Hi All
My son is now the proud owner of a Fiat Punto Grande sport 2008.
All was good for the first few weeks and then all sorts of random errors keep getting thrown up.
It started with an Airbag Warning which came on evry startup for a couple of days and then went.
Then his driver window switch stopped working. (I took it out and looked. put it back wiggled it and its worked ever since)
Then he had heating needle go off the scale on first key turn with error which then went out after a second or 2.
His latest one was yesteday when he had an engine management warning that came up and the dash light came on. This happened all day yesterday and today its gone!

I am wondering if this could be a dodgy earth somewhere?
I've had a look on here but i dont see this being a common issue. I see that the airbag warning and temperature are known faults but do they happen and then go away normally?

He had a black box fitted from his insurance so I had them come out and check it as the airbag warning happened after this. They came and checked and all looked good. There were no error codes in ECU for reader to see so i have no idea?

I just wonder what the next one will be. They all only ever last a couple of days max before going away and then car starts fine.

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your purchase

Spurious error messages are often a sign of a battery on its way out. Many motor factors will carry out battery testing for a reasonable fee, but if the car is still on it's original battery it might be worth looking at a replacement as they're not stupidly expensive.

Hi Eklipze3k
The battery is a couple of years old but i know the previous owner was a lady who probably only used this car to go to the shops in so its quite possible its had a hard life of starting more than charging!
Wouldn't there be any signs like car slow turnover etc?
I'll source a new one as batteries are fairly cheap and winter is approaching but do we know why or how this causes these problems?
Is it due to the surge in current for initial systems checks? Are the batteries slightly underpowered for the car?

Meant to say. Thanks for the crazy fast response !

HelpFiat said:

Is it due to the surge in current for initial systems checks? Are the batteries slightly underpowered for the car?

Click to expand...

Basically, yes, and also no. If the battery is in good condition, it's perfectly fine, but the big problem with dying batteries is the EPAS (Electric Power Assisted Steering). It has a massive current draw, but rather than killing the steering, the current is reduced to other systems, causing what appears to be unrelated error messages.

As for the fast response, I just happened to have refreshed at that moment