Hi Guys

I'm slowly going mad by the random warning our dobbin keeps giving.

Every couple of days I will start the car drive a couple of meters and I get the message Airbag failure see handbook message. Its totally random when it happens and there are no other lights on the dash board when it happens or after its happened. Sometimes it beeps once sometimes more. It always starts again without the message the next time its fired up and like I say could be a couple of days before it happens.

I've looked at the wire under the drivers seat and all seems okay.

I've had it hooked up at the dealership and no faults have been found arghh!!! The car has not given the message when its been at the dealers so I think they assume I'm mad. Luckily today I managed to video the message as it happened as proof the car does it but I'm not sure what if any difference it might make.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this or how I should deal with the dealer? They say if its not showing a fault then there is not a lot they can do, which makes sense, but it's frustrating knowing it will happen when I get it home.

It's an 09 1.9 120hp Mjet Dynamic if that helps?

Anyone else with the same thing?

All too often mechs rely on the computer for all the info instead of getting in there and using what they have learned. Fair enough, hook up the computer to see if there are faults stored but where nothing is shown would it really hurt to physically check a few connections?
Isn't there a keyswitch to turn off the airbag? maybe this isn't working properly or wasn't fully turned on/off? Might just be a loose connector sopmewhere?
As it's an 09 plate the stealer should be checking this out under warranty anyway.

Yes its very frustrating which is why I wanted to video it happening to see if that makes them actually look around the car. I

You can turn the passenger bag off in the glove box which I have done, but it made no difference nor did wiggling the wires under the seat.

It's in its 3rd year of warranty where you have to authorise 90 quid approx, I think before they check out the car and if they don't find a fault they charge you. I know the dealer fairly well now as its had so many issues that they never charged me the other day when I took it down. They certainly won't now I have a video of the fault happening. It puts you off taking it though!

They said if it happens again bring it straight down without turning the engine off, which I'm happy to do but given it usually happens at about 6am when we set off the dealer isn't even open or usually the weekend when the tech guys are not it.

Fingers crossed it does it mid day!

So I was driving along this morning and I got a new warning light which didn't go out. Its the orange car with the padlock covering it.

I drove straight to the dealer who kept the engine running and plugged it in. No faults recorded even though three techs could see the light on the dash. Neither had it recorded the eight airbag failure warnings it gave me yesterday.

The service manager said its likely to be a wiring fault somewhere on the car and wiring is not covered under the 3rd year of warranty. I have booked it in for a couple of days so hopefully they will get the airbag warning and can plug it in. I do suspect however that the car will not log the error as it didn't with the light illuminated on the dash.

The SM said they will plug it in as many times as it takes for free but if it does give a wiring error at some point it will be chargable.

If the car hadn't depreciated by half I would sell it without a second thought.

Any suggestions would be great.

dodgy wiring not covered on 3rd year warranty? That's got to be the biggest load of bullplop. I'd be talking to Fiat directly, and possibly even trading standards. The fault has obviously been there a while, just getting worse. It's about time car manufacturers started getting behind their products more. Buying a car is a huge investment & for them to just fob people off is appalling

theres more than just error codes, theres parameters that can be monitored but a large selection of resistances that can be brought up on the display screen.

F*ckin annoys me :bang:

Anyway you should be speaking to the DET (his job to fix the awkward jobs) not the SM (he's only interested in budget figures) and anyway if it's safety related and dealer can't fix it the field engineer should be getting called out!

Thanks for you replies.

I've got it booked in on the 14th so they can drive it around for a couple of days to see if it gives an airbag warning when they're driving.

I will mention the safety aspect when I take it in. I won't drop the issue and I will be straight down the next time it gives me the warning and they're open.

You talk about safety issues, there's a big problem with some Vauxhall's - their electric power steering can simply pack up, leaving you with nowhere to turn & vauxhall refuse to accept that there's a problem - despite people having bad accidents. There isn't a problem because there isn't a code !
Thing is, with wide wheels and having to overcome the resistance that a geared electric motor gives, many would find it near impossible to steer at any speed.
And what was the froggy car where the bonnet would simply fly up at the windscreen all of a sudden? Again, manufacturer didn't want to know.

I had a safety recall on my Alfa 156 for the bonnet flying up. All they did was put some grease on the catch. Well worth the 25mile round trip to my nearest Alfa dealer. At least they accepted there was a fault but given my Alfa must have been seven years old then, it took some time for them to do so.

Its funny you mention steering as the doblo had the steering rack replaced in its 1st year warranty. It took two dealers five attempts to get them to find the fault. If you drove around with the Air con on for about half an hour the car would start screeching when you turned right. It sounded like the fan belt on an old car going.

The problem being that the mechanics where taking the car out for 10 minutes not sure if they had the air con on and kept giving it back saying there was no fault. I got so fed up I drove the car around after being told it was fine until it screeched like mad, then made them send out the head mechanic with me. A week or so later they replaced the rack as something with sticking or so they said. I still never got to the bottom of why the aircon made it screech onlt when turning right.

mpoulter said:

I had a safety recall on my Alfa 156 for the bonnet flying up. All they did was put some grease on the catch. Well worth the 25mile round trip to my nearest Alfa dealer. At least they accepted there was a fault but given my Alfa must have been seven years old then, it took some time for them to do so.

