Technical Ghost messages

[Johno933]

Hi Folks,

I have just recentlty aquired an 1.6 Active, 52 plate. I am getting a lot of ghost messages, including airbag Warning (now sorted thanks to guide), low brake fluid, and various lights out warnings. (fluid is full and all lights working), switch engine off then back on and all is fine.

having been through the forum i am begining to see a trend for fiat making their electrical connections out of tin foil, could this be my problem? and should i just remove and clean up all the relevant connections or is it something more sinister related to the ECU.

car still under warrenty, so if it is a possible ECU i will send it there way for replacement, Read somewhere that there was a problem with some models ECU systems, can anyone confirm?

Cheers folks hope someone can shed some light.

Apologies if this has been answered a million times.

 

[jostheboss]

I sometimes get a similar thing, when I'm low on fuel I get a low fuel pressure warning, that disappears straight away, I tried cleaning the sensors with electrical cleaner, and it worked for 6 months or so till the problem came back, so give that a go maybe?

 

[ROWENA]

Take it back to where you bought it and get them to interogate the the fault codes stored in the computer in the car then tell them to fix it thats what the warranty is for

Karl

 

[Johno933]

Have already had it on a full diagnosis machine at my work, all faults cleared and no faults stored.........Not much a garage can do with no codes to work with

 

[JTD_Liam]

Hi Folks,

I have just recentlty aquired an 1.6 Active, 52 plate. I am getting a lot of ghost messages, including airbag Warning (now sorted thanks to guide), low brake fluid, and various lights out warnings. (fluid is full and all lights working), switch engine off then back on and all is fine.

having been through the forum i am begining to see a trend for fiat making their electrical connections out of tin foil, could this be my problem? and should i just remove and clean up all the relevant connections or is it something more sinister related to the ECU.

car still under warrenty, so if it is a possible ECU i will send it there way for replacement, Read somewhere that there was a problem with some models ECU systems, can anyone confirm?

Cheers folks hope someone can shed some light.

Apologies if this has been answered a million times.

Alot of Stilos give out ghost warnings & very often it's been found to just be low/incorrect battery voltage. If the battery on the car says Magnetti Marelli on it, chances are it's the original & is no longer holding charge as much as the Stilo demands. This means that when you go to start the car the computers are unable to complete the 'Checking' process on the battery power supplied & they flag up the incomplete checks as warning messages.

1) First of all (if you don't already), wait for the car to finish saying 'Checking' & return to the date before starting the engine, as this allows all available battery power to go towards the checks, rather than starting the engine aswell. If this doesnt work:

2) Try replacing the battery for the highest recommended capacity for that engine (im not sure specifically but its documented on here somewhere). This usually solves peoples problems but if it doesn't then id look towards the garage for investigation under the warranty.

Dont just let the garage loose with it straight away as most places don't have a clue about the Stilo & before you know it, theyll be saying half the car needs replacing when infact its often something very simple.

 

[Johno933]

Cheers Liam,

will take the advice and sort out a new battery, hope it helps.

Like you said trying to get as much info so i can point the garage towards a spicific area as it is only a small local dealership. Am an electronics tech by trade so, am looking to narrow things down, and hopefully tell the garage what the problem is, to save time and not give up my wheels for weeks while they try to bluff me...

 

[JTD_Liam]

Cheers Liam,

will take the advice and sort out a new battery, hope it helps.

Like you said trying to get as much info so i can point the garage towards a spicific area as it is only a small local dealership. Am an electronics tech by trade so, am looking to narrow things down, and hopefully tell the garage what the problem is, to save time and not give up my wheels for weeks while they try to bluff me...

No probs If it's like the other examples of ghost messages on the Stilo, a new battery should be the end of the problem, no garage visit needed. It only seems to be a minority of cases where there actually is a fault with the areas being displayed in the warnings.

 

[Deckchair5]

I am getting a lot of ghost messages, including airbag Warning (now sorted thanks to guide), low brake fluid, and various lights out warnings. (fluid is full and all lights working), switch engine off then back on and all is fine.

Believe in ghosts? Course you do
And you need to believe it when your Stilo tells you there's a problem as it doesn't invent faults. Then it's up to you to interpret the reported faults and that's where the problems lie. The Stilo cries out "Look, I didn't say that! Listen to what I'm saying"

The thing to remember is that the Stilo checks voltage feedback on CIRCUITS and checks whether they are within set limits. Out of limits? It tells you so. Smart little devil

So when it says "STOP LAMP FAILURE" it is saying the stop lamp CIRCUIT has failed the test and not that the bulb has failed as it has no way of knowing that. It doesn't ever say "light out". That's the owner's interpretation and wrong it may be

With a poor battery or battery connections then lots of circuits will return failures as the voltage isn't up to standard. It doesnt take much resistance at connections on a 12v supply to start creating feedback voltage problems. Once the electricity has broken through the resistance and the ions start flwoing then the second start, with battery charged to a little higher voltage too, means it now passes the test but maybe only just