Happy New Year to everyone.
I have an 04 Stilo 2.4 petrol Abarth.

Last Thursday evening a message came up on my dash "alternator failure" soon after the red not charging light came up and then the power steering stopped working ! These went back to normal and then back again within a few minutes.

I used my wife 's car until the w/e when I got to look and found that the alternator was not charging the battery. I disconnected the battery and charged it up.

Today Wednesday the car was booked in for an alternator change. Unfortunately the replacement alternator did not cure the problem and the same dashboard message is intermittently coming up likewise the red not charging light comes on and off and also the power steering goes on and off.

I took the original alternator to a car electrics place who tested it said that it was ok. Likewise they tested the replacement alternator on the car and that was ok. Their final verdict was that the car was charging even when the non charge light and message was on. They felt that it was a fault with the "body control unit" because that was cutting the power to the power steeling to save power when it sensed that there was no charge going to the battery.

Does anyone have any experience with this type of fault that they could share with me? Does anyone know where the body control unit is ? and whether they suffer from breakdowns or bad earth connections etc.

Any help would be much appreciated !!

Does anyone know of a Fiat specialist auto electrician in the Dorset/Hampshire are who might be able to help me ?

Hi,
Sounds like bad connections to me, rather than body computer. you need to check earth leads (battery to chassis and engine to chassis, quick check is jump lead from battery to engine and see if it cures fault), battery terminals, Fuse/relay box for water ingress or corrosion. Did the garage say faulty alternator or did you just tell them to change it? Modern garages just seem to want to change expensive units rather than fault find.

Robert G8RPI.

Check these out on ePER, right.....





Number 5 is the body computer and looks like it sits somewhere in the centre console behind number 1 called the branch control unit - which has a bunch of fuses and relays on it. It looks like the two are directly connected via plug on front of the body computer?


So it could be worth checking that little lot out and the power and earths for them?

Thank you so much for your thoughts and for replying. I am continuing to look into it....

Good News !! to share

I managed to get a mobile auto electrician out to me today who managed to trace a lose wire fault in the fuse/relay box to the rear of the battery. Ive been on a test drive and so far the error message has not come up. Iam keeping everything crossed !!!
Looks like your instincts were right both of you that it was probably a loose connection
/bad earth. Thank you again for your replies as they cheered me up a lot after being in a dark place yesterday afternoon. Many Thanks again Kevin

Great news Kevin - glad you're back on the road. Well played.