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That was the safety catch sticking from memory, that was a few years ago now! (5-6?)

mpoulter said:

Hi Guys

I'm slowly going mad by the random warning our dobbin keeps giving.

Every couple of days I will start the car drive a couple of meters and I get the message Airbag failure see handbook message. Its totally random when it happens and there are no other lights on the dash board when it happens or after its happened. Sometimes it beeps once sometimes more. It always starts again without the message the next time its fired up and like I say could be a couple of days before it happens.

I've looked at the wire under the drivers seat and all seems okay.

I've had it hooked up at the dealership and no faults have been found arghh!!! The car has not given the message when its been at the dealers so I think they assume I'm mad. Luckily today I managed to video the message as it happened as proof the car does it but I'm not sure what if any difference it might make.

Can anyone suggest what might be causing this or how I should deal with the dealer? They say if its not showing a fault then there is not a lot they can do, which makes sense, but it's frustrating knowing it will happen when I get it home.

It's an 09 1.9 120hp Mjet Dynamic if that helps?

Anyone else with the same thing?

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Thought you guys might like an update on my random airbag failure.

So Fiat had the car for three days and ran it about and not once did it give the airbag wanring on the lcd nor did it bring up any faults for the examiner machine. Just to say not at any point has any of the airbag lights come, just the lcd screen.

So fiat wanted me to authorise two hours labour for them to look at the car (3rd year) but said the likely hood is its a wiring issue and not covered under warranty. So with this in mind I said no as there is a good chance they won't find anything.

Today it did it again so I drove straight to the dealer and kept the engine running the whole time and again no error codes when they plugged it in.

So what I'm really asking I guess is should I wait until this fault is there everytime I turn the key and then hopefully it might give a read out, or should I take this to my Local Bosch Garage and pay them to look around the car? Or is this a matter to take up with Fiat who will no doubt use the 3rd year warranty clause to rid themselves of any responsibility?

Is there anywhere water could be getting? The SM said the ecu is in the passenger footwell so unlikely to be water.

Thanks

mpoulter said:

The SM said

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you don't learn do you....get the field engineer out, your safety and that of your passengers may depend on it!

I'm getting on to them Monday when the service dept is open. It happened again today and the reg light came on for a few seconds, then the car just cut out and gave an air pollution filter failure error. Not sure if this is as the car just cut out or could be dpf related?

forget the garage, phone Fiat customer services. This issue needs to be sorted out for your benefit & possibly other owners.

Just out of interest do these problems occur during or just after periods of heavy rain?

It did it in dry yesterday as I did think it was water getting in somewhere. However when its given me random glowplug fail, foglight fail, airbag fail, car and padlock warning light it has been wet.

I got in it today and rolled off the drive, got the airbag warning, then an error about coolant radiator failure and the engine just died again. Start again and fine, no lights or beeps.

It must be a wiring fault and a fairly major one at that. I might trade it back to the dealer who sold it to me as they know its history even though they say no faults have been found. They offered 6k for it today and I think I will accept.

My last three cars have been Fiats and all have had a few faults which I put down to them being old but the Doblo takes the award.

Is your battery 100% good?

T14086 said:

Is your battery 100% good?

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Good question, I'm not sure.

The car was serviced by Fiat a couple of weeks ago and I'm sure I saw on the sheet that the battery was tested or passed on their check list so I guess it must be.

The problems were happening before the service.

I've had enough of it now to be honest. I started it on the drive yesterday aft, and the engine just cut out within seconds of starting. No warning lights or beeps, it was like I switched it off. Turned the key again and it starts without a problem.

It's trade in time! Fiat called me yesterday to offer me a loan of the new Doblo for a few days with the hope I would fall in love with it and want to buy it. I've turned them down as I want a car with a proper 3rd year warranty and sadly it won't be a Fiat.

I hate to say it but I'm going to end up with something that I won't be able to find in the car park as there are a million others there. On a plus point, spares will be easy and cheap to source.

I've been looking at the usual mpv's with boring badges on them. Will update on progress.

mpoulter said:

I want a car with a proper 3rd year warranty and sadly it won't be a Fiat.

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one of the reasons I would never buy a new Fiat, it's crazy when many are offering 5 and 7 year warranties that /fiat offer 2.....in fact it's laughable!

Quick update for you.

Sold the car to my brother a few weeks ago, who took it to his brother in law who works as a mechanic for Jaguar and its all fixed. I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, something to do with a connection, but was assured it was an easy fix which cost him £0.00 and cost me some on the asking price.

Pleased its fixed for him and its been running for about three weeks without any issues.

Thanks for all you help!

So, it would seem that nothing has moved on since my 1992 Panda. It was always a loose connection when the electrics started being crazy!