Hello folks! My first post here, forgive me but I don't know a **** thing about cars - I'm more of a computer geek.

I'm sitting at a light, I start to go, and I stalled my 500 (or so it seems). Now I may be a youngin', but I haven't stalled a manual transmission in a very very long time, and when I do, I usually realise what I did wrong (letting out the clutch too fast). This didn't feel like I did anything wrong, but it died after trying to get er moving at a red light, so I figured it was a stall. Tried to start it again, nothing.

I keep trying to start it. No "whirr whirr whirr whirr" noise of the engine trying to turn over. Just a very faint "click" noise that you could only hear if you had your head in the hood while someone else tried to start it. The brake pedal also got stuck down in the depressed position. I was trying to roll the car off to the right hand lane, and realised I had to use the emerg brake to stop it (I'm aware there was no power steering or brakes, but it wasn't that, the brake pedal was stuck down). Now my dad tells me that is normal given the circumstances - something about vacuum pressure in the pedal. I also learned that tow truck companies refuse to tow a Fiat 500 - they said they'd have to send a special flatbed truck over 2 hours away for it, because it's so small, something about road clearance.

Well after 30 minutes of waiting and 100 tries at the ignition later, I tried one more time, and it started, no problem. The only thing unusual about the start was more smoke than usual came out of the exhaust, and it stank. It stank like a 30 year old truck starting up and spewing out black smoke (although this was grey/white smoke), but then it cleared up, and I managed to drive it all the way home without troubles.

Can anyone lend some insight as to what this problem is? I did some googling, and apparently this is a common issue with the 500 - something about a starter solenoid? Thanks for any help!

Hi, you sound more capable than you give yourself credit for. Hard tell exactly what happened, also we don't know the age, mileage or condition of the car.
One guess might be that you flooded the engine after it stalled.Too much fuel by over pumping the accelerator. it wouldn't start until some of it evaporated, and the rest of the fuel came out as smoke once the car started.
This may just be a one-off incident....

Diesel or petrol?

1.4 MA's only for NA (petrol).

moeburn said:

Well after 30 minutes of waiting and 100 tries at the ignition later, I tried one more time, and it started, no problem. The only thing unusual about the start was more smoke than usual came out of the exhaust, and it stank. It stank like a 30 year old truck starting up and spewing out black smoke (although this was grey/white smoke), but then it cleared up, and I managed to drive it all the way home without troubles.

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The smoke is a red herring in my opinion, all it will be would be is that when the car did finally start all your other attempts to start it will have flooded the cylinders with fuel leading to the fuel air ratio being all wrong. As the engine ran the excess fuel will have been burnt off so it'll then go back to normal.

PsFiat said:

Hi, you sound more capable than you give yourself credit for. Hard tell exactly what happened, also we don't know the age, mileage or condition of the car.
One guess might be that you flooded the engine after it stalled.Too much fuel by over pumping the accelerator. it wouldn't start until some of it evaporated, and the rest of the fuel came out as smoke once the car started.
This may just be a one-off incident....

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Whoops I forgot to mention, it's a 2012 Fiat 500 Sport with about 33,000km on it, gasoline engine, manual transmission. I may have flooded it in my attempts to get it started, but that wouldn't have caused the initial lack-of-start, would it? I mean it never even tried to turn over, not even the first time.

The smoke is a red herring in my opinion, all it will be would be is that when the car did finally start all your other attempts to start it will have flooded the cylinders with fuel leading to the fuel air ratio being all wrong. As the engine ran the excess fuel will have been burnt off so it'll then go back to normal.

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That's what I'm thinking...

Wouldn't that flooding then lead to excess fuel entering the Cat Convertor, thus causing damage there?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that this is also a reason not to push start cars nowadays.

To the OP, I sincerely hope I'm wrong about this!!

moeburn said:

it's a 2012 Fiat 500 Sport with about 33,000km on it

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How long since the plugs were changed?

A fresh set may just transform your engine.

From your description, I take it there was no cranking of the engine at all. Old spark plugs might make starting difficult but you would presumably get some response when turning the key.

It might be a long shot but I had a similar experience with my main driver which is an Audi A1. I stalled last week and the car wouldn't restart - no mechanical noise on turning the key at all. I eventually realised that my foot was fouling the foot rest such that I was only applying the clutch pedal to about 10mm from full travel. The A1 can only be started clutch fully down, the engine management system detected this and was over-riding the ignition. Fortunately I spotted and resolved the problem before I went full Basil Fawlty.

I have a pre start and stop Fiat 500 so have no other point of reference but notice that the USA/Canada 500 has a clutch interlocking ignition similar to my Audi. Could be down to dodgy footwear like me or the clutch sensor threw a wobbly?

snes said:

Wouldn't that flooding then lead to excess fuel entering the Cat Convertor, thus causing damage there?

I seem to recall reading somewhere that this is also a reason not to push start cars nowadays.

To the OP, I sincerely hope I'm wrong about this!!

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Should be OK on the odd occasion.

Not to be made a habit of though.

zanes said:

Should be OK on the odd occasion.

Not to be made a habit of though.

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tow starting a mechanically sound car ( that will fire + run instantly - flat battery scenario) is o.k.,

dragging something around for 5 mins trying to coax it onto life.. will potentially poison the CAT with unburnt fuel

OP - not too familiar with the spec of the NA spec cars,

BUT the brake pedal sticking DOWN sounds a little odd..,

IF the fault is indeed the starter solenoid / non cranking..,
then you've not spun the engine to drag through fuel ( unburnt)


I would get the engines fault codes read..there should be SOMETHING stored,

the advice of replacement spark plugs will not do any harm,

Charlie