Hi all,
I am rather new at this so please bear with me.
2 months ago I purchased a 2008 fiat multipla, lovely car one of the best cars I have ever had. the only problem i have is the warning light comes on saying engine ctrl faulty.
I took it back to the dealer who said that it was an unspecified fault, they reset it and said if it happens again it will have to go to a fiat dealer.
It happened i took it to a fiat dealer who said it was the particulate filter, so rather than take it back to the dealer, who didnt offer a courtesy car and expected me wait around for a full day, I paid the fiat dealer to fix it.
they purged the particulate filter, but the fault still exists, they say it could be the airflow sensor or boost pressure sensor and is it showing a turbo pressure error... turbo is checked and working fine.
so the question is does anyone know what the problem might be it is the Diesel eleganza 1.9 multijet, the light only seems to come on when going uphill and putting the pedal to the floor, I tried overtaking a lorry on a hill, changed into 3rd gear, accelerated and it sort of died, wouldn't rev over 3000 rpm any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Try unplugging the MAF (mass airflow sensor) and see if things improve. Power slowly dying away on long uphill climbs is a tell-tale for a MAF fault. Driving with the MAF unplugged won't damage the engine - the ECU just reverts to a default setting for air temperature and flow.

If you have been into a proper fiat dealer and thats all they had to say once they'd taken your money then thats a disgrace. They should have a auto electrician who can bloody well use the diagnostic equipment they have and not just say it could be this or that. Mafs can be tested and a decent auto electrician would be able to take voltage readings. Unplugging an Maf only works as a test if its almost completely buggered and will not necessarily be of any help if the maf is not totally caput. .

Sounds like its going into limp mode due to turbo vanes sticking and therefore over boasting. First thing to do is an italian tune. ...warm engine empty road and keep booting it in say 4th gear to above 3000rpm let it drop the revs to 17 or 1800rpm and repeat exercise. If it is sticking vanes this will help move the carbon build. But it is sometging you need to reapeat numerous times and it may well go into limp mode a few times while it clears the crud

thanks to all that have responded, they did check the waste gate (?) on the turbo and said that it is working fine.
What annoys me is now having read the warranty the dealer (emerald motors) gave me with the car it shows that it doesn't cover the sensors. but he will do it as a favour and take it back to him, but I have to leave it a few days.
In fact its my own fault for not reading it properly as it doesn't really cover anything.
The fiat garage SGM in Southampton have now quoted me £96 for a diagnostic and worse case scenario as...
£218.20 for an airflow sensor and £199.47 for a boost pressure sensor, so it will cost the best part of £500 to fix, certainly not impressed for a car that i have had less than 2 months
I think trading standards will be getting a call

Their prices presumably include labour, but even bearing that in mind, they're steep. Fitting of either part (especially the MAF sensor) is an easy job.
By way of comparison, a genuine Bosch MAF sensor (don't bother with the pattern ones for sale on ebay - they're crap) can be had from a company in Germany for around £95 and the boost sensor is around £70-75. Both prices include VAT and delivery. Half an hour fitting is easily enough for both if a trained mechanic is doing it.

Boost sensor failure normally flags a fault code. MAF failure often doesn't.

You could also try cleaning the MAF sensor - all you need is some meths or isopropyl alcohol and a sandwich bag large enough to put the whole senor unit in.

Mine's been throwing up that message intermittently (along with the limp mode).
Waiting for something to fail properly now.
Tempted to check/clean the MAF sensor, but I also think leave-well-alone.
Decisions, decisions...

where is the boost sensor located please ?
I am going to take it to my local mechanic he comes recommended plus he is just 5 minutes away, if i go there armed with a little knowledge they are less likely to try and rip me off

The boost sensor is approx in the centre of, and behind the head.
Mine cost me about 80 quid. (europarts) there are a couple of different types, 3 or 4 pin I think.
It's held in place by 2 allen head bolts.

These are all good suggestions.

Don't be put off the Multi because of this. This stuff can happen to any diesel car.

In reality, these are simple faults. The main problem here is your treatment from the dealer.

I bought two new FIATs from my local dealer (one is my Multi). Their after-sales service was diabolical. Find yourself a local non-franchised garage that is recommended to you by your chums.

I repeat that these are simple faults. Don't be deterred...

strange this, i left the light issue, thinking to myself its not causing me a real problem.
I haven't used the car since Wednesday.
Yetsreday I went about 2 miles down the road, the oil light flashed on went off and so did the eng contrl light. pulled into a lay-by switched the engine off and restarted it, engine check OK.
I still love my multipla,what I like even more are the comments that people make when they stop and have a real good look at it

sweetex john said:

...I haven't used the car since Wednesday.
Yetsreday I went about 2 miles down the road, the oil light flashed on went off and so did the eng contrl light. pulled into a lay-by switched the engine off and restarted it, engine check OK.
I still love my multipla,what I like even more are the comments that people make when they stop and have a real good look at it

Click to expand...

Low voltage in the Battery (doesn't need much of a drop from fully-charged) will tend to throw up all sorts of spurious warnings.
I regularly get 'DIES HUMIDITY FLTR', 'OIL LEVEL TOO LOW' and 'ENG CNTRL FAULT' messages.

Even with all the 'odd'-looking cars on the roads nowadays, Multis still turn heads (and some stomachs!), makes me smile

I have a 2006 1.9 MULTIJET- had it for over 6 years now. Had the dreaded engine management light , beeping and Control fault -contact garage warning come up last week. Also intermittent limp mode. Disconnected the MAF sensor and it's running like a dream. One question , will the warnings stop eventually or will I have to replace the MAF sensor. Tried disconnecting the battery overnight and letting it tick over for 10 mins but the warning message and light keep coming on despite it running so well

From what I've read elsewhere on here, cleaning the MAF sensor is the first step, before replacement.
I think I'm correct in saying that if you disconnect the MAF sensor, the ECU uses the last known data from it, which is OK for a while, as long as the ambient conditions don't change too much (Air temp, Density and Pressure).
You're going to have to sort it fairly soon though, either way.

Basics first - before money is spent - eliminate the white connector :

- has a hiccup, but does not cut out
- hits a ' flat spot ' then does a ' Lazarus '
- has no problems restarting

You should eliminate the infamous white connector, its cost free and takes all of 60 seconds, do it before spending a penny and even .. .. .. before asking for advice.

The black cable from the potentiometer bottle above the throttle pedal traverses left behind the stereo to the passenger side, it carries a varying ohms resistance message [ depending on the throttle position ] to the ECU via the white connector You will get the injector light and at least 3 unrelated code errors from this dirty connection. Garages charge £150 at least for a potentiometer replacement when in truth they just clean or make good the white connector.

If you are foːɐ̯ʃpʁʊŋ dʊɐ̯ç ˈtɛçnɪk, then go the whole hog and solder & sleeve it, but most times just pulling it apart 5 or 6 times is enough to make a good electrical contact.

NOTE : A black cable goes from the throttle bottle above the accelerator behind the radio and heater controls to the passenger side footwell bulkhead. You will see an eight or six way white multi connector, its the only white one under the NS bulkhead.

Found the white connector, did as you said but it made no difference.
Went into limp mode with MAF Sensor disconnected the other morning but it was bloody cold ( around 2 degrees so that was as expected.
Finally got round to removing the MAF sensor this morning and giving it a good clean with carb cleaner followed by a good air dusting and all is good ! No limp mode at all - even at high revs up a steep hill and the old girl's running sweet as a nut with everything connected.
How long do I have put up with the engine Control Fault/Contact Garage message though?
Is it a case of the ECU getting used to everything working or could there be something else wrong?

I can be doing 70 mph, everything is running fine, when I come to an incline and press the throttle a little harder it goes into limp mode.
If I pull over, stop, turn off the engine and restart it,even immediately it clears the limp mode.
Having just paid out £500 for sons college trip to Spain plus all extras the car has to wait, but I will get it over to a garage, certainly not a fiat dealer though

Disconnect the MAF sensor, if it still goes into limp it needs cleaning or replacing.

Just a quick update, engine management light no longer comes on and car is running fantastic.
Well worth cleaning the MAF sensor, it was a piece of cake and saved me £180 plus fitting for a new one.

I have had the same 'engine control fault' warning light on my '03 Multipla JTD 115 68k miles.
After much experimenting I found that the light only came on it 5th gear, at exactly 2800 rpm every time.
I found that if I reved it to the max in 4th then dopped quickly into 5th and continued to accelerate hard it didn't come on - but this wasn't much help. I also found if I slowed down, with the light on, and dropped into 4th, then accelerated hard, the light would go out at just over 3000 rpm and full power was restored.
I found that with the light on it went into limp home mode - reduced power - but I felt there were at least two different levels of power reduction - somtimes it felt really really sluggish, others only slightly down - perhaps that was my imagination though.

I read lots of articles in this forum and others and went through the following process over a couple of weeks before getting to the solution.

On a previous car I'd had a faulty MAF (mass air flow, on the trunking from the air filter) sensor and knew it wasn't this - disconnecting the cable removes the problem, and I had no warning lights on then, and hard acceleration gave clouds of smoke from the exhaust, along with very little power above 3000 rpm.
Secondly I checked that the orange silicone small hose between the turbo diaphragm actuator and the overboost solenoid valve wasn't split and was well seated at both ends. I cut off 1 cm from one slightly swollen/loose end, but the problem remained.

I sprayed the turbo linkage levers with WD40 from underneath, then gently pushed the diaphragm valve plunger from above with a long thin steel rod to check that wasn't siezed or sticking - mine moved freely and sprang back into place easily. So not the fault either.

I then decided to change the MAP (manifold absolute pressure, at the back of the engine) - £ 60 ish and while I had my tools out removed and cleaned out the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation, next to MAP sensor) valve, this was slightly sooty, but not too bad, so the light came on again on my next trip out. Grrrr.

I was fairly confident the turbo itself was working fine, I had plently of power in the lower gears, it was just in 5th -(so didn't go through the filling the turbo with cleaning solutions to free off the variable vanes etc)

Finally, as the last likely 'item' I then had to take the plunge and replace the turbo overboost solenoid valve (not sure of it's proper name, to the side of the air filter box), (£ 100 ish) and ta-dah... problem solved. I can now rev 'till my heart is content with no lights or deafening beeps.

If your symptoms are the same as mine I hope this post is some help.

Happiness is always short lived though.

The new message says 'humidity diesel fault'. I've changed the fuel filter and was dissappointed to find the warning is still given, especially when the engine is hot/warm. Of course if you wait for the ecu to go through it's diagnostics before firing up the engine, you can avoid the warning, but it would be nice to sort it properly. Has anyone any tips - is it a case of yet another new sensor ?

Regards to All.

Simon