Hi guys,
This is a rather long and never-ending story, it seems, so I am hoping some of you can give me some pointers. I have a 0.9 Fiat 500 Lounge from 2015. It's done about 44k miles.
The problems all started happening after I got my winter tires fitted on the car a few weeks ago. It started with the ESC off, hill start off and start/stop off warning signs all coming on after a long drive, usually when I was parking the car. Then it started happening also while driving, and the most worrying thing was that the car started to cut out on acceleration. I don't quite know how to describe it, but having the foot down on the pedal once in a while it just stopped acceleration for a few seconds. So me, knowing nothing about cars, assumed this must have something to do with the tire change, maybe they forgot to connect some wires or whatever. I don't know. So I took the car back to the mechanic that changed the tires so he could have a quick look at it. He spent an hour on it, coming back saying he couldn't see any problems and he believed this was just a coincidence that this problem started at the same time I got the new tires on. He reset some electronics and told me to call if it happened again. I drove back to work, and of course it happened again on that drive. I called the mechanic and we agreed I would come back the next day. However, I never got that far because driving home from work that same day, everything got a lot worse. Now it wasn't just the ESC/hill-start/start-stop warnings, but basically every warning light was flashing, and even the speedometer (I have the digital one) just showed two dashes. And the acceleration issue turned from not accelerating for a few seconds to not at all, so I suddenly found myself stuck on the highway in rush hour. Luckily I managed to get to the side before it stopped completely, so I calmed myself down, shut the car of and started it again. It had no problem starting, warning lights were off and I could drive of. It didn't take many seconds for the lights to start flashing again and the acceleration being jumpy, but I managed to get off the highway and park the car at the first parking lot I could find. Now, since the car was parked about 12 miles from my mechanic, the next day I decided to try and drive it to a Fiat authorized mechanic 3 miles away instead. Before attempting this drive, I talked to this Fiat mechanic and he immediately said that it was probably just missing oil. Sounded a bit too simple to me, but I went and bought some oil and filled it up. It actually was very low on oil, so maybe the guy was right. I took it for a drive, but the problem was still there (only ESC/hill-start/start-stop) so far. So I drove it to the Fiat mechanic, told him I put some oil on it, but it didn't help. Next day he called me, told me I could pick it up. He said that since the oil I put on it was not the correct one and with this engine the correct oil was very important, he had topped it up with the correct one. I drove home, it was fine, I drove to work next day, it was still fine. I started to feel relieved, but then of course it happened again driving home. Luckily, when the lights starting flashing this time, I was very close to the Fiat mechanic, so I just drove it there and told them it wasn't fixed. Next day, the guy called and said now he had changed the oil, because it was a bad blend with different oil types in there. They had also read out error codes that showed a problem with the brake light switch, so they had replaced it. I paid 300 pounds, drove about 7 miles and BOOM, light show again and acceleration cutting out so badly I once again found myself stuck on the highway. Now having the experience of driving it in this state, I restarted the car and lumped back to the mechanic, praying it wouldn't come to a full stop on the part of the highway with no emergency lane. I managed to get it all the way back, but wow, that was a scary drive! They were very surprised to see me again, but they took it in instantly, read off the error codes and said every possible error was showing. I left it there, a couple of days went by before they called again, saying they couldn't find anything wrong with it, they had been driving around in it and it was fine, and asked if I wanted to pick it up. I told them I didn't, if they didn't fix anything, as I wasn't ready for a scary drive like that again. So now, here we are. They still have the car, have no clue what to do with it and claims it drives fine.
As I said, I know nothing about cars, but to me (and to every non-mechanic person I talked to about this), it sounds like some electrical problem, maybe some wiring or battery problem. I have been googling a lot myself, and I did find another thread on this site with a guy having the same problems with the warning lights, but not the acceleration cutting out. I can't link it because I am a new user here
But people suggesting something with a hatch wiring issue could be the cause for his issue, could that also be the case for mine?
So what do you guys think I should do next? I don't really trust my mechanic to ever figure out what the problem is, and I am partly starting to think I am crazy as it apparently only happens when I am driving it. I should mention however, that every single time it happened has been when the engine is warm. It never happens from cold engine. I am thinking about trying a different mechanic, maybe someone with some electrical expertise, but I am afraid that the story (and the bills) will just start from scratch again..
