Technical Turbo / electrical fault

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Technical Turbo / electrical fault

steviea712

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Hello


I've tried searching for some info relating to this fault but can't find any.


My wife has a 2015 500x multiair 1.4 turbo. She has owned the car for approx. 18 months now.


The car has an issue where it will suddenly lose power, it is as if the turbo has stopped working. The car needs the nuts revved of it to go anywhere, and on a motorway will not go past 60mph. When the car is put into the 'sport' mode (i.e. the turbo is displayed on the dash) it does not show the turbo working... Fuel consumption appears to be rapidly increased when this issue happens.


If the car is then driven say the next day, it suddenly works ok, and will pull great as if nothing happened!


The problem first happened last summer, and now happens approx. once a week (she uses the car daily for approx. 60 miles commute). We took the car to 2 different fiat garages who were none the wiser about what the fault could be, unfortunately the car is now no longer in warranty :(


One thing I have noticed when this fault happens, cruise control does not function (in anyway what so ever, pressing the buttons on the wheel do nothing what so ever) and the brightness of the radio/sat nav screen appears to be a lot darker than usual. Because of this I believe the fault to be electrical related (surely if the turbo is finished, it would completely stop working and not randomly work again...?)


Has anyone heard of a similar issue like this before, or have any pointers as to what could be causing it?


Would really appreciate anyone's thoughts and advice on this, thank you!!!


Steve
 
Sounds more like a failure with the multiair valves not opening properly causing lack of power. Doesn’t sound like a turbo fault to me.
 
Thanks for your replies.


I will have a look on the Alfa forum to see if there is any more info about the fault.


I agree that it probably isn't a turbo fault, surely if the turbo has a problem it would stop working completely and not randomly start working again. My only concern is that when the fault occurs there are other issues at the same time (cruise control not working, and the dimming of the radio / sat nav screen).


Any more advice info would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks again chaps
 
This is worth checking.

If you pop the top cover off the engine (two M13 bolts and a single rubber rear centre pull up to remove mount) you will see that there is at least one small diameter silver metal pipe with orange tube connections. They come from the turbo (or that area) and go to the left (off side) of the engine.

On my vehicle the just flaps around in the wind as it is not supported/restrained in any way.

From new I noticed this and decided it was not ideal so decided to restrain/support/reduce the pipe flapping on the tubes.

It is probably worth checking that none of the orange joining hoses are loose or fractured.
 
Thanks for your replies.


I will have a look on the Alfa forum to see if there is any more info about the fault.


I agree that it probably isn't a turbo fault, surely if the turbo has a problem it would stop working completely and not randomly start working again. My only concern is that when the fault occurs there are other issues at the same time (cruise control not working, and the dimming of the radio / sat nav screen).

Any more advice info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again chaps

Silly point probably, but have you checked that both battery terminals are secure?
Had a 500 where one was a little loose.
Caused all sorts of probs (eg power steering chucking it) until I tightened it.
 
Sorry to post in this after such a long time but thought I'd update on what happened incase anyone else has a similar issue in the future


There is some sort of actuation valve for the air intake of the turbo - eventually this was found to have a fault and was replaced


And because the car had the issue for than a year before it was finally diagnosed correctly, the garage believed the turbo was damaged, so this was also replaced


Now have a couple of other faults with the car... external temp is telling me its 39 Celsius when its more like 7 outside, and the sat nav can't pick up any satellites… car's warranty ran out last year


So fed up with this POS.....


Thanks to all those who replied before, really appreciate your help
 
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The outside temperature is a common fault with early 500X vehicles. Sadly this requires a new wing mirror base assembly to fix. Not cheap at around £170.

I hand mine replaced under warranty and if it fails again I will repair by replacing the non replaceable sensor. The sensor will almost certainly be a simple thermistor that has been moulded into the base assembly.
 
Glad you got it sorted, shame the two Fiat garages couldn't figure it out, they are good cars when running right,
 
Hello everyone,

Sorry to revive an old thread with my first post!

My wife also has a 2015 500X 1.4 turbo. The car is showing almost exactly the same symptoms as this. It has been doing it for a while every 3 or 4 starts, then it goes away. Yesterday it put on the engine light and a “check engine” message.

I have plugged in my (very cheap Amazon special) fault code reader and there is on code, P0236 (Turbocharger boost sensor A performance).

