Hello everyone,

i am new to the site and generally in the Bravo community.
I am having an issue over the last month with my 150 tjet 14 bravo 2008.

while driving one light/warning on the dashboard appears most of the times " ESP hillholder unavailable", then a second one about ASR then the handbrake sign and then if i keep driving the steering wheel sign and that's when the steering wheel gets extremely heavy.

so i pull over and turn the car off. when i try to restart i get a sign on the dashboard (besides all the previous) with a car and a lock and the car won't start. it makes the noise like is starting but it does not.

after some minutes or hours when i try again it starts normally.

i took the car to several not fiat garages with diagnostics. they removed the codes and they told me that most of them had to do with the can bus of the car. i also took it to fiat where they also run diagnostics and found nothing obvious to fix so the checked the whole canbus wiring and told me that they found a switch under the battery with loose pins so they fixed it.

for 2 weeks the car was fine. 2 days ago it did the same thing so i took it back again to FIAT. now they are saying that it might has something to do with the immobilizer.

i apologise if i tired you with this "essay" above but i m really frustrated about it and i would be grateful to whoever has some past same experience in order to give me some advise.

cheers
waiting for your replies

Anyone??

This sounds quite similar to a problem I had not too long back (https://www.fiatforum.com/bravo/336525-warning-lights.html) - mine was a CAN-C error that was showing up. Like you I ended up taking it to a fiat specialist who didn't have a clue what it was, he reset the error codes and sent me on my way.

Now I don't like being outsmarted by a car, so I started checking the major connections myself (passenger comp, steering wheel controls etc.). In the end what seemed to fix the problem was a loose connection to the ecu (the fat black wires to the left of the battery/fuse box). Basically all I did was wiggle the wires around a bit and re-secure them into their holders and it seemed to fix it. No hint of a problem since.

Thx for the reply man. One of the things that fiat mechanic at dealership found and 'fixed' was one fuse under the battery.he told me it had some loose pins and he fixed them. I m going today to pick it up again from the garage and i ll ask him about it. They told me they checked the whole front part and it was ok and then they moved to the part below the chairs and stuff and found something with the groundings.. We ll see today.

Thx again for the reply. I ll let u know more later

Just un update..i took my car from fiat again.
They still cannot find the exact issue since they think it's can bus related and as they told me can bus is all over the car.
So they just checked the front part of the car which was fine and then moved inwards. They told me they removed the wiring below the gears which has to do with the blue me system. They cleared it an put it back in.tested the car for 2 days and was ok.

The only way of finding the real issue is by elimination method. So i just drive it until it does it again and so they will check further parts of the car..

does anyone know if a remap of the car would help in my case?

thanks

I wouldn't have thought a remap would make a difference to your issues.

If anything I wouldn't remap a poorly car. Afterall you don't know for sure at the moment whether it's running right, so why risk a component/engine/whatever by putting more power through it?

i m talking for a simple remap, nothing special. no power increase etc.. just a "reset" of the ecu.
that's how i have it i my mind.
i have a garage in mind. i ll talk with them and see what they say about it.

Do not remap the car! it will not improve anything.
You also risk a damaged ECU if there are any problems with bad grounds or bad connections during the remap. Just don't.

The errors you are getting are similar to those of a failing alternator/battery. That does not men that is the cause.. but it could indicate to a bad ground/ power to the ECU, or any other computer since they all talk on the CAN network, if one of them is having issues it could make it "flood" the network.. somehow, or make it put out noise to the network.

As far as i know there is no switch or fuse under the battery. Pay more attention to what they are saying. (it might have been a ground)

all grounds have been checked many times. they even added a couple extra just to be sure.
if i m remapping it, of course i want to be sure that the ecu won't be damaged.

the thing is they have to check the whole f***ng car, piece by piece each time in order to find out a bad connection if that is the issue.

thanks for the heads up though, appreciate it.

I am a an owner of a 2007 150 tjet bravo and I am having the exact same issues you are having/had with your vehicle. Its seems as if something is draining the power. It has happened to me 3 times in the space of 13 days. Once it connects with another car via jump start cables it starts fine. But the problem soon occurs not long after. I am desperate for advice as this is my first car and I really like it but these constant issues make me regret buying ir

tawabravo said:

I am a an owner of a 2007 150 tjet bravo and I am having the exact same issues you are having/had with your vehicle. Its seems as if something is draining the power. It has happened to me 3 times in the space of 13 days. Once it connects with another car via jump start cables it starts fine. But the problem soon occurs not long after. I am desperate for advice as this is my first car and I really like it but these constant issues make me regret buying ir

Click to expand...

Have you had your battery load tested?
When has it been replaced? if you still have the 2007 original battery i would just go ahead and replace it as it's at least 7 years old (if you count the time it's been stored before installing on the car)
"Winter is coming!" (i miss GOT) you don't want to have a dead battery on a ugly, wet, freezing, dark winter morning /evening.

You need to check using a amp meter to see which system is draining power.
With engine off you connect the amp meter between the positive terminal of the battery and the cable that used to clip to that terminal...
There will be some current draw a to keep the memory of the radio and the ECU.. but that should be very small.
Then you start removing one fuse at a time until the current draw drops significantly.. when you see the drop.. check to which system the fuse belongs to and go and check that particular system until you find the fault.
Before you do any thing you need to know how much current a good car draws.. so you can compare.

I just had a new bosch battery installed no more than 4weeks ago. As im not familiar with the techniques you have proposed I was thinking of taken it to a garage this morning and suggest the solution you have advise. I also think its something to do with the ecu aswell because it says ,ecu disconnected". I really dont want this to happen when winter is fully here. What do you think?

sorry to hear you have the same issue as i did twabravo but it doesn't look the same from what i read.

you also get the various warning lights out of nowhere?

My issue has been fixed, thank God. i had the warning lights turned on again so i took the car to FIAT garage. they run the diagnostic and fortunately that time it showed 2 specific cables that were probably the source of the problem.

the guys there replaced the 2 cables and also 4 others connected to those 2 just to be safe.
it' s been 2 months now, fortunately it didn't happen again.

Hiya,
I'm a complete newbie so sorry if I miss out any information, the title of this seemed like the issue I'm having and was hoping I could ask for some help please.

My 2003 fiat punto active 1.2 16v went for a full service, mot and got its battery replaced yesterday.
All was well until my brother decided to upgrade my radio.
He was sorting it all out and got a new harness for the radio as well.
After about 2 hours he came in and told me he messed the car up.
He had tried the harness and didn't turn on he then cut the 12v wire out of the pin (as he couldn't take it out) he then tried to connect the yellow radio wire directly to this cable, still no power so he unplugged it ( with the key in ) and there was a spark.
The roof light turned off, the petrol light started flashing and says its empty, the power steering light, handbrake light is on (even when i put it down), the speedometer does not work but the revs count does. Also if I indicate or turn on the hazards they work but no light shows inside the car.
The car turns but doesnt start unless I try a lot of times and when it does start the dashboard stayd the same.
We took out the battery for 30mins hoping that would help but no luck!
Greenflag guy came out and got error codes U1700 U1602 & U1600. He said I need a new ECU but these are all CAN errors aren't they?
Also the fuse for the radio blew when it sparked, we replaced it but no change.

Pleaseee help as I don't know what to do. How likely is it that he's just messed up the earth points in the car? Is the car safe to drive once it does start?

Sorry for the long post.