Hello All.
My first post so apologies if I am rambling. This problem relates to my wife's Fiat 500c 2013 Lounge 1.2 manual.
As back ground information, the car 'conked out' last week when my wife was unable to select any gear. The breakdown guy got the car going again after removing the car battery tray and reseating the gearbox linkage cables. We took the car to our local garage (who has seen this issue before) and replaced the gearbox cables with a 'kit' (containing the cables rubber gromits etc.). £245 later and according to my wife the gears seem to be ok again.
However after only 3 days my wife says that the car failed to start 'the ignition lights were on as normal but nothing from the starter motor....it took several turns of the key before the car started as it should'.
I tried it several times at the weekend and no problems noted, the car started each time and there was no indication that the car battery was getting 'lazy'. We dismissed it as 'one of those things...(we were using the same 'remote key fob' on each occasion.
Now it is Monday and the car failed to start again. Same circumstances as before, the ignition indications as normal but nothing from the starter motor. It took half a dozen attempts to get the car started and my wife was too worried to turn it off again until she got home.
Has anyone experienced similar problems such as this before? Where do I start to look please?
Loose connection at the battery terminal or a bad earth after the gearbox cables where replaced? (We had no issues with the car failing to start before it went into the garage with the gearbox problem.)
Car battery 'dying' due to the cold weather? However when the car does start it's fine and the engine turns over as it should. All the car electrics seem ok, heater, windows, roof etc.
Remote key failing? Does the remote key form part of the immobiliser, could it just require a new battery in the key? (When the car first broke down and the car battery disconnected to permit access to the gear linkage cables the 'remote' aspect of the key stopped working initially but seemed to 'fix' itself...We have the spare key so I suppose this is easy to prove if it is the remote key causing the problem.
Car starter motor solenoid giving up?
Is there an easy way of discounting any of the above or could it just be a matter of replacing components until we stop having this problem? (Commencing with the cheapest item first I guess?)
The car has been well looked after during the last couple of years (it is a 2013 with 40k miles on the clock) and has a small fortune spent on services during our ownership.
It would be a shame but as I work away my wife needs a reliable car and she is already talking as though the little 500c's days are numbered. Has anyone else experienced similar problems as this with a similar aged car?
Any advice/ideas welcome before it goes back to garage for the second time in 7 days, looking for a problem that only occurs sometimes...
Thanks,
Lee159
My first post so apologies if I am rambling. This problem relates to my wife's Fiat 500c 2013 Lounge 1.2 manual.
As back ground information, the car 'conked out' last week when my wife was unable to select any gear. The breakdown guy got the car going again after removing the car battery tray and reseating the gearbox linkage cables. We took the car to our local garage (who has seen this issue before) and replaced the gearbox cables with a 'kit' (containing the cables rubber gromits etc.). £245 later and according to my wife the gears seem to be ok again.
However after only 3 days my wife says that the car failed to start 'the ignition lights were on as normal but nothing from the starter motor....it took several turns of the key before the car started as it should'.
I tried it several times at the weekend and no problems noted, the car started each time and there was no indication that the car battery was getting 'lazy'. We dismissed it as 'one of those things...(we were using the same 'remote key fob' on each occasion.
Now it is Monday and the car failed to start again. Same circumstances as before, the ignition indications as normal but nothing from the starter motor. It took half a dozen attempts to get the car started and my wife was too worried to turn it off again until she got home.
Has anyone experienced similar problems such as this before? Where do I start to look please?
Loose connection at the battery terminal or a bad earth after the gearbox cables where replaced? (We had no issues with the car failing to start before it went into the garage with the gearbox problem.)
Car battery 'dying' due to the cold weather? However when the car does start it's fine and the engine turns over as it should. All the car electrics seem ok, heater, windows, roof etc.
Remote key failing? Does the remote key form part of the immobiliser, could it just require a new battery in the key? (When the car first broke down and the car battery disconnected to permit access to the gear linkage cables the 'remote' aspect of the key stopped working initially but seemed to 'fix' itself...We have the spare key so I suppose this is easy to prove if it is the remote key causing the problem.
Car starter motor solenoid giving up?
Is there an easy way of discounting any of the above or could it just be a matter of replacing components until we stop having this problem? (Commencing with the cheapest item first I guess?)
The car has been well looked after during the last couple of years (it is a 2013 with 40k miles on the clock) and has a small fortune spent on services during our ownership.
It would be a shame but as I work away my wife needs a reliable car and she is already talking as though the little 500c's days are numbered. Has anyone else experienced similar problems as this with a similar aged car?
Any advice/ideas welcome before it goes back to garage for the second time in 7 days, looking for a problem that only occurs sometimes...
Thanks,
Lee159