I put the trusty workhorse Marea Weekender through the NCT on the 11th of March and it failed on a number of things.
Bump stops
Corrosion on brake lines
Body damage on the rear on the side (not the drop down bumper)
Loose battery connection.

The first 2 are now common enough here and there's a view that it's a way for the goverment to generate business for gargages. This along with crushed sills which is another NCT failure area.

Anyway got a backstreet garage to do a fix up job on the rear bumper. €50 down - that's sorted.

After trying one or two mechanics settled on a guy that a brother-in-law was happy with. He did the bump stops which must 'not be missing or ineffective'. Involved dropping the back suspension to 'get the hand in'. This is not a MOT failure in the UK but it could be on the newer regs coming in.

Brake lines replaced with new brake fluid. New battery connector done on the +ve. Did the -ve myself last year. Corrosion was the culprit.

All going well. Down €288. Just as I was heading for the NCT centre for a re-test noticed the airbag light on. Shot back to the garage and with the ECU hook up couldn't clear the light.
Time pressing got to the NCT centre - passed EXCEPT for the airbag light being on => FAIL.
It's now back in the garage.

Has anyone had an airbag light 'go on' due to a change of the one of the terminals on battery. Light wasn't on when the car went in but it was when I got it back it was on. Was this purely coincidental or could they have caused it ? Not too keen on doing a workaround but would prefer to do it properly even though the Marea only gets ocassional use.

Surprised that it failed despite getting all the 'failure items' done but since it's a safety related item they will fail on a re-test.

Have until the 11th of April for a 'visual' to get the 'all clear' otherwise it's back in for a full test and it could fail on something else and then it's destined for the scrappie.

loveshandbags said:

Has anyone had an airbag light 'go on' due to a change of the one of the terminals on battery. Light wasn't on when the car went in but it was when I got it back it was on. Was this purely coincidental or could they have caused it ?

Click to expand...

B****r. A first-class example of the problems associated with keeping an older car on the road in the modern age of costly, non-user servicable components .

Bit of a long shot, but I'm wondering if you might have inadvertantly pulled on the wiring when changing the battery terminal & created a bad contact somewhere. I'm guessing you've already checked all the connectors but it might just be worth a second look.

It seems too much of a coincidence for this to happen for an unconnected reason - review every single thing you did to the car & ask yourself if that could have dislodged anything.

Good luck. It'd be a shame to have to scrap the car after you've got this far.

jrkitching said:

B****r. A first-class example of the problems associated with keeping an older car on the road in the modern age of costly, non-user servicable components .

Bit of a long shot, but I'm wondering if you might have inadvertantly pulled on the wiring when changing the battery terminal & created a bad contact somewhere. I'm guessing you've already checked all the connectors but it might just be worth a second look.

It seems too much of a coincidence for this to happen for an unconnected reason - review every single thing you did to the car & ask yourself if that could have dislodged anything.

Good luck. It'd be a shame to have to scrap the car after you've got this far.

Click to expand...

Honest - it wasn't me !
Luckily (depending on how you look at it) the Garage changed the +ve terminal so I'm blaming them. I was going to do it myself and they said that it would only cost a tenner and said that they would put it on - I wasn't charged any extra with the Garage keeping within the quoted 2 hours.
If they fix I would happily slip them a few bob.
Don't fancy going to the Fiat garage. I'd be a lamb to slaugher. LOL.

loveshandbags said:

Honest - it wasn't me !

Click to expand...

Sorry, I read your original post too quickly the first time.

loveshandbags said:

Don't fancy going to the Fiat garage.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't either .

So to summarise, you put the car in for an NCT, got quotes from a couple of independent garages to patch things up, and having decided it was just about worth it to get another couple of years out of the car, commissioned the two garages to do the work. Unfortunately, although the second of those two garages fixed what they agreed to for the price they quoted, they also introduced a new fault into the airbag system, which they're now saying they can't fix. A FIAT main dealer would have the diagnostic tools to get it sorted, but if you take it there, you'll have the certainty of paying another chunk of Euros for the diagnosis & the possibility of then being told it'll cost more than the car's worth to fix it. If you don't get it repaired within the next couple of days, you'll have to put the car in for a fresh NCT & it might then get failed for something else entirely, so no pressure on this.

