why, he Fiat tech (says in profile) loads Fiat techs here undercover.
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they can read!
Remember that modern batteries do not receive a deep-enough charge from the alternator to fully top them up.
On the Stop/Start course it was stressed that the battery must have had a full charge before going out, otherwise the Intelligent Battery Sensor cannot monitor the battery condition accurately.
If it believes that the battery is at a level where it cannot be trusted to restart again if stopped, the Stop/Start will not work and the engine will remain running.
Remember that modern batteries do not receive a deep-enough charge from the alternator to fully top them up. If it's not 100% charged before it's fitted to the car, it's lifespan is reduced.
You telling me the battery in my car is never fully charged by a alternator but is by a Mains Powered battery charger
but would this cause the warning lights to come on?..and de activate the s/s completely?..because we know that if the battery cannot support the s/s operation due to heavy load you get a 's/s unavailable' message displayed.
mine will 99% of the time display the 'i' warning light with the 's/s de activated' warning light every time i start the car from cold and engage reverse to get off my drive.
if you stop and re start and then pull off going forwards it clears.
- if i dont do this, the system remains out of use for the entire journey.
this seems more like the system tripping up, or a bug, than battery condition, as the system is not available in reverse anyway, and will display when functioning normally 's/s unavailable' when reversing.
i think the concern here is, not one garage has managed to sort this out yet, so have all fiat technicians not recieved the training/equipment to deal with this?
...At what part of the 'Start engine, press clutch, select Reverse, raise clutch, drive backwards" sequence do the warning messages occur?
For us (OP), it seems to always be the following sequence:
1. Start engine
2. Clutch down
3. Put gear into reverse
4. Lift clutch
5. Reverse about 2 metres
6. Generic failure light (!) and start/stop deactivated light come on together, whilst reversing
We have NEVER seen a message or light that we expect to get, where it should say something along the lines of "start 'n' stop can't work at the minute coz the car isn't ready for whatever reason".
It's almost as if the wrong lights are coming on, except they never go off again.
It does kinda seem as if it only happens when the car is cold, which is the kind of circumstances that I expect the start 'n' stop to not work. But, we have to stop the engine manually to remove the lights, as they never go off on their own.
And it doesn't look like it's just a lights thing as the start 'n' stop mechanism doesn't work while the lights are on, no matter how long we've been driving for.
My conclusion, so far, would be that when start 'n' stop should be temporarily disabled (due to unsuitable conditions), it is instead triggering off some kind of failure which disables the start 'n' stop until the engine is restarted. Strange how it only seems to happen when reversing though.
For us (OP), it seems to always be the following sequence:
1. Start engine
2. Clutch down
3. Put gear into reverse
4. Lift clutch
5. Reverse about 2 metres
6. Generic failure light (!) and start/stop deactivated light come on together, whilst reversing
Thank you.
So does the fault never occur when the engine's hot, only when it's cold?
After restarting and driving forwards again to 'reset' the system, if you reverse again, does the fault re-occur? How about if you switch-off, then restart and reverse?
Just trying to narrow-down which area the fault may lie.
Looking through the online info, it suggests there is definitely a 'fault' rather than 'pilot-error' as the system should be "unavailable" when cold, reversing, low batt voltage, etc but with the 'generic failure' lamp coming on it means a problem lies somewhere.
There is a recall on a small batch of cars with faulty 'neutral' sensors on the gearlever, though apparently the fault (spontaneous interruption of S/S operation) tends to occur when hot. Maybe you have two faults?
What's the last 8 digits of your chassis number? - I'll check if your's is one of the batch.
There is a recall on a small batch of cars with faulty 'neutral' sensors on the gearlever, though apparently the fault (spontaneous interruption of S/S operation) tends to occur when hot. Maybe you have two faults?
What's the last 8 digits of your chassis number? - I'll check if your's is one of the batch.
Ours is 00355379.
The dealer has already replaced some kind of switch underneath the gear lever, but it didn't seem to have any effect.
Your's is outside the range that Fiat list, the Dealer tech probably replaced it to be on the safe-side.
Another idea then, :idea:
After starting the car, try pressing the clutch pedal fully down, then releasing it, then select reverse and see if the fault appears.
And to narrow things down further- can everyone with this Start/stop fault list their vehicle spec?
eg, 1.2/1.4, manual gearbox/duallogic, etc
...I scrapped a banger from which I had no problems for a car that is 2 wks old and won't drive properly, oh yeah and cost over £8k.