Hi All
Very glad to have found this forum and hope you might be able to help with some advice.

We've got a 2015 500 Lounge which we have owned since new. It's only got 4900 on the clock but just recently the Electronic Climate Control (ECC) failed completely. Nothing works, no lights, no fan, no demist no heater....it's dead.
All fuses have been checked and are good as is the relay.

A local non Fiat specialist put it onto his DTC machine and read off an error code U1710-87 which says "Ecc (Electronic Climate Control)-Missing Message" so there is a communication problem with the main control unit. This week we took it to a Fiat main dealer (an hour from where we live) and the told us what we had already told them in that the car has an error U1710-87 and there is a communication fault. For this pleasure they allowed us to pay them £90. It gets worse.....to investigate further they want another £370 to take out the dashboard then might need to replace either or both the ECC control unit or the main control unit which will be an additional £1500 odd!

Does anyone have experience dealing with Fiat UK on out of warranty compensation claims? With so little mileage on an otherwise immaculate car we are dispairing to know what to do about this.
Any suggestions that are legal would be most appreciated. Illegal one's may be considered too
Thanks,
Stay safe everyone.

Hi and welcome

Being such low use.. has it had a battery fail.. ?this in itself can cause weird issues...


Ok.. moving forward.. where are you based?

There are some excellent specialists around ..and a few good FIAT workshops

People in here can advise you further

Charlie

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Sorry it's in such sad circumstances.

Firstly, condolences - this is not a nice problem to be facing, and not what most folks would be expecting on a low mileage car.

It's no consolation for you, but I think this is the first time this specific fault has been reported here. There is a known, and potentially even more costly, weakness on models with automatic climate control (the blend door issue), but that does not normally present itself as a total failure of the unit to power up or even be recognised by the CAN network.

Faults like this can't be diagnosed from a keyboard. It could indeed be a failure of an electronic module, or it could be something as simple as a loose connector or a blown fuse.

Can you give us a bit of history please? Are you the first owner, and where has the car been kept overnight? If this hadn't happened, how long were you planning to keep this car?

Whatever the ultimate cause, I'd expect a franchised dealer fix will be costly; their labour rates aren't cheap, and these sort of marque-specific parts bought new cost a small fortune.

An indepedent Fiat specialist would likely be a better choice; labour rates will be less (perhaps a lot less), and they could likely source any needed parts on the secondhand market for a fraction of the main dealer price.

You can always try calling Fiat Customer Services to see if they will consider making a contribution to the repair cost, but don't get your hopes up on a 5yr old car that's now well out of warranty.

Worth a call. https://smallcarservices.co.uk/

Al D said:

Worth a call. https://smallcarservices.co.uk/

Click to expand...

They are between Portsmouth and Winchester..

Op. is SOMEWHERE in the UK

Hi, no chance of any claim, given its seriously low usage, has the car battery ever been replaced?

I suspect a simple fault disguised as another, as JR says whats the usage been like the last few months?

Dare I suggest a new battery and full Proxiy alignment(gets all the ecus talking together)

hi folks ,
Thanks for the nice welcome. I wish it was under different circumstances too. Up to now we have loved this little Fiat 500 so I really hope we can reignite that love affair.

To answer some of the questions , Yes we have recently had a new battery in the car. The old one wasn't holding charge. It was replaced a week before we noticed the problem with the ECC. We mentioned this to the Fiat dealer but they said they had never heard of a battery replacement causing any such issues. That's why I didn't even think to mention it here initially. Very interesting that a couple of people here are pointing to that being a possible issue.

The car generally lives in our garage so not exposed to the elements or nesting birds etc. We've owned it since new and no plans to get rid of the car ....at least until this happened there wasn't. It doesn't get used very much. It's a little run around 2nd car.

We are located in Buxton Derbyshire so Portsmouth would be a bit far to take the car for this unless it was a dead cert to have it fixed. I'm sure we could find a B&B at the seaside if necessary!

Thanks for the additional information.. it all helps

Battery getting tired..

Unfortunately all the electronics on modern cars need a stable power supply

The Power steering is a favourite consumer of vast electrical power.. if any component.. or network gets starved of power it will log a fault.

My Experience of current approved FIAT dealers is poor... multifranchise a lot of the time..

They like to 'throw parts at a problem' as it isnt them footing the bill..

Similar to ECU issues.. its often the act of teconnecting and tesettimg that fixes the underlying problem.. not the £600 component.

Find a local AlfaRomeo specialist.. they will have the correct kit..and attitude.. backed up with a wealth of experience

Charlie

Folks , since I started this thread several weeks ago the poor little 500 has been slowly getting taken apart by me. There is no way I can afford main dealer prices so I've been following what Fiat said by a process of elimination in that they reckon it's either the climate control unit or the main control unit which is causing this problem. To get that out the whole dashboard has to pretty much come out .
Currently the whole dashboard is loose , steering wheel off and I've swapped the air-conditioning control unit with one I sourced from a breakers ....but it's not made any difference. The unit doesn't work any more than the original so I'm now looking towards what to do next. This means that the link from the main control unit isn't getting to the air-conditioning control unit.