:bang::bang::bang: :bang: .

Might not help you any, but I got taken the same way about 30 years ago. I put a car in for an MOT, it came back with just sufficiently few faults to make a DIY repair cost-effective. Having forked out for the bits & spent two days fixing it, they then found something which they claimed to have missed the first time & failed it again. Again, the cost of fixing was just about what the car was worth, & by then I'd invested £300 on parts & new tyres, so I ended up doing the additional work & spending a total of £700 & 4 days labour when I could probably have bought a better car for half that.

From what you've said, I'm as convinced as I could be that the second garage did something to trigger the airbag light. IMO if they can't fix it themselves, they should be the ones to send it off to FIAT & pay for the diagnostic & repair. Problem is, they'll likely just say that on a car this old, these things could fail at any time & it wasn't them. Persuading a backstreet garage to accept responsibility & cough up is the difficulty here & the thought of taking legal action is about as enticing (and potentially costly) as taking the car to a FIAT main dealer.

Talk about being caught between a rock & a hard place - this feels more like a high stakes poker game than a car repair problem.

Pity this isn't on the 500 forum - Robin might have some useful input at this point.

cant you download fiatecuscan and buy the lead and turn it off yourself, i also heard that if the airbag light has been on more than 3 times is it then the airbag ecu has to be changed

jrkitching said:

...Talk about being caught between a rock & a hard place...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input JR.

I posted a reference to the garage on the 500 section - they would have a very good reputation - are vat registered and give computer generated receipts. First time to use them. A family member managed to negotiate a gearbox re-build - went in for a flywheel (dualmass) problem by getting the VAT sliced and diced. I normally use another guy but it's cash and not much of a receipt but generally he gets the job done and did go to a contact that he had in Fiat to get an issue sorted on the Marea when it starting to overheat. This would be another garage but they were too much by the book and I just wanted to get 'in & out' with this and found that they didn't really want to get their hands dirty when things went wrong referring you to someone else.

Car is still down with the garage who caused the airbag light to go on. I'll be putting a bit of pressure on them to fix it.
Hopefully they'll have a 'Fiat contact' like my cash guy if they bottom out.

rat20v said:

cant you download fiatecuscan and buy the lead and turn it off yourself, i also heard that if the airbag light has been on more than 3 times is it then the airbag ecu has to be changed

Click to expand...

That's good to know. I do remember someone posting that before.
This car has had no cambelt done - getting quotes of €500. It will be ironic if the airbag is what will eventually 'finish it off'.

If all else fails I might just get those cables and pay for a copy of the fiatecuscan.

Quick update.

Independant garage fixed the Airbag light. Owner rang me up sounding delighted (or possibly relieved).

Passed on the 'visual' re-test.

Marea lives for 'another day'.

If anyone wants to see the NCT report will gladly post it.

loveshandbags said:

Quick update.

Independant garage fixed the Airbag light. Owner rang me up sounding delighted (or possibly relieved).

Passed on the 'visual' re-test.

Marea lives for 'another day'.

If anyone wants to see the NCT report will gladly post it.

Click to expand...

Did they by any chance say how they fixed it? Might just be useful to anyone else with a similar problem.

jrkitching said:

Did they by any chance say how they fixed it? Might just be useful to anyone else with a similar problem.

Click to expand...

The guy who rang me would have relied on the mechanic to get the job done. Two guys run the 'shop'. Main guy on the holidays - his partner (brother) background is tyres and customer service - he didn't appear to get into the nitty gritty. Got the impression that they were at it for a good hour or 2 and may have had to confer with someone.

I did 'put my head' in the workshop to have a word with the mechanic but couldn't see him. Was under a time constraint to get to the NCT before 4pm for the 'free' visual re-test.

I would guess that he still used the same handheld purpose built device (it wasn't a lap top) and the connections where on the top RHS of the engine bay and not under the steering column as you have on the 500 / MiTo.

When I'm up there next time I will definitely ask.