This is a rather long and never-ending story, it seems, so I am hoping some of you can give me some pointers. I have a 0.9 Fiat 500 Lounge from 2015. It's done about 44k miles.
The problems all started happening after I got my winter tires fitted on the car a few weeks ago. It started with the ESC off, hill start off and start/stop off warning signs all coming on after a long drive, usually when I was parking the car. Then it started happening also while driving, and the most worrying thing was that the car started to cut out on acceleration. I don't quite know how to describe it, but having the foot down on the pedal once in a while it just stopped acceleration for a few seconds. So me, knowing nothing about cars, assumed this must have something to do with the tire change, maybe they forgot to connect some wires or whatever. I don't know. So I took the car back to the mechanic that changed the tires so he could have a quick look at it. He spent an hour on it, coming back saying he couldn't see any problems and he believed this was just a coincidence that this problem started at the same time I got the new tires on. He reset some electronics and told me to call if it happened again. I drove back to work, and of course it happened again on that drive. I called the mechanic and we agreed I would come back the next day. However, I never got that far because driving home from work that same day, everything got a lot worse. Now it wasn't just the ESC/hill-start/start-stop warnings, but basically every warning light was flashing, and even the speedometer (I have the digital one) just showed two dashes. And the acceleration issue turned from not accelerating for a few seconds to not at all, so I suddenly found myself stuck on the highway in rush hour. Luckily I managed to get to the side before it stopped completely, so I calmed myself down, shut the car of and started it again. It had no problem starting, warning lights were off and I could drive of. It didn't take many seconds for the lights to start flashing again and the acceleration being jumpy, but I managed to get off the highway and park the car at the first parking lot I could find. Now, since the car was parked about 12 miles from my mechanic, the next day I decided to try and drive it to a Fiat authorized mechanic 3 miles away instead. Before attempting this drive, I talked to this Fiat mechanic and he immediately said that it was probably just missing oil. Sounded a bit too simple to me, but I went and bought some oil and filled it up. It actually was very low on oil, so maybe the guy was right. I took it for a drive, but the problem was still there (only ESC/hill-start/start-stop) so far. So I drove it to the Fiat mechanic, told him I put some oil on it, but it didn't help. Next day he called me, told me I could pick it up. He said that since the oil I put on it was not the correct one and with this engine the correct oil was very important, he had topped it up with the correct one. I drove home, it was fine, I drove to work next day, it was still fine. I started to feel relieved, but then of course it happened again driving home. Luckily, when the lights starting flashing this time, I was very close to the Fiat mechanic, so I just drove it there and told them it wasn't fixed. Next day, the guy called and said now he had changed the oil, because it was a bad blend with different oil types in there. They had also read out error codes that showed a problem with the brake light switch, so they had replaced it. I paid 300 pounds, drove about 7 miles and BOOM, light show again and acceleration cutting out so badly I once again found myself stuck on the highway. Now having the experience of driving it in this state, I restarted the car and lumped back to the mechanic, praying it wouldn't come to a full stop on the part of the highway with no emergency lane. I managed to get it all the way back, but wow, that was a scary drive! They were very surprised to see me again, but they took it in instantly, read off the error codes and said every possible error was showing. I left it there, a couple of days went by before they called again, saying they couldn't find anything wrong with it, they had been driving around in it and it was fine, and asked if I wanted to pick it up. I told them I didn't, if they didn't fix anything, as I wasn't ready for a scary drive like that again. So now, here we are. They still have the car, have no clue what to do with it and claims it drives fine.
As I said, I know nothing about cars, but to me (and to every non-mechanic person I talked to about this), it sounds like some electrical problem, maybe some wiring or battery problem. I have been googling a lot myself, and I did find another thread on this site with a guy having the same problems with the warning lights, but not the acceleration cutting out. I can't link it because I am a new user here
But people suggesting something with a hatch wiring issue could be the cause for his issue, could that also be the case for mine?So what do you guys think I should do next? I don't really trust my mechanic to ever figure out what the problem is, and I am partly starting to think I am crazy as it apparently only happens when I am driving it. I should mention however, that every single time it happened has been when the engine is warm. It never happens from cold engine. I am thinking about trying a different mechanic, maybe someone with some electrical expertise, but I am afraid that the story (and the bills) will just start from scratch again..
