We have a 2013 Fiat Pop that we purchased about a little over a year ago. Back in July, the battery died and we replaced it. It happened to be the same month that our registration and inspection expired. I took it in for an inspection a week or so later (having forgotten about the battery replacement) and the smog readiness tests had not been completed....no big whoop, we've had this problem with other cars we've owned; just drive a handful of cycles, put on a few dozen miles on the odometer and we should be good.
we use the car for just short commuting to and from work (<10 mi each way), so that wasn't a big surprise. So....we came back a week later after putting in about 150 more miles, and still not complete. Read that some people had to put in up to 500 miles before it reset, so a few weeks later (after it had expired) still no dice. At this point I started looking up other ways to get the vehicle to complete the tests -- tried about 3 or 4 different tests (eg. cold start, idle for 5 minutes, bring up to 2,000+ rpm for 10 minutes, come down to 25 mph with no brakes...etc.). All with no luck. I Got a new OBD reader that reads the smog codes and over 3,000 miles later, still no results.
I finally broke down and took it to a dealer and they rebooted or flashed (forget which) the ECU and here we are 2 weeks, ~500 miles later (and still doing a few of those cold-start tests) and still no changes. They said if that didn't work, they'd have to replace the ECU and said it would cost $1,000.I thought that was a bit high -- checked to see how much a used one would cost, and saw that they run in $50-150 range.
I wanted to check to see if anyone had any advice -- is there any thing else I should check before going the replacement route? I've never replaced one before but it doesn't appear to be too difficult to change the ECU -- are there any pitfalls I should be aware of? Will I still need to take it to a dealer once a replacement one is installed? The registration at this point is over 3 months over due and I've already been stopped twice and gotten off with a warning...I'm trying to avoid another encounter with the local police. (I lucked out; I had my ODB reader attached and explained the situation)
we use the car for just short commuting to and from work (<10 mi each way), so that wasn't a big surprise. So....we came back a week later after putting in about 150 more miles, and still not complete. Read that some people had to put in up to 500 miles before it reset, so a few weeks later (after it had expired) still no dice. At this point I started looking up other ways to get the vehicle to complete the tests -- tried about 3 or 4 different tests (eg. cold start, idle for 5 minutes, bring up to 2,000+ rpm for 10 minutes, come down to 25 mph with no brakes...etc.). All with no luck. I Got a new OBD reader that reads the smog codes and over 3,000 miles later, still no results.
I finally broke down and took it to a dealer and they rebooted or flashed (forget which) the ECU and here we are 2 weeks, ~500 miles later (and still doing a few of those cold-start tests) and still no changes. They said if that didn't work, they'd have to replace the ECU and said it would cost $1,000.I thought that was a bit high -- checked to see how much a used one would cost, and saw that they run in $50-150 range.
I wanted to check to see if anyone had any advice -- is there any thing else I should check before going the replacement route? I've never replaced one before but it doesn't appear to be too difficult to change the ECU -- are there any pitfalls I should be aware of? Will I still need to take it to a dealer once a replacement one is installed? The registration at this point is over 3 months over due and I've already been stopped twice and gotten off with a warning...I'm trying to avoid another encounter with the local police. (I lucked out; I had my ODB reader attached and explained the situation)
