Hi there, just purchased a 2008 fiat 500 diesel, on the test drive things went well, it wasn't until I had parted with the cash did things go wrong, car felt like it was running ok but I noticed allot of white or grey smoke from the back of the car, but it didn't seem to be connected with the level of rpm I was doing, after a few mins it cleared with none more on my 130 mile trip home, the other thing I did notice later was that when you were traveling along say in fith gear with about 1500 rpm with light throttle there seemed to be a miss fire or hesitation which you could hold for a few seconds if you wanted to or you could just accelerate through this, the car has coverd 73000 miles and oil and water all seem fine.
Any help on these matters would be great

Hi Cooya and welcome to the forum. :wave:

I had a 500 1.3MJT and I thought it was an excellent car but the one problem that I had was to do with the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). Every so often, depending on various parameters the accumulated soot in the filter needs to be burnt off and to do this the ECU needs to trigger a regeneration cycle. Basically, this squirts extra fuel into the engine each exhaust stroke and the consequent superheating of the exhaust gas burns away the excess soot build up.

It is posssible that the smoke you saw was the result of this regeneration procedure. Other signs of when it is regenerating are the tickover at idle speed increases from 800RPM to 1000RPM or if you are driving a quick look at the instant fuel consumption readout will show a considerable increase.

There is a are a few threads directly relating to this in the 500 section if you need more information.

my 1.3 MJT punto likes to smoke a lot when cold on acceleration which clears once it all warms up
one characteristic of small diesel engines is hesitancy when you put your foot down at low revs mine also stutters a bit if you're in a high gear at a normalish 30-40mph and you put your foot down this might be what you have described?

a good indication is your fuel economy what sort of figures are you getting

grimwau said:

Hi Cooya and welcome to the forum. :wave:

I had a 500 1.3MJT and I thought it was an excellent car but the one problem that I had was to do with the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). Every so often, depending on various parameters the accumulated soot in the filter needs to be burnt off and to do this the ECU needs to trigger a regeneration cycle. Basically, this squirts extra fuel into the engine each exhaust stroke and the consequent superheating of the exhaust gas burns away the excess soot build up.

It is posssible that the smoke you saw was the result of this regeneration procedure. Other signs of when it is regenerating are the tickover at idle speed increases from 800RPM to 1000RPM or if you are driving a quick look at the instant fuel consumption readout will show a considerable increase.

There is a are a few threads directly relating to this in the 500 section if you need more information.

Click to expand...

Hi there hopefully someone still on this thread...

Ive recently purchased an 08 500 1.3 MJ diesel... Beautiful thing that she is, she's started to do exactly the above.. Whits smoke and increase in fuel consumption. I've had her checked and they've done a full oil water filter service and a dpf regeneration and cleaned out with hydro crystals (is it) ?! Now 4 days later she's still blowing and using too much fuel.

I've tried looking through other threads but get confused with what I need checking out next.

Garage has said everything seems OK including injectors and that to replace them could be 1000's which they'd rather not put me through. Other than that theyve no idea.

Does the ecu (whatever that is) need resetting!? Is it the injectors?!
Plain English prefferd as I am not mechaniclly minded.

Hi there..

I got exactly the same problems with my Fiat 500 MJT (year 2008).

Like 1 time every day, while driving, its starts to expel a lot of white smoke from the exhaustion, and afterwards, it uses a lot of fuel. This goes one for several miles.

First the smoke, and then the increased fuel consumption.

I had the ERG valve, replaced, and it helped a little bit, but now 1 week later, the problem is there again.

I really would appreciate if anyone in here can give me a hint of what is wrong.

I find it hard to believe that it is normal that it does this "routine" at least 1 time pr day.

Jakob007 said:

Hi there..

I got exactly the same problems with my Fiat 500 MJT (year 2008).

Like 1 time every day, while driving, its starts to expel a lot of white smoke from the exhaustion, and afterwards, it uses a lot of fuel. This goes one for several miles.

First the smoke, and then the increased fuel consumption.

I had the ERG valve, replaced, and it helped a little bit, but now 1 week later, the problem is there again.

I really would appreciate if anyone in here can give me a hint of what is wrong.

I find it hard to believe that it is normal that it does this "routine" at least 1 time pr day.

Click to expand...

Depends what sort of driving do you do?

Do you drive a lot of short trips?
Drive mainly around town?
How often do the engine get up to working temperature
How often do you do motorway/dual carriageway type driving

I only do "long" drivings. The shortests trip I do is 15 minutes of driving.

It is not around town, I live in a rural area.

The engine get up to working temperature 19 out of 20 times.

I do motorway/highway driving almost every run.

Go and see a good chiptuner/remapper, they can cure this 99% sure.

hi there! have a 2009 500 mtj (180.000 klm) with the exact same problem...it blasts a tone of smoke for 1-2 minutes then stops and just continues the process of regenarating.
1)Is it that the cat doesnt reach the right (high) temperature to burn the gases from the regen process?
2)might have problem in Closed Crankcase Ventillation (CCV),as i read at the net?
I had a new DPF installed (ok ecu ) and also had an ecu reset ,but no results.
It really drives me crazy the whole subject.
Is there an asnwer to this problem?

tony771 said:

Is there an asnwer to this problem?

Click to expand...

Yes, there are several sollutions, the easiest is mentioned above.

Welcome at FiatForum, btw.

Peter Pick-Up said:

Yes, there are several sollutions, the easiest is mentioned above.

Welcome at FiatForum, btw.

Click to expand...

hi there and thx for your reply!

I have had an ECU reset but didnt solve the problem.Is there any other solution?

Hi,
Have you had any computer diagnostics (e.g. Multiecuscan) run on the car? If so what were the results? Not just error codes but parameters for fuel pressure, DPF pressure, regeneration status etc.
There is no point in getting the ECU re-mapped unless any fundamental issues ae resolved first.

Robert G8RPI.

g8rpi said:

Hi,
Have you had any computer diagnostics (e.g. Multiecuscan) run on the car? If so what were the results? Not just error codes but parameters for fuel pressure, DPF pressure, regeneration status etc.
There is no point in getting the ECU re-mapped unless any fundamental issues ae resolved first.

Robert G8RPI.

Click to expand...

yes i have had a scan from fiat.the scan showed that 1)my car seems to have more regens of DPF than normal and 2)injector 1 which is the one that provides fuel when there is the process of the regen of the DPF,seems not to work perfect.So they reset the ECU to see if something change.They are not sure that the problem is the injector.
Moreover as i search the net for solutions , people with the same problem, changed the injector but the problem remained...

I have the same problem with my multijet fiat 500 diesel 2007. Every day after 15 minutes of driving and when I am idle it starts producing blue smoke and consuming too much fuel. Then if I am stuck in traffic rpms rise from 800 to 1000 and if a stay in traffic sometimes overheating ! Pffff after 5 minutes it stops and becomes normal again I do not know what to do.

Konstantinoskane said:

I have the same problem with my multijet fiat 500 diesel 2007. Every day after 15 minutes of driving and when I am idle it starts producing blue smoke and consuming too much fuel. Then if I am stuck in traffic rpms rise from 800 to 1000 and if a stay in traffic sometimes overheating ! Pffff after 5 minutes it stops and becomes normal again I do not know what to do.

Click to expand...

Does it have a DPF?

yes it has dpf filter

Blue smoke would indicate oil usually


Have you checked your oil level regularly and does it drop

Check or go to a garage that can check the dpf condition via computer diagnostic port check the regeneration of the dpf has completed correctly.

Do you drive mostly in town?

2 years after my last post. Well this problem is a nightmare. few months after my post, engine died, to be more specific one cylinder had no compression.
After having raised money i managed to change the whole engine, buy new injecktors, change dpf (which was destroyed), and some other compnents related to the engine. I have already spent 4.000 euro approximately! but smoke still persists when regeneration takes place ! Oil level is good but smoke is unbearable!
Now P0237 problem have been , when my car starts regen and smokes then check enigine lights on and the proccedure stops! code is low circuit turbocharger (P0237) We have changed turbo pressure sensor, but nothing, still the same problem! i want to mention that we have also changed diffferential pressure sensor, but nothing!
My mechanic still searching, and suggests to remove dpf! i dont know what to do. I drive mostly in town, but everyday i do at least 20 km in motorway.
I don;t know what to do anymore with smokes!