Hi everyone,greetings from the freezing Harz Mountains

Please read all of my text before commenting, somebody on here must know what my vans problem is.

I am a very proud and happy new owner of a Type250 Multijet 120 2007 MWB hi roof van which I bought in the UK last week.. I am English but live in Germany permanently. I understand and speak German so if anybody out there can help me with this 'problem' who speaks German, don't be afraid to get in touch.

My van has 125,000kms on the clock and is in very good condition and runs absolutley fine HOWEVER, I found out within 30 minutes of picking it up that the bloody thing is (obviously?) speed capped in 5th and 6th gear.:bang:

Please read on ladies and gentleman.

I spoke to the dealer as soon as I got back to Germany and they obviously didn't know that there was some form of restriction in place and have offered me a percentage refund as a genuine offer (I guess to stop me spoiling their 100% record on Ebay). It's obvious that dealer tested the van but it's also obvious they never took it anywhere near a dual carraigeway or motorway because as soon as you hit 2500rpm in 5th or 6th (dead on 70mph) the van will not go any quicker.

It will sit there all day at 70 and I drove it home last Tuesday 1100kms and it runs without fault and is very economical.

I've owned lots of vans before but not one of these and the Fiat Manual supplied with the van is less than uefull so on the way back I endeavored to resolve the 'problem' by taking a look at the 'mode' operation on the right hand side of the dashboard. EUREKA! There's a display that states speed, speed notaion and on/off etc etc. I tried every permutation .......... engine on, engine off, 5mph, 65mph, 115 mph, speed on, speed off and it made absolutley no difference whatsover.

So what whatever that 'mode' thing does, it doesn't appear to do anything or it's not functioning or it's it's been over-ridden by a speed restriction device of some sort.

Previous van owner was a fleet maintainance company on behalf of a south coast regional gas company. Service records are 100% complete and comprehensive and they don't mention anything about a 'speed restrictor' being installed.

UK van, only used previously in the UK, 70mph top whack............ that cannot be a coincidence surely? Resticted by the Fiat dealer or importer at the behest of the 1st customer?

Just been down to my workshop and revved the engine through the range at idle and everything as it should be so what's the problem?

I've checked the obvious stuff like 'brick stuck under throttle pedal.

I hope I've described the symptons OK guys so what is the solution and what's stopping this thing going past 2500rpm in 5th and 6th gear?

Electronic restriction through the ECU?
Restricted through the fuel pump or supply? (although I think this is unlikely as when the engine reaches 2500rpm it is obviously still fuelling).
Mechanical restrictor of some sort?
Er......................something else?

So there we have it. Sorry it's a bit long winded but I wanted you to know all the facts.

I'm desperately frustrated as the van runs perfectly other than the 70mph restriction, has obvioulsy been well cared for all it's life and I also suspect until I got hold of it, had spent the previous 7 years being banged up and down kerbs in villages, towns and cities on the south coast of England and I doubt it had ever been near a motorway.

Many thanks in advance and hopefully someone knows the answer.

Simon.

PS. My nearest Fiat commerial dealer is in Hannover which is about an hours drive from me and if all else fails I'll get myself up there but if I do that I'd prefer to be armed with a solution beforehand so I can tell them what the problem is

Would almost certainly say its electronically limited through the ecu yeh fiat main dealer will remove some other diag tools should remove it to may be worth asking round local company's

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm pretty sure it's 'electronically' restricted as well. I'm extremely reluctant to take it to my 'local' Fiat dealer (Autohaus Fricke in the south Harz) as they could not fix a problem on my dual fuel Doblo a few years back and in the end I had to get Fiat Germany involved.

I have a "Restrictor" on my British Gas Vivaro PITA ..... But I do know of these people who will "Re-educate" yer ECU (i.e. REMOVE the Speed limiter) .....http://vantuner.co.uk/limiter-removal/ ...Do you have the Service History ???? .... it may be worth a shot in ringing the last Company who serviced this van... 99% sure it'll be a Main Agent" in the UK ... & then get them to contact your "Local" agent to get the restricter program (Coz thats wot it is) removed from the ECU

99% of all Speed limiters are fitted by Everglade Services in the UK >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>http://www.speedlimiter.org.uk/

Read the fault codes. Its not a speed limiter if you have the same revs in 5th and 6th and therefore different speeds.

Sorry guys, that was a typo. Not the same revs at he same speed in 5th and 6th. That was my mistake.

I've actually found out exactly what the problem is and will post later on tonight when I have a bit more time.

Quick answer is, the ECU.

Back with a full explantion and how I found out later.

Hopefully this may help some other people

Right guys, here's what's going on.

First of all thanks for the replies and big thanks for Seasider for joining the thread (you'll see why further on).

It's defo the ECU. It was supplied by the factory (not the importer) when the vehicle was supplied new. I'm going to name the companies involved (not to aportion blame, it wasn't their fault) so that prospective buyers can watch out for the previous owners names on the log book.

A big thanks to Martin at Inchcape Fleet Solutions at Portsmouth (technical department commercial vehicles) who confirmed what had gone on. My phone call was the 3rd he'd had this week with the same query. Quite a few of these ex-lease vans are now on the market and all of those supplied, maintained etc etc by Inchcape and leased to Scotia Gas Networks PLC (amongst others) were fitted with an ECU that allowed either 63 or 70mph. After complaints, some were remapped to 70mph so we now know this can be done although through a phonecall to Fiat Braunschweig just up the road from me, they say they coudn't do it. Whether that means THEY couldn't do it because they don't have the means (which I find hard to believe) or they can do it but would rather sell me a new ECU because they can make more money that way, we'll find out when I go and see the guys next week.

