Hi All,

The missus' car is not starting, everything lights up but its not starting (silence). She called the AA out and she has told me that he says that the car needs to go to fiat as its not recognising any of the keys (she tried the flip key and spare). She has just told me that the lock light (orange) doesn't go away.

Up until this morning the car was working well,

I am assuming that the AA guy has checked and ruled out the battery, so what else could it be.

So far I have read the following:
1. Use jump cable from -ve battery to body and try to start.
2. Look at relays (cant remember the details).

Does anyone else have other things to check.

Cheers

Lee

Well I have an update ,

Quickly checked the earth with a jump lead on a few points ( not very clean points ) and it made not difference.

Checked Ecu connections and they seem clean and ok. Disconnected the negative for a few mins and the car started for about 5 mins and died.

Anyone have any ideas... I have currently left the negative terminal off for an hour or so but I'm running out of ideas now.

Ok .... After an hour the car started and after 4 mins died. It would restart straight away and would run for another 4 mins. I noticed a whine from the left side of the engine. I got bored so went for a drive got about half a mile and it cut out. It restarted and then drove for another 30 mins easily. The problem is that the power steering light is on which is confusing.

Anybody have any ideas ? So far I think it may be a low battery that needed to charge and/or a suspect alternator.

Yup, classic electrical problems.

First of all check again cables for any sign of corrosion. Follow earth cable and inspect it.

Then check battery and alternator.

cmosfxx said:

Yup, classic electrical problems.

First of all check again cables for any sign of corrosion. Follow earth cable and inspect it.

Then check battery and alternator.

Click to expand...

spray.

The good thing was that this morning the car started , without cutting out at
Cheers for the advice.

I think I will have to check that cable, it all looked secure when I checked but I didn't remove anything. I think that the most likely is the gearbox connection as its on the front of the gearbox so likely to get wet from road all. The steering light is still on but I guess that just shows there is still a problem somewhere.

The missus should have got to work in it by now and I haven't had any abusive phone calls so it must have got her there ok.

Just to update everyone..

Took the car to a garage on Friday and they had it all day testing the battery , alternator and wiring and they couldn't find a fault.

So we had the car back and all was well... until it cut out on her this afternoon. it immediately restarted and it was after a 10 min or so drive so I'm not too concerned.

Cheers for everyones help.

I've just had something similar on my daughter's '56 plate Punto (petrol). If yours is the same, the earth strap goes from the battery to the stud on the body, but then it carried on to the gearbox to form the engine earth. In our case, I had taken all the terminals off and cleaned and greased them but it made no difference. It was only after I fitted a new starter motor that I accidentally pulled on the end of the engine earth strap (just under the stud for the body earth) and the cable just snapped in my hands! It was heavily corroded INSIDE the heat shrink sleeve - toally invisible from the outside!

A £4.99 generic earth strap from Halfords solved the problem in about 10 minutes!

Hi , Thanks for the advice, I might get an earth strap and swap it as the car has started to cut out more lately. It always restarts but for peace of mind I think its best to get it swapped.

Ok I added new earth cables under the existing ones and the car started and ran ok....... But now the engine management light (yellow one) won't turn off. I have restarted the car multiple times and it still won't go out. Any ideas ?

Hard to tell without the stored error code.

Ok , weird update

Started the car this morning with the spare key with no enginee light. The missus used the spare key again later to and from work with no issues. I used the flip key tonight and the light was straight back on. I went for a drive and 20 mins in the car cut out giving the code error symbol. I didn't have the spare so a quick battery disconnect , was enough to start the car. Once home o started and stopped the car without issue ( light still on). I then grabbed the spare key and it started but there was the light. A few restarts (4 I think ) didn't clear the pight so I checked the engine bay around the earth cable I replaced yesterday. I noticed the the earth cable ( halfords metal sheath one) was touching the body of something in the engine bay ( under the battery between the body earth mount and the radiator) which I think is the glow plug relay. I moved this , started the car and no light appeared ? .

So my conclusions are :
1. The flip key is becoming dodgy
2. Using a bare metal earth cable is silly
3. Grounding the box ( glow plug relay) could have caused the light and explain why there was no impact on engine running or limp mode activations.

Anybody know what that box actually is under the battery behind the radiator. It has a metal cover and is on a bracket connected to the battery tray. Anybody else have any ideas that could explain these events.

Thanks for your help

Oh joy of joys ....

every morning I have been starting the car for 10 mins to ensure it starts and doesn't cut out. Which has been going well .. today though the car cut out on my missus on her way to work.

The new plan is to look for a replacement car on Saturday and trade it in, as its becoming tiresome having to replace heater resistors and wiring and now this problem.

Hopefully it will remain running until then...and keep the engine light off.