Does anyone know what part Steviea712 had changed as I’m not too car literate so can’t work it out!

Thanks

Sam

Sorry to post in this after such a long time but thought I'd update on what happened incase anyone else has a similar issue in the future


There is some sort of actuation valve for the air intake of the turbo - eventually this was found to have a fault and was replaced


And because the car had the issue for than a year before it was finally diagnosed correctly, the garage believed the turbo was damaged, so this was also replaced


Now have a couple of other faults with the car... external temp is telling me its 39 Celsius when its more like 7 outside, and the sat nav can't pick up any satellites… car's warranty ran out last year


So fed up with this POS.....


Thanks to all those who replied before, really appreciate your help
 
Hello everyone,

Sorry to revive an old thread with my first post!

My wife also has a 2015 500X 1.4 turbo. The car is showing almost exactly the same symptoms as this. It has been doing it for a while every 3 or 4 starts, then it goes away. Yesterday it put on the engine light and a “check engine” message.

I have plugged in my (very cheap Amazon special) fault code reader and there is on code, P0236 (Turbocharger boost sensor A performance).

Does anyone know what part Steviea712 had changed as I’m not too car literate so can’t work it out!

Thanks

Sam
Did you manage to get anywhere Sam, my wife's car is having the same issue. Swapper out 4 sensors but no luck. Gets 1/4 boost and just stops, I can get full boost by playing with the throttle but doesn't work all the time.

Thanks

Larne
 
It's not clear whether the OP had a problem with the "actuator valve".. or (more likely) the actuator *boost* valve, since there were other electrical symptoms going on at the same time...

The boost valve is an electric motor that's connected to the turbo boost actuator by a couple of small pipes (possibly blue plastic). You can find it by finding the exhaust manifold.. then looking for the turbo. Next to the turbo will be a small metal "pepperpot" (though it looks more like a cup cake) with a tube coming out of the top and a metal rod coming out of the bottom, which is attached to the turbo.

The pipe that comes out of the top of the "pepperpot" leads to the actuator boost valve. It'll be a matchbox sized doodah with an electrical connector on it. The "pepperpot" is the actuator valve itself and tend to go wrong much less often than the boost valve.

When the engine detects you "feel the need", it gets the boost valve to spin up, which creates a vacuum on the piped side of the actuator valve. That pulls on a diaphragm that pulls the rod. The rod pulls a lever that adjusts the pitch on the turbo vanes, making it produce boost more quickly. When there's enough boost, the boost valve stops spinning, the vacuum drops and the rod returns to normal position which turns the turbo's vanes to an "efficient" position, rather than a "boosting" one.

You can see the boost valve works harder than the actuator valve.. so it's most likely to fail.

Obviously the operation depends on a good vacuum (so also check that the pipes are tight and not split etc. and it needs the actuator valve rod to be working efficiently, so make sure the rod can move in and out freely (you may need to disconnect it at the turbo end, to test it). It's unlikely (but possible) that the actuator diaphragm is split, which would also knacker all this good work... but start at the most likely component first.

It's a pity the OP had his turbo swapped... since if you read the above, you can see that none of this "is likely" to damage the turbo. The turbo vanes might seize up and not move.. but that's its own problem (and frankly, probably a once-in-a-lifetime probability).


Ralf S.
 
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It's not clear whether the OP had a problem with the "actuator valve".. or (more likely) the actuator *boost* valve, since there were other electrical symptoms going on at the same time...

The boost valve is an electric motor that's connected to the turbo boost actuator by a couple of small pipes (possibly blue plastic). You can find it by finding the exhaust manifold.. then looking for the turbo. Next to the turbo will be a small metal "pepperpot" (though it looks more like a cup cake) with a tube coming out of the top and a metal rod coming out of the bottom, which is attached to the turbo.

The pipe that comes out of the top of the "pepperpot" leads to the actuator boost valve. It'll be a matchbox sized doodah with an electrical connector on it. The "pepperpot" is the actuator valve itself and tend to go wrong much less often than the boost valve.

When the engine detects you "feel the need", it gets the boost valve to spin up, which creates a vacuum on the piped side of the actuator valve. That pulls on a diaphragm that pulls the rod. The rod pulls a lever that adjusts the pitch on the turbo vanes, making it produce boost more quickly. When there's enough boost, the boost valve stops spinning, the vacuum drops and the rod returns to normal position which turns the turbo's vanes to an "efficient" position, rather than a "boosting" one.