I often forget how different things are in the UK (I've lived in Germany for 13 years) when it comes to speed and traffic volume and the state of the roads. If you live anywhere near London you might as well have a speed restrictor that limits your van to 50mph. There's so much congestion in the south.

Where I live (the land of being able to drive or ride as fast as you want on the Autobahn as long as you're not in a restricted zone) going as quick as you want is taken for granted and a van on the A7 autobahn doing 110kmh flat out is a bloody nuisance. You're probably one of the slowest vehicles (with the exception of lorries) on there.

There's no more glorius sight than a big Sprinter or Crafter on the outside lane of the autobahn at full chat

Thanks again everyone that replied and I hope the above might help future buyers from making the same mistake I did.

What ever the solution, it's gonna cost me

MAGIC Simon Yer sorted it mate ........... whenever I've bin in a situation like yours & thru sheer hard Graft & digging thru reams of internet garble I've solved a problem ...... the cost of "solving it" in the real world (i.e. Getting it actually "Repaired") ... never seems to "Hurt" as much ....

Whereas taking into a garage & saying .. "Eeeerrr theres Summot wrong wiv this can ya fix it" ALWAYS seems to "KILL ME WALLET"........I suppose its just the sheers satisfaction of KNOWING YOU YOURSELF solved it takes the edge off paying for it to be actually done!!!

I'm made up Seasider, thanks

As soon as I got on the A24 Tuesday morning and got in the outside lane I thought, bugger ! Felt like fuel starvation at first but as the motor actually kept running thought it might have been some sort of limiter through the ECU.

What a bloody that was, I eventually got home 2.15am Wednesda morning having been awake 22 hours

I stayed in a cheap hotel Monday night in Langenhagen (about 3kms from the Hannover airport), got upm at 4am and walked to the airport. Got the 6.55am to Stansted and landed 7am UK time. Stansted to Tottenham Hale, then to Victoria by tube and down to Worthing.

At least the van has heating. I've done it on my motorcycles many times and it's taken me 3 days to recover. London to my home town is 900kms.

I'll get some pics up over the next couple of days guys

Sorry Simon I SHOULD have said ........................ I'm Keith & Me???? I live on the Fylde Coast near Good old Blackpool !!! ...........................

Its shouldn't be too expensive its just a single 16bit number in the ecu, you need someone to read the eeprom in the ecu, change the value, calculate the new checksum and wrote it back to the eeprom. With dealer gear you can usally only lower the speed limit. There would be tons of people to do it in the UK but with the law abiding nature of the germans probably not so many dpf removal / mileage 'correction' / remapping shops over there best bet is look around your town for the chavviest looking souped up diesel and ask for a recommendation

best bet is look around your town for the chavviest looking souped up diesel and ask for a recommendation

Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^THAT^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ is "THE" best bit of Info I've seen written on here for a Long Long Time ......fair Play to yer ecunotemu ..... DAMNED GOOD CALL !!!!

Morning Kieth in Blackpool and ECU

Thanks for the warm welcome and advice, all taken on board.

I've found a company in Braunschweig who say they can do it, so I'm going up there o Monday morning. I'll let you knowth results guys

Hi everyone i am new to the forum and have the same problem on my 2009 120 multijet.I have been to main dealer here in nottingham who put it on diag to remove the speed block.After doing this they came back and showed me a print out saying it was already off so they updated ecu just to make sure and checked again still came back has off.So it must be a box of some sort tried to locate it but cannot find anything.It's restricted to 63 which is annoying it gives the feeling of fuel not getting through when speed is reached.Would be grateful for any help on this.

Well I know it's annoying but if it's a van it's only 7 mph below the max speed the vehicle can travel at think of the points

Evening Ducatoru. Yes, you've described exactly the same symptoms as mine. I'm going to Braunschweig on Monday as the firm there say they can derestrict it.

We'll see what happens and I'll let you know.

If it doesn't work I'm gonna get either an exchange ECU or bite the bullet and bu a new one. 70mph is fine for the UK but here in Germany it's way too slow on the autobahn

Great thanks let me know i do go over the waters myself to Nuremberg and it's to slow for the autobahn.I think it is a little dangerous at 63 and having to back off that little bit so it runs smooth again is too.Hope you get to find out what your is.

Harz Ducato 120 said:

Evening Ducatoru. Yes, you've described exactly the same symptoms as mine. I'm going to Braunschweig on Monday as the firm there say they can derestrict it.

We'll see what happens and I'll let you know.

If it doesn't work I'm gonna get either an exchange ECU or bite the bullet and bu a new one. 70mph is fine for the UK but here in Germany it's way too slow on the autobahn

Click to expand...

Any news did you find out Harz ..

I think Simon (Harz) said he was taking his van in at the end of this week ducatoru, its either furthe back in THIS thread or in his other "Welcome" thread in the Newbie section ..

Hi guys, haven't forgotten you. Greetings from the sunny Harz

Right, first the ECU dabacle !

The company I was advised to go and see in Braunschweig were a complete and utter waste of time, I didn't even bother taking the keys out of the van. They were not who they said they were and couldn't help me.

2nd, just come back from the Tuv in Seeson and the van got through no problem, completely clean bill of health. I'm going to collect the German papers from them tomorrow and then it's off to the registration office in Osterode to get some lovely, pressed Alu number plates.

I'm doing some serious detective work on the bloody ECU, back to you all soon guys.

PS. Did a oil and filter change yesterday. The stuff (I not sure it was oil) that came out of the sump was the blackest crap I've ever set my eyes on.

All better now