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Technical Twinair intermittent loss of power and warning lights

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Technical Twinair intermittent loss of power and warning lights

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Jezz500

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Hi,

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. I had been driving my 2011 twinair 500c for a couple of hours when I had a sudden drop of power and warning message "Check engine, start/ stop unavailable." This happened while overtaking on a busy motorway which wasn't great!
The car was struggling to do a max 38mph. I pulled over and noticed it was idling erratically. I checked fluid levels which were fine, started the engine and it was running normally but still with error message.
This happened several more times on my journey where I would have to turn the ignition off and on to restore normal engine performance.
When I got home I left the car a few hours and then the error message had disappeared.
Took the car to my local independant garage this morning, they plugged it in and found no error codes, etc.
From looking on the forum I am wondering if it could be a faulty coil pack or the uniair actuator. Has anyone else experienced similar symptoms? Be great to hear your thoughts.
I am a bit gutted because it is the newest and lowest mileage car I have ever owned and the first time in 25 years of driving that I have been let down like this by a temperamental fault.
 
Jezz500 said:
Hi,

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this. I had been driving my 2011 twinair 500c for a couple of hours when I had a sudden drop of power and warning message "Check engine, start/ stop unavailable." This happened while overtaking on a busy motorway which wasn't great!
The car was struggling to do a max 38mph. I pulled over and noticed it was idling erratically. I checked fluid levels which were fine, started the engine and it was running normally but still with error message.
This happened several more times on my journey where I would have to turn the ignition off and on to restore normal engine performance.
When I got home I left the car a few hours and then the error message had disappeared.
Took the car to my local independant garage this morning, they plugged it in and found no error codes, etc.
From looking on the forum I am wondering if it could be a faulty coil pack or the uniair actuator. Has anyone else experienced similar symptoms? Be great to hear your thoughts.
I am a bit gutted because it is the newest and lowest mileage car I have ever owned and the first time in 25 years of driving that I have been let down like this by a temperamental fault.
Click to expand...

Hi. And welcome to FF.
A local indy will probably only have kit to read basic codes.

WAS IT JUST ENGINE POWER?

worth getting a full scan of all of the cars systems.

Even a dodgy battery can cause chaos on modern vehicles.

Charlie ..85 hp twinair owner
 
The garage say they are going to have a more thorough look bit yes looks like the next step is a dealership.
 
The independent garage think it could be an ECU fault and have advised I take it to a dealership. It is booked in tomorrow so fingers crossed they will identify the problem.
 
Jezz500 said:
Hi,
Click to expand...

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Sorry to hear about your problem.

We're seeing too many threads like this; it's the second one today. IMO there is a question mark about the long term reliability of the TA engine (though some have run over 100k without problems).

The franchised dealers don't seem to care, and the independents are generally out of their depth with this engine.

Are you also following this thread?

I hope all goes well for you tomorrow. Please come back and report on what the dealership said.
 
Last edited:
At 2011.. the original bettery will be underperforming.. potentially causing all kinds of errors.

A misfire.. due to one of its 2 cylinders underperforming could be a basic
Electrical item.. like a sparkplug..or coil.

You have given no details on servicing.

They are complex little motors.. but you do not need to pay @£200 for a dealer visit quite yet..

Charlie 2013 twinair
 
Last edited:
It has a full stamped service history. The dealer said nothing was coming up when they plugged in the diagnostics.They did a general look over it and found the spark plugs were very worn. I picked up the car with new plugs this evening, got down the road and it did it again , loss of power and the same warning message. Took it straight back to the dealership who are going to have another look bit tbh the service manager didn't sound very confident he could fix it and did say it might take hours at £90 per hour.
 
To be honest..as I Said..
The plugs DO have a hard time..
And if poor that will stress the coil packs :(

Shouldn't really be an issue with an FSH though..

Plenty of info on here with the twinair coil failures.

Worth a look.. to see if it has thrown up similar scenarios.

Charlie 2013 twinair
 
I don't know how old the battery is. I have only had the car a few months and it is under a warranty which is why I happily took it to a unfortunately the independent warranty which came with the car doesn't cover consumables like plugs. I will ask them to be sure to look at the battery. It turns over quickly and so a battery fault isn't obvious.
 
Our old panda cut out completely..after 20 mins of driving.. right outside a fiat:alfa specialist.

No faults found..

So I replaced the 4 year oldbattery..

No reoccurence in the following 8 years.


Another common issue is the main earth cable breaking down internally :(

And of course the tailgate wiring..!!


Get a competwnt person:garage to check these before wasting more money at FIAT
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately Fiat didn't get round to looking at the car today so I took it away and replaced the battery, sadly on a test run this evening it again had the problem reoccur. I am going to look at the coils over the weekend and then hopefully it will be sorted.
 
I changed both ignition coils this morning and have given it a couple of long test drives. The problem has gone. I am really pleased and it was my first thought that it was the coils having experienced identical symptoms with a motorcycle. Because the car came with a nationwide warranty I stupidly put myself at the mercy of an independent and the dealership
, Both of whom I told I suspected the coils which is a known fault. Thank you everyone that gave advice on here.
 
This sounds a bit like the fault that I have described in my 463376-camshaft-position-sensor-fault-then-no-turbo post.
The local garage recommended another independent with top notch diagnostics who blew smoke into the engine :)eek:Yes, really !!!) to test for leaks (none) and then found a defective MAP sensor (the one up below the NS wiper spindle area). Tested it (fail) replaced it and retested (OK), drove it...No better. His view is that there are no fewer than 7 sensors on the same circuit (I assume that these are: 2 x MAP, 1 x cam position, 1 x crank position, 1 x knock sensor, 1 x temperature sensor, 1 x Lambda sensor) and that it could be a wiring issue.
I will ask him to test the battery as voltage slightly below top whack but I think he may be right.
 
I had this recently on my 105 Twinair - kept going into limp mode and start stop and hill hold disabled. Then after starting it again a few times it went off and went back to normal - I thought it was oil related as topping up the oil seemed to clear it usually.


However, when it went into the dealer under warranty they actually changed the throttle pedal! And since then it's been as good as gold - (about 5 weeks now)


I think these symptoms are the car's safety net so could be lots of electrical faults that will manifest by doing these limp modes/lights etc.
 
MD14UCM said:
Hello, interested to know if the problem is still fixed?
Click to expand...


Yes it's been 100% fine since the new throttle pedal which was fitted on 24th Sept. By the time it went in to Ancaster, the engine light and limp mode were happening every couple of days. I can't believe the throttle pedal replacement has completely cured it.
 
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