After 3000 miles of uneventful driving she finally blotted her copybook!
I was driving down to Plymouth on Bank Holiday Monday.
Couple of miles from Plymouth when Bing! Airbag failure!!
OK, so not enough of a problem to stop me so carried on.
Had need to stop a little later on and powered off the car.
Came back switched on and lost the central display including Sat Nav, DAB,Phone etc...
Switched to Google Maps on my phone to get to the hotel.
5 minutes later - Bing! EBA failure!
Again the car drove OK but as I was near the hotel kept going.
Next day, there were no fault indicators on, just the central display blank.
Talked to my Dealer who said the car just needed a software update (I know).
I put it down to a blown fuse somewhere and would get this sorted by my Dealer when I got home.
Driving back home 10 miles from Plymouth, 65mph and Bing! Parking Brake Failure!
The brakes were applied and then immediately released.
Needless to say this time I thought I was pushing my luck and parked it up.
Was also getting Parking Brake Failure & EBA failure indicators.
Tried to phone the 00800 number listed for Fiat Roadside Assist from my mobile.
Got a "calls to this number are barred from this phone" message.
Tried my work phone - same message!
Phoned my Dealer - luckily this was within working hours.
They gave me a 0800 number to use. This turned out to be the Roadside Repair number you'd use when you'd had your car serviced at the Dealer.
They suggested I use the 00800 number (cue repeat of above conversation).
Back to the Dealer who agreed to phone the 00800 number for me and get Fiat to ring my mobile.
This they did and thankfully Fiat phoned me within 15 mins and a Roadside Recovery lorry with skilled mechanic was with me 45 mins after that.
The mechanic was really good and immediately said it was a loose battery connection.
Went to the battery pointed to the positive connections and said with conviction that there's the problem. Needless to say it wasn't.
However whilst he was leaning over the battery he lent against the push-on negative connection which then clicked home. It seems that since new it had been just resting on the terminal rather than being seated properly
When he pushed it on the central display came on and the fault indicators were cleared. He also had a box of tricks that previously showed an error but was now also clear.
So off I went and had no problems for the rest of the trip.
Next day drove the car and 50 miles later the central display went blank again. Got out the car and fiddled with the push on negative connector and it came back on and hasn't failed since.
The cars booked into the Dealers this week anyway so hopefully they'll get to the bottom of the problem.
So-
1/ Has anyone had this happen to them?. If not watch out for the symptoms.
2/ What is going on with Fiat? The number is a freephone INTERNATIONAL number and will be chargeable on most mobile phone plans. They need to supply another phone number that might actually work.
Does anyone know of another number? Luckily this happened during working hours on a sunny afternoon.
Could have been very different - so be warned.
I was driving down to Plymouth on Bank Holiday Monday.
Couple of miles from Plymouth when Bing! Airbag failure!!
OK, so not enough of a problem to stop me so carried on.
Had need to stop a little later on and powered off the car.
Came back switched on and lost the central display including Sat Nav, DAB,Phone etc...
Switched to Google Maps on my phone to get to the hotel.
5 minutes later - Bing! EBA failure!
Again the car drove OK but as I was near the hotel kept going.
Next day, there were no fault indicators on, just the central display blank.
Talked to my Dealer who said the car just needed a software update (I know).
I put it down to a blown fuse somewhere and would get this sorted by my Dealer when I got home.
Driving back home 10 miles from Plymouth, 65mph and Bing! Parking Brake Failure!
The brakes were applied and then immediately released.
Needless to say this time I thought I was pushing my luck and parked it up.
Was also getting Parking Brake Failure & EBA failure indicators.
Tried to phone the 00800 number listed for Fiat Roadside Assist from my mobile.
Got a "calls to this number are barred from this phone" message.
Tried my work phone - same message!
Phoned my Dealer - luckily this was within working hours.
They gave me a 0800 number to use. This turned out to be the Roadside Repair number you'd use when you'd had your car serviced at the Dealer.
They suggested I use the 00800 number (cue repeat of above conversation).
Back to the Dealer who agreed to phone the 00800 number for me and get Fiat to ring my mobile.
This they did and thankfully Fiat phoned me within 15 mins and a Roadside Recovery lorry with skilled mechanic was with me 45 mins after that.
The mechanic was really good and immediately said it was a loose battery connection.
Went to the battery pointed to the positive connections and said with conviction that there's the problem. Needless to say it wasn't.
However whilst he was leaning over the battery he lent against the push-on negative connection which then clicked home. It seems that since new it had been just resting on the terminal rather than being seated properly
When he pushed it on the central display came on and the fault indicators were cleared. He also had a box of tricks that previously showed an error but was now also clear.
So off I went and had no problems for the rest of the trip.
Next day drove the car and 50 miles later the central display went blank again. Got out the car and fiddled with the push on negative connector and it came back on and hasn't failed since.
The cars booked into the Dealers this week anyway so hopefully they'll get to the bottom of the problem.
So-
1/ Has anyone had this happen to them?. If not watch out for the symptoms.
2/ What is going on with Fiat? The number is a freephone INTERNATIONAL number and will be chargeable on most mobile phone plans. They need to supply another phone number that might actually work.
Does anyone know of another number? Luckily this happened during working hours on a sunny afternoon.
Could have been very different - so be warned.