I want to check in case there is a loose connection between the 2 control units before I consider swapping the main unit out for a different one. Any other suggestions would of course be welcome.
Has anyone done a swap out of the main unit? Does it require any programming or is it a plug and play component swap?

I think to go much further you are going to need your own diagnostics.

Cheap generic code readers likely won't help you with problems like this.

Have you come across MultiEcuScan (MES) yet? You'll need a cable or two, and a Windows Laptop (anything from XP upwards will do just fine), but if you're planning on maintaining this car yourself, I'd recommend you get this set up and working.

You could also ask your question about what kind of alignment procedure might be necessary with your secondhand unit on the MES forum.

Unfortunately the frequency with which ECC issues get reported here, coupled with the cost and difficulty of conducting repairs means I'd never consider owning any ECC equipped Fiat.

Like JK suggested get MES it’s ESSENTIAL if your going to look after your car yourself!!!

You could give club 500 a call located in bury these guys really know their stuff!

Thanks . I hadn't heard of MES but I'm pretty handy with technology so I'll have a look at that. Thanks for the heads up on the guys in Bury too. That's not too far from me so a trundle out when I have the car back together might be well worth a shot.

It's actually not too hard a job getting the dashboard out once you get down to it. The trick is remembering how to put it all back together with a ziliion different screws , all with different heads. I've had allen keys, torx bits, flat and philips screw head....the whole lot!!

I hate the idea of being beaten by this niggle. It has to be fixable and I'm damned if I am going to let Stoneacre start swapping out parts at my expense until they get lucky.

Purple Gecko said:

Thanks . I hadn't heard of MES but I'm pretty handy with technology so I'll have a look at that. Thanks for the heads up on the guys in Bury too. That's not too far from me so a trundle out when I have the car back together might be well worth a shot.

It's actually not too hard a job getting the dashboard out once you get down to it. The trick is remembering how to put it all back together with a ziliion different screws , all with different heads. I've had allen keys, torx bits, flat and philips screw head....the whole lot!!

I hate the idea of being beaten by this niggle. It has to be fixable and I'm damned if I am going to let Stoneacre start swapping out parts at my expense until they get lucky.

Click to expand...

Yeah agreed it’s easier to get dash out than putting it back! typecastboy did a great YouTube video on how to.... the trick is to label things as your removing them!

Yeah the guys in bury basically saved my car for me! If not for them it may have gone to the scrapyard ?

They are breakers but have a lot of knowledge on 500s so it’s definitely worth speaking to them! And even better your close!
Keep us in the loop I too have this sort climate control so all the info could come in handy in the future!

Oh as for MES 50 euro for the registered version directly from the official multi ecu scan website & official leads NOT cheap Chinese ones!
This kit pays for itself...... instead of the dealers!!

Before you take anything else off, definately invest in MES. It's paid for itself for me 100 times over, literally. It usually pinpoints the problem and in most cases tells you in plain English rather than just an error code.

There are always times when it's a bit of a red herring due to the way the ECUs talk to each other but for the most part it will identify the problem item for you.

Which cables do you use to connect to a laptop? There seems to be a massive selection. I've got an old but good Win7 laptop which I'd connect to . Its only got 2 USB ports , a LAN port and a VGA connector.

Purple Gecko said:

Which cables do you use to connect to a laptop? There seems to be a massive selection. I've got an old but good Win7 laptop which I'd connect to . Its only got 2 USB ports , a LAN port and a VGA connector.

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Hi

Basics are: A Main cable

ELM327

OR

VAG.COM :KKL

they go from laptops USB to the cars OBD Port

ENGINE FAULTS


For other kit.. airbags..ABS. steering motors

You want a means of switching the connections..

Simplest is a coloured lead.. they are sold in bundles of 4 or 5..a full set of options covered

The MultiECUScan website will confirm wether you require ELM or KKL

And help explain what the coloured adaptors are for

SUPPORTED VEHICLES is the massive list you want to find your FIAT in

Dates are when the ECU went into service

Bottom of that long list are explanations about the adaptors

Charlie

varesecrazy said:

Hi

Basics are: A Main cable

ELM327

OR

VAG.COM :KKL

they go from laptops USB to the cars OBD Port

ENGINE FAULTS


For other kit.. airbags..ABS. steering motors

You want a means of switching the connections..

Simplest is a coloured lead.. they are sold in bundles of 4 or 5..a full set of options covered

The MultiECUScan website will confirm wether you require ELM or KKL

And help explain what the coloured adaptors are for

SUPPORTED VEHICLES is the massive list you want to find your FIAT in

Dates are when the ECU went into service

Bottom of that long list are explanations about the adaptors

Charlie

Click to expand...

Thanks Charlie. I'll do some more reading. I've downloaded the free software version just to have a look at. It looks fairly intuitive. Looking forward to getting this cracked.

Biggest niggle it setting up the USB drivers.. baud rate..etc

From a laymans perspective



Actual sorftware is excellent

varesecrazy said:

Biggest niggle it setting up the USB drivers.. baud rate..etc

From a laymans perspective



Actual sorftware is excellent

Click to expand...

I've ordered an ELM327 which will hopefully be here tomorrow. Then the fun can begin!