You can see the boost valve works harder than the actuator valve.. so it's most likely to fail.

Obviously the operation depends on a good vacuum (so also check that the pipes are tight and not split etc. and it needs the actuator valve rod to be working efficiently, so make sure the rod can move in and out freely (you may need to disconnect it at the turbo end, to test it). It's unlikely (but possible) that the actuator diaphragm is split, which would also knacker all this good work... but start at the most likely component first.

It's a pity the OP had his turbo swapped... since if you read the above, you can see that none of this "is likely" to damage the turbo. The turbo vanes might seize up and not move.. but that's its own problem (and frankly, probably a once-in-a-lifetime probability).


Ralf S.
Thanks for your response Ralf, I found this forum and this was the problem with mine
I change all the sensors with no luck, was on my last attempt with the adjustment before it was going to a garage but luckily it work. Hope this helps others.

Larne
 
It looks like these guys adjusted the tension on the turbo actuator rod.

Usually (?) there's very little need to adjust it.. but it looks like lots of people are fixing this problem by just adjusting the rod... maybe the factory setting is just too slack, or the actuator develops some play.

But great that it was a free and simple fix..


Ralf S.
 
Hi, Everyone. I Know this thread has not had action in some time, but I wish to express my sincerest gratitude towards all contributing members and especially Ralf and Larne for sharing the link on how to fix this issue.

Some background: I have a 2018 Fiat 500X 1.4 Pop Star and bought it in South Africa. It drove beautifully till about 110K KM where I started experiencing all the problems as listed above.

I took it into the dealership and the also said "Tubro". Long story short I replace the turbo twice before getting fed up with it working for a short while and then doing the same thing. I then Finally stumbled upon this forum and tried the method mentioned above and to my surprise the car runs like new!

This has saved me a lot of Heart ache and more money so once again thank you.
 
Hi, Everyone. I Know this thread has not had action in some time, but I wish to express my sincerest gratitude towards all contributing members and especially Ralf and Larne for sharing the link on how to fix this issue.

Some background: I have a 2018 Fiat 500X 1.4 Pop Star and bought it in South Africa. It drove beautifully till about 110K KM where I started experiencing all the problems as listed above.

I took it into the dealership and the also said "Tubro". Long story short I replace the turbo twice before getting fed up with it working for a short while and then doing the same thing. I then Finally stumbled upon this forum and tried the method mentioned above and to my surprise the car runs like new!

This has saved me a lot of Heart ache and more money so once again thank you.
Can I ask what steps you followed exactly, I've taken my partners car to the Garage and they've diagnosed the Turbo but I don't agree with the diagnosis as it works some days and only occasionally it doesn't. Many thanks.
 
Hi, Everyone. I Know this thread has not had action in some time, but I wish to express my sincerest gratitude towards all contributing members and especially Ralf and Larne for sharing the link on how to fix this issue.

Some background: I have a 2018 Fiat 500X 1.4 Pop Star and bought it in South Africa. It drove beautifully till about 110K KM where I started experiencing all the problems as listed above.

I took it into the dealership and the also said "Tubro". Long story short I replace the turbo twice before getting fed up with it working for a short while and then doing the same thing. I then Finally stumbled upon this forum and tried the method mentioned above and to my surprise the car runs like new!

This has saved me a lot of Heart ache and more money so once again thank you.
Steyn29 can you please send me a Whatsapp or give me your phone number that I can chat to you about what you did. I am also from SA and having the same Issue with my wifes car 🙈. I am so fed up.
 
Steyn29 can you please send me a Whatsapp or give me your phone number that I can chat to you about what you did. I am also from SA and having the same Issue with my wifes car 🙈. I am so fed up.
The whole idea in having a forum on the internet is so that people can exchange ideas and help each other. Swapping WhatsApp numbers and taking your discussions off the forum kills the forum, it also means others who might benefit from the same information get excluded from the conversation.

If you have something specifically personal or private that you need to discuss the forum has you covered for that as well with a personal messaging system.

Honestly it’s not appropriate to start soliciting for peoples WhatsApp numbers on here.
 
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