Hello all

New user here, hope everyone is having a good day.

I have an issue with my wife's 2010 Fiat 500 (1.2l) in that the dash is (always, not intermittently) showing all the airbag and seatbelt lights and on start up it's showing the message "fuel cut-off unavailable" (image attached). When the message ends, the mileage reading keeps flashing. It drives and seems fine otherwise.

It went into Desira in Friern Barnet for an airbag recall service yesterday but apparently because of the flashing mileage reading, they wouldn't be able to run the recall service, and in order to determine the cause of the problems, they wanted £120 just to run a diagnostic, so obviously I declined and now looking for alternative solutions.

My questions are whether the above dash symptoms signifiy a known issue with this model and/or if anyone is able to recommend a particular tool for reading and clearing fault codes for the 500.

If there happens to be a tool which might work on other makes of cars as well, then our other car is a 1999 VW Passsat, soon being upgraded to 2010 Tiguan.

Many thanks!

MultiECUscan will read and clear codes. If the mileage it's normally because a new ecu has been out in and a proxy alignment hasn't been done. Easily done in MultiECUscan. I take it you're in North London somewhere? I'm in Bromley 10 minutes from junction 4 of the M25 and would be happy to do it for free if you fancy a drive.

Hi typecast

That's very generous of you. I'm in N. London but happy to take a trip to Bromley, whenever's convenient for you.

About the proxy alignment; do you mean that the ecu might have been swapped out? And when you say ecu, do you know which part specifically? My Haynes manual suggests there are three different ecu's: fuel, air bag and ABS.

Could it be possible that the faults are showing because the battery is weak rather than because the ecu was swapped out?

If the ecu is a new one then I have quite a concern as I certainly haven't had any parts replaced in the car but did leave it in the custody of a valet parking service whilst on holiday! It was only when I returned to the car that I first noticed the faults but had nobody to complain to at 2am, so I'm hoping nothing has been tampered with and there's a more simple cause, like maybe a weak battery.

Let me know when would be a good time to pay you a visit.

Andrew

It's quite possibly the battery. It's definately worth trying. I would suggest you bench trickle charge it overnight and try it, see if it stops flashing. If not I'll give you my phone number and if you fancy popping over I'll be happy to proxy align it for you.

I'm off work tomorrow (Thursday)

This is what you call a community! Nice to see there is still good people about

typecastboy said:

I'm off work tomorrow (Thursday)

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Tested the theory with a new battery instead (don't have a trickle charger anyway) and sadly no improvement. The plastic cover underneath the steering wheel looks like it has been removed and not replaced properly so beginning to look more like something untoward has been going on... though perhaps I'm being paranoid and all I need following a new battery is to clear the fault codes?

Anytime tomorrow suits me.

Much appreciated!

amp82 said:

Tested the theory with a new battery instead (don't have a trickle charger anyway) and sadly no improvement. The plastic cover underneath the steering wheel looks like it has been removed and not replaced properly so beginning to look more like something untoward has been going on... though perhaps I'm being paranoid and all I need following a new battery is to clear the fault codes?

Anytime tomorrow suits me.

Much appreciated!

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Mine is like that too I think that's just how it is. Very annoying.

Yes it's not brilliantly fitted and the plastic that breaks when the airbag fires is quite flimsy. I've seen your message and will give you a call either later this evening or first thing in the morning.

I've left you a voicemail with my phone number. Give me a call and we'll arrange a time for tomorrow.

Pleasure to meet Andy yesterday when he drove down from North London to reset his airbag ECU and do a proxy alignment. First person I've met from the forum.

We cleared the airbag light and did a proxy alignment, but none of the ECUs were throwing up any codes for the FUEL CUT OFF UNAVAILABLE message so we were a bit stumped with that. There was a code about no communication with body computer but I could connect to the body ECU fine and there were no codes.

It was a pleasure to be able to help Andy and save him £120 that Fiat wanted. If anyone else is ever in need of help, I'm 10 minutes from junction 4 of the M25.

typecastboy said:

We cleared the airbag light and did a proxy alignment, but none of the ECUs were throwing up any codes for the FUEL CUT OFF UNAVAILABLE message so we were a bit stumped with that.

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The Fuel Cutoff facility is implemented via the Airbag ECU, so restoring communication with that module was likely all that was needed to clear that error message.

jrkitching said:

The Fuel Cutoff facility is implemented via the Airbag ECU, so restoring communication with that module was likely all that was needed to clear that error message.

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That's interesting as I did reset the Airbag ECU but the fault remained.

Thanks Paul, was a pleasure to meet you and many thanks for saving me a headache with the dealer!

I've been trying to hunt down the fuel cut off switch since Thursday but despite having dismantled most of the dash and surrounding interior, I can't for the life of me work out where it is. The right/left indicator reset sequence also doesn't work.

It's unlikely but perhaps my split breather pipe has something to do with it. Replacement pipe arriving soon so will fix and see if that helps. In the meantime, now that the mileage has stopped flashing, the car is going back to the dealer for its airbag software recall service and so I'll try to extract some information from a technician about the switch and fault message. No doubt they'll say it'll need to be diagnosed for £120!

Wife has decided she wants to keep the car anyway so might invest in a multiecuscan myself. Useful piece of kit to have!

Chloee said:

Ino this is old but just hoping I would get a reply I am having the same problem with my fiat punto I have took it to the garage and it says no communication could you explain how you got around this please so I can explain to the mechanic what to do

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Hi welcome to Fiat Forum.

This thread is very old and covers various problems with the 500, You have a Punto but that covers many models over several years and several engine options.
You really need to tell us exactly what problem(s) you have, what engine type and size you have and ideally put that in a new post in the correct Punto forum.
At least tell us the problem, year of your car, fuel type and engine size here and we can tell you which forum to post in.

Robert G8RPI.

Hi thank you for your reply, sorry I really am no good at this stuff, I have 2011 fiat punto 1.4, all airbag lights, seatbelt and warning lights are on I am also getting the message stop start unavailable and fuel cut off unavailable when taking it to the garage it just says no communication

Chloee said:

Hi thank you for your reply, sorry I really am no good at this stuff, I have 2011 fiat punto 1.4, all airbag lights, seatbelt and warning lights are on I am also getting the message stop start unavailable and fuel cut off unavailable when taking it to the garage it just says no communication

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Hi,
That sounds like you have a Punto Evo (I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a Punto expert.
The correct forum is

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-evo/
For this type of multiple issue on a car with stop-start the first thing to do is try a new or known good battery. Unless you know it's had a new battery in the last 3-4 years it's worth just changing the btter for a new one as they don't last long.
What garage are you using? it does not sound like a Fiat specialist. Where are you located? maybe soneone can recommend a good garage.

Robert G8RPI.