Hi peter and others
Been posting here after long since practically stopped using pc due to stress on my eyes
It was an eventful last 30 days for me and my car
One fine sunday the car refused to start and i assumed the 6 year old battery is finally dead
So immediately called for a new battery and after installing it tried to fire the engine but no luck.
My garage guy assumed it maybe was a blocked starter as many push starts were attempted. It started working fine after few hours and i thought all is good
But next day again no luck.
So maybe the battery wasn't dead at all and it was an issue with the starter. I was surprised that a 6 year old battery was still going strong and i unnecessarily changed it.
Turned out starter was completely burnt and so a complete rebuild was done by a starter specialist
Again worked for few days and BOOM no starts again. This time key was not moving only
No one expected the ignition switch to be a problem so it was the last thing to look into. But it was the actual culprit. A bad ignition switch was killing the starter
I could not find only the ignition switch but it came a set with 4 locks
Another nightmare was fitting the lock barrels. For some reason it would not fit in place of old ones. Maybe QC issues at fiats end
It came in a FIAT box and i am most certain it was fiat OE
Took the car to lock specialist and he did manage to finish it after working for 5 hours and told me not to get the car again as its too hard to work on
Drove for 200 kms in 3 days and seems to be working fine but new issue although not crtical has cropped up
The AC fan blower starst by itself even if completely OFF and even goes high and low on speed. I am suspecting some bad switch in the centre console but will get it fixed after few weeks as need the car due to heavy rains
So lesson to learn is if you have an old car or maybe an old fiat dont directly jump to a new battery or an alternator if engine does not fire
It can be
1) A dead battery
2) Bad alternator not charging battery
3) Bad starter
4) or a bad ignition switch which has damaged starter by supplying current for a long time
I did not hear any unusual noises in last few months which may indicate ignitions switch holding current but the now i realize how jammed the original switch was as the new one is as smooth as butter to operate