I have a Bessacar Fiat Ducato motorhome. It’s been idle for a few months. I decided to have four new tyres fitted and on the way to kwikfit I noticed that the ABS light was on and the message EBD failure check manual came on. Also the the yellow warning light for injection system was on. My motorhome dealer couldn’t fix it and told me to take it to Guest Van and Truck Fiat specialists. They have had it for two days now and don’t seem to have a clue. They told me they have asked an outside electrician to check the wiring tomorrow.Does anyone have any ideas? The van drives like normal with no loss of power and the brakes seem fine.

Could be just a weak battery from sitting for a few months. diagnosis needs to start with that sort of basic check. Using it for a few days, or even a week, might just sort it.

After that, if it persists, would need MES or other proper diagnostic kit to point to the proper fault.

MES = www.multiecuscan.net registered version is 50 Euro but the free version might do the job. You will also need a set of OBD connector cables and a Windows laptop or PC.

But weak battery can cause all sorts of issues so check the system voltage..

ABS faults such as a weak sensor will also affect the EBD, traction, etc, but they wont affect the injection so battery has to be in the frame.

Failing battery was my first though too. Had the same on my wife's Hyundai when the battery was failing. It turned over and started the car OK, but the ABS lamp was activated. A new battery solved it, but I had to manually clear the ABS DTCs to clear the warning light.

My money is on a battery issue. I had a very similar problem too when the starter battery failed on my 05 2.8jtd, and trying to start with just too little voltage left abs/ebd warnings. Ended up at Fiats who relieved me of 360 quid, to rectify a fault they very vaguely described as a 'bad earth' somewhere. I could not connect to abs unit with full paid version of MES; the free version IIRC will not connect, (certainly to the v5.3 with ASR, not sure about earlier ones). Search my posts on here, and there are others too. Lack of a stout battery voltage can, and likely eill, cause all sorts of obscure electronic faults, the like of which you will not believe until you get them!

Ocwobio said:

I could not connect to abs unit with full paid version of MES; the free version IIRC will not connect, (certainly to the v5.3 with ASR, not sure about earlier ones).

Click to expand...

Do you mean that you can't connect at all? It's normal for the ABS ECU to report that the system is disabled when connected with diagnostic devices. I get messages on the instrument display when connected to ABS on my van, but can still read DTCs.

I knew I'd read something else about this though, and just found it again in the help file for AlfaOBD. It states that on some Fiat group vehicles, it is necessary to disable the CODE system by disconnecting the plug from the CODE antenna before you can connect to the ABS system.

In addition, connection to the ABS 5.3 unit can only be established if the car is stationary, and the connection will automatically terminate if it detects that the vehicle speed exceeds 20 km/h.

Thought it might be helpful

RS3100 said:

Do you mean that you can't connect at all? It's normal for the ABS ECU to report that the system is disabled when connected with diagnostic devices. I get messages on the instrument display when connected to ABS on my van, but can still read DTCs.

I knew I'd read something else about this though, and just found it again in the help file for AlfaOBD. It states that on some Fiat group vehicles, it is necessary to disable the CODE system by disconnecting the plug from the CODE antenna before you can connect to the ABS system.

In addition, connection to the ABS 5.3 unit can only be established if the car is stationary, and the connection will automatically terminate if it detects that the vehicle speed exceeds 20 km/h.

Thought it might be helpful

Click to expand...

Yes, that is exactly it. I could not connect under any circumstance. The vehicle was stationary, I don't remember the exact error message, but IIRC it did not even detect an ABS module at all to start with. There was perhaps a dud connection (as obliquely cited by Fiat), but it had never given any signs of trouble prior to the battery dying while in storage, then
having insufficient clout to start some time later. The case was not helped by merely fitting a new battery either.
As for disconnecting the code ant, I never had heard of that, but, if one needs to start the engine for other checks, that would have to be conncted again, which may be inconvenient. Might even throw up other faults? Nothing is ever a given in Fiat-land, especially electronically!:bang: