Today I turned the car on and has a yellow triangle warning light and the mileage is flashing when I drive.

A few weeks ago I had my instrument cluster replaced and since then a warning has came on when I turned the ignition on saying 'parking help unavailable'. I dont actually have any kind of parking assistance in the car (fiat 500 1.2 pop).

I took it to the dealer who have said they will have to investigate but it is unlikely to be related to the parking help message as this has been on for weeks whereas the warning light has just came on and mileage has only just started flashing.

The dealers have said they might not be able to look at it until after Christmas. Any ideas? Would I be better driving it home from the dealer and having a local mechanic look?

stephanie25x said:

Today I turned the car on and has a yellow triangle warning light and the mileage is flashing when I drive.

A few weeks ago I had my instrument cluster replaced and since then a warning has came on when I turned the ignition on saying 'parking help unavailable'. I dont actually have any kind of parking assistance in the car (fiat 500 1.2 pop).

I took it to the dealer who have said they will have to investigate but it is unlikely to be related to the parking help message as this has been on for weeks whereas the warning light has just came on and mileage has only just started flashing.

The dealers have said they might not be able to look at it until after Christmas. Any ideas? Would I be better driving it home from the dealer and having a local mechanic look?

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Is the car still under any kind of warranty?

Working on the theory that many problems are the result of the last thing that was worked on, I'd not be surprised if this is a byproduct of having the instrument cluster replaced. The problem with taking it elsewhere is that the dealer who replaced the cluster will likely try to use the fact that someone else worked on the car to wriggle out of any warranty or other comeback you may otherwise have.

Had you not mentioned the cluster had been changed recently, my first thought would have been to check the hatch wiring, as that's a common and well-known fault known to cause all manner of random electrical glitches.

It wouldn't even surprise me to find the cluster failure had been triggered by an intermittent hatch wiring fault which wasn't properly diagnosed by the dealer who fitted the replacement.

Personally I'd check the hatch wiring now, but if all is sound in that department, leave any further investigation to the dealer who carried out the recent work. Flashing mileage is a symptom of loss of synchronisation between the different computer modules on the car; this needs fiat-specific software to diagnose and fix, so the average independent garage probably won't be much help.

Sadly this isn't the first time we've seen cluster issues here on the forum.

stephanie25x said:

Today I turned the car on and has a yellow triangle warning light and the mileage is flashing when I drive.

A few weeks ago I had my instrument cluster replaced and since then a warning has came on when I turned the ignition on saying 'parking help unavailable'. I dont actually have any kind of parking assistance in the car (fiat 500 1.2 pop).

I took it to the dealer who have said they will have to investigate but it is unlikely to be related to the parking help message as this has been on for weeks whereas the warning light has just came on and mileage has only just started flashing.

The dealers have said they might not be able to look at it until after Christmas. Any ideas? Would I be better driving it home from the dealer and having a local mechanic look?

Click to expand...

The first thing they need to do is put the diagnostics computer on the car. Only takes 10 minutes. Flashing mileage indicates a CAN bus issue and may well be related to the instrument change. As a minimum you need a software "proxi-alignment" to sort this out. Sounds like they did not configure the new one properly for starters from the parking aid warning.
No point taking it to an independent garage unless they specialise in Fiats and have have the correct diagnostics. If you are near Cambridge I have Multiecuscan and can run diagnostics for you.
Robert G8RPI.

g8rpi said:

The first thing they need to do is put the diagnostics computer on the car.

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I'd say that's the second thing they need to do.

The first thing they need to do is to verify the integrity of the hatch wiring. Running diagnostics on a car with a hardware fault could be misleading and, in the worst case, actually cause further damage.

They could likely do both in 10 mins.

Hi all - thanks for your help.

While I was in the garage my friend was looking to buy a new car so when we mentioned the problem to the salesman my car was checked immediately - funny how these things work!

It was put on diagnostics and refreshed and the light went off as well as the parking help warning so presume they were linked.

Thanks again!