Our 2009 Fiat 500 1.4 sport duelogic kept cutting out after initial start up in the winter of 2012 (it was a cold one!) and then driving to the end of the road say 100 yds just as pulling away would cut out again. Always started back up but a bit of a pain. It also on initial start up sounded as though the starter was jumping out and back into mesh with the ring gear. On it's annual service the mechanic told us that Fiat was now fitting a larger AH battery than the 40 AH originally fitted as this was probably the problem. Although the car was in it's third year the battery warranty was only two years!! We left it and touch wood has been ok. Yesterday we came to start it after a trip out and it was totally dead. Jump started it but driving back we had all sorts of warning lights coming on would not pull, missfired, gears went to nuetral etc etc. Managed to struggle home and switched it off - totally dead.
Going to replace the battery but does anyone know what AH battery fiat are fitting on the 1.4 500's to alleviate this problem and has anyone else had this fault????

TBH as it's a 2009 model I would say the orig battery has prob well and truly had it by now, my 2010 needed a new battery fitting when I bought, the dealer had to put one in I might add!
If you do a lot of shorter journeys then it does knacker your battery, if you can get a higher rated battery that will fit I would replace it with one.

Griff, it's already had a new battery.

Loose connection on the battery or earth would be my guess.

Cheers for the reply, Charged the battery but is as flat as the preferbial pancake so going to replace it on Monday. All connections are ok.
Just got to make sure the new uprated battery will fit the tray etc etc.
Will let you know how I get on.

You need to check the earths..... Your new battery will go the same way. My battery is over 5 years old and still fine....

Hi, Replaced original 40ah battery with 52ah Bosch battery today.
All ok. Runs great.
Just got to get the engine light off now......
Managed to test the old original battery, totally dead, not a ounce of life in it. Hopefully end of saga.

306maxi said:

Griff, it's already had a new battery.

Loose connection on the battery or earth would be my guess.

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I can't see where in his first post that he says he has already replaced the battery, just that he is going to, which he now has as per his last post.

Sorry. Misread the post. Also Fiat are fitting bigger batteries nowadays due to start and stop, not due to them being too small

kes060760 said:

Hi, Replaced original 40ah battery with 52ah Bosch battery today.
All ok. Runs great.
Just got to get the engine light off now......
Managed to test the old original battery, totally dead, not a ounce of life in it. Hopefully end of saga.

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engine light SHOULD reset after a few good starts,

if not tell us where you are in the UK,
somebody should have the kit to read the code?s and clear them

worth checking the battery voltage with the engine running too,
multimeter across battery terminals

charlie - Oxford

UPDATE -
Hi, 500 1.4 sport all ok. Engine light went out after a few miles. Battery doing fine. Charging ok, all earths were ok anyway but re checked.

Fiat are fitting a larger capacity battery even on non stop/start models due to all the electronic equip and accessories on some models. We have climate control, air con, spots, electric steering, windows, heated screens, elec auto gearbox etc etc etc and the draw especially in winter is a little to much for the smaller 40ah battery hence causing the starter to jump out during start up and the cutting out probs we used to encounter on really cold mornings. All should be fine now.
All the best and thanks to all "replyers"

maxi give me a break the original 40 ah battery is nowhere near good enough for the car with all the electronic equipment. 52 ah is more like it. and if you think every person in the world is going to have a ctek battery charger in the garage because fiat sell rubbish batteries not fit for purpose, than you have another thing coming!

kes060760 said:

UPDATE -
Hi, 500 1.4 sport all ok. Engine light went out after a few miles. Battery doing fine. Charging ok, all earths were ok anyway but re checked.

Fiat are fitting a larger capacity battery even on non stop/start models due to all the electronic equip and accessories on some models. We have climate control, air con, spots, electric steering, windows, heated screens, elec auto gearbox etc etc etc and the draw especially in winter is a little to much for the smaller 40ah battery hence causing the starter to jump out during start up and the cutting out probs we used to encounter on really cold mornings. All should be fine now.
All the best and thanks to all "replyers"

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exactly same thing happened to me. my 40ah battery died twice so the third time I bought a 52ah bosch battery. never have had a problem since.

So Ahmett, why has my battery lasted over 5 years if it's not big enough?

My battery will be 6 years old on 1st September.......still going strong

Don't lie Heidi, the original 500 battery simply isn't big enough

My 62Ah died at ~16months. It now runs a 0.2Ah Supercap, that's about the same capacity as a 9V battery you'd find in a smoke alarm