Until a few days back it never kicked in after 10 mile runs...yet it comes out of the garage now and stops and starts at will!

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Oh, ours isn't as bad as that. It's only stopped & started again without being put into gear on one occasion, and it was after a minute, possibly abit longer. Then one occasion it stopped & then said 'unavailable' & i had to re-start with the key, but on all other occasions it's worked as it should.

Maybe you do have a glitch. Really my point was getting at the general theme of complaints about the system rather than one person specifically. It'll probably wipe-out the saving on fuel by needing a new starter motor after a few years, so i'm not 100% convinced of the general effectiveness of these sorta things on any car.

Would be nice to know it works correctly...especially like others have said...what happens if you sell it? A buyer will expect S/S as part of the spec! Cant see someone accepting it without knocking money off.
I want mine to work for that reason....even though I will be thinking about disabling it for our use

Stupidmia said:

Would be nice to know it works correctly...especially like others have said...what happens if you sell it? A buyer will expect S/S as part of the spec!

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And it will also need to be working correctly if returning a car at the end of a pcp or contract hire agreement, otherwise you could be hit with excess charges . There's really no excuse for a FIAT dealer delivering a car with S/S not functioning correctly. If I were buying a new car today, I'd insist on an acceptance test drive at handover, and would refuse to accept it if the S/S wasn't working.

Stupidmia said:

Would be nice to know it works correctly...especially like others have said...what happens if you sell it? A buyer will expect S/S as part of the spec! Cant see someone accepting it without knocking money off.
I want mine to work for that reason....even though I will be thinking about disabling it for our use

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As I've pointed out before you do have a couple of years of the initial warranty to get it sorted in.

It's a strange one, people are so used to technology which works the same each time you press the button or do whatever it is you do, to have a bit of technology that relies on so many different factors which can stop it working as the user might expect it to, though not necessarily as it should do is a strange one and I can see why people get frustrated.

306maxi said:

believe me they can look clean but still be dirty

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You should check it out on electroclash grey. My fingers always turn black!

jrkitching said:

And it will also need to be working correctly if returning a car at the end of a pcp or contract hire agreement, otherwise you could be hit with excess charges . There's really no excuse for a FIAT dealer delivering a car with S/S not functioning correctly. If I were buying a new car today, I'd insist on an acceptance test drive at handover, and would refuse to accept it if the S/S wasn't working.

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I agree that dealers should be making sure that things like stop-start are functioning correctly prior to handover. I also think they should make more effort to explain all the cars functions - from the questions asked on this forum, some dealers must be terrible in this respect. Trouble with stop-start is that to test it's functioning the battery would need to be fully charged, which when they've just come off a boat or from sitting at the docks for a couple of weeks they may not be. I can't see dealers putting batteries on charge before handover just to get them totally full enough for stop-start to kick in.

However, i'd like to see Fiat try & charge excess charges for stop-start not working at the end of a PCP agreement - it's one thing charging someone for dents & scratches, but if a cars electronic systems are dodgy then i can't see how the owner can be penalised unless they interfered with the electrics themselves (ie fitting a new stereo, home servicing etc).

There's no way i'd be paying any excess charges for something like dodgy stop-start.

306maxi said:

As I've pointed out before you do have a couple of years of the initial warranty to get it sorted in.

It's a strange one, people are so used to technology which works the same each time you press the button or do whatever it is you do, to have a bit of technology that relies on so many different factors which can stop it working as the user might expect it to, though not necessarily as it should do is a strange one and I can see why people get frustrated.

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Agreed. It's similar to the point i was trying to put across, that there are too many variables to determine for sure if the way a persons' stop-start is functioning is right or wrong. I dare say our stop-start stopping and then saying 'unavailable' & me needing to re-start with the ignition isn't 100% right, but it's done it once in 2000 miles & stop-start works the rest of the time, so in the grand scheme of things is it worth the hassle of driving the 2 hour round trip to the dealer? For me, no. It works roughly how it appears it should. It's a small car, with a small battery, with too many electronic bits to go wrong, so there's only so much someone can expect.

That's not to say the OP doesn't have a problem as i think their car sounds iffy, but some of the stop-start comments on FiatForum are just because people expect miracles & it's probably these same people that make a mountain out of a molehill & complain bitterly to the likes of DriverPower Survey saying their Fiat is an unreliable piece of junk just because the stop-start doesn't kick in when it should. All i can say is i wish my life was otherwise so hunky dory that i could afford to waste days worrying about whether some electronic trickery on my car is behaving 100% as it should.

Anyway rant over, and this is aimed collectively at those who go on and on about stop-start, not the OP as i do agree their seems to be a problem in the case of their car.

JTD_Liam said:

Oh, ours isn't as bad as that. It's only stopped & started again without being put into gear on one occasion, and it was after a minute, possibly abit longer. Then one occasion it stopped & then said 'unavailable' & i had to re-start with the key, but on all other occasions it's worked as it should.

Maybe you do have a glitch. Really my point was getting at the general theme of complaints about the system rather than one person specifically. It'll probably wipe-out the saving on fuel by needing a new starter motor after a few years, so i'm not 100% convinced of the general effectiveness of these sorta things on any car.

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You say after a minute, possibly longer. Bear in mind that the engine has been stopped for more than three minutes with S&S, you will have to start it with the key. You get the warning saying 'unavailable' for this reason.

I've found it's quite sensitive to climate control settings on mine, if the fan speed is above about 30% (on automatic setting, so therefore the car temperature differs a fair amount from the set point), the S&S will generally not function - because I guess it wants to give the climate control priority.