New member
Just about to buy a Fiat Stilo Active 1.4 but the car will not start !!

It is showing padlock and "Check Vehicle Protection System "

. Does anyone have any solution to such a problem? Is it terminal ?

Seller has phoned FIAT Dealer to get 5 digit code. £50 ? Or sending ECU away to get reprogrammed plus 2 new keys £100

Anyone got any suggestions or solutions.

Any help would be appreciated.

Why are you buying a car that won't start, its the oldest trick in the book to sell a banger, 'runs perfectly mate just needs a new starter'. Getting it started is the sellers problem.

If its a friend or family member and you want to help them out fair enough.

Have you got any diagnostics you can use e.g. elm / kkl

Is it a proper key? If its a cut key it may have no transponder in it at all or a blank transponder. Try cleaning and reseating the connector to the key antenna.

Zeppozen said:

New member
Just about to buy a Fiat Stilo Active 1.4 but the car will not start !!

It is showing padlock and "Check Vehicle Protection System "

. Does anyone have any solution to such a problem? Is it terminal ?

Seller has phoned FIAT Dealer to get 5 digit code. £50 ? Or sending ECU away to get reprogrammed plus 2 new keys £100

Anyone got any suggestions or solutions.

Any help would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

Hi Zeppozen,

Welcome to Fiat Forum.

I would exercise caution at this point and let the seller address the issues to your satisfaction before you proceed - particularly with such a significant and technical problem as this.

The vehicle's immobiliser and remote control keys are managed by the Body Computer.

It's not unheard of for the Body Computer to 'go bad', i.e. break down although this would be rare.

What it would seem the car is telling you is that it doesn't recognise the key that is trying to start the car.

If the car has more than one key then of course you try the other key.

The key has an immobiliser chip in it about the size of a grain of rice. It works very much like the microchip for your dog or cat!

The ignition barrel has an antenna in it that picks up this chips code and if it's recognised by the car it will allow ignition. If it's not recognised, as you're seeing, the car won't be allowed to start. The car is, therefire, immobilised.

There is NO circumstance where the car is able to 'forget' an immobiliser transponder. I would therefore be highly doubtful that reprogramming the key to the car will work, it should be impossible for the car to forget the key.

It isn't unheard of for the antenna around the ignition barrel to break down and therefore fail to read the immobiliser chip. If the car has two keys you could try removing the lower plastic cowling for the steering column and holding the other key against the side of the ignition barrel whilst attempting to start.

If this works then of course you have your answer.

If the vehicle has two keys (or more) and these have both suddenly stopped functioning then it's not a simple key coding issue. Either the ignition barrel is not reading the keys or the body computer has gone bad - would be my assessment.

Note that coding keys requires the correct equipment and software and that if they mess up coding the keys, any keys previously coded that do not remain coded are 'blacklisted' by the body computer and can never be used again with the car - it blocks them.

And just to make my point very clear - don't hand over any money, deposit or otherwise, until you're satisfied the car is completely fixed and running normally.

The amount of Stilos out there you may be as well moving on to find a different car, there should be something suitable about.