500 (Classic) Starting problems FIAT 500f

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500 (Classic) Starting problems FIAT 500f

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Jan 6, 2017
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Hello all

I have a fully refurbished fiat500f and i have been trying to start it last couple of days to no avail

The issue i have is that when clicking the engine cylinder lock right to ON i get no lights on the instrument panel and i also cannot turn on the lights of the car or blinkers. I can run the starter but obvisouly the generator does not produce spark to fire the engine up- the car was running excellent till now and it s giving me this issue now- the battery is charged fully i also get light on my rear view mirro map light so the batter cannot be an issue
Could it be a fuse that is blown that is not allowign power to go to generator to fire up the engine (symptom being the intstrument panel lights and all blinkers and lights are also dead on the ON position)- could it be the engine cylinder itself? please can you help as i am a newbie and do not want to break anything that is unecessary to touch
 
For sure you need to start by checking all the fuses. But when many circuits go off at once it's often an earth connection, so check the condition of any earth connections at both ends of the car.
 
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Hello Cinque 500 thank you for your reply

I have checked all fuses adn they are all in good condition
I have noticed today the following however which leads me to believe a problem with the ignition switch
Firstly to go from OFF to mid position is oK but then to go to the ON position is almost impossible- by luck i brought it to ON position two times after i did a check taking out the fuse for wiper motor and seeing the lights come on (Weird) - straight after putting the fuse back on it let me turn it to the oN position (2x times) - i charged the battery up and then tried firing up- i saw the GEN light was on and the Oil light went on adn then OFF (gen light was still on) and tried firing up to no avail however
Left it afterwards and went ahead and ordered a new switch
Frist time i could even get flashers to work then i never got them to work agian- wipers do not work either- i only have light on the OFF position and then in mid position only if i push the key in and its intermittent
I suspect the switch is done however sceptical on whether just changing the switch alone will fire right up? this is because on the 2 successful tries to turn to ON position and getting Gen light and oil light it just would not fire- do you think it is just the switch or should i check anything else too? it is driving me a bit mad at the moment
 
If you know what to connect you can by pass the switch to see if everything is working properly untill the new switch reach you but if you are not sure better wait. Are you sure the blockage of the switch has nothing to do with locked steering column position?

Thomas
 
Hello gordinir8- i am not sure how to bypass it although it may be good to try however as 2 times i managed to put it to on with gen light and oil light all on it still did not want to fire so i am worried it may not even be the switch however as the switch is playing up its best to change anyway- my wheel never has locked so not sure if it is an option on the 500F? was it meant to be locking?
 
Mine is an F and can lock the column. You can also try measure the coil if it gets 12v when switch is on, my guess is no, if you have a multimeter or a test lamp give it a try, I guess switch must be dead.
 
On the F if you look at the fuse box there is a fuse marked 30 and it has two thicker red wires coming to one side of it. One of those wires is the feed from the voltage regulator terminal 30. The other wire on terminal 30 of the VR comes from the starter motor + terminal. Which in turn has the thicker battery + lead coming direct from the battery on the same terminal.

This explains why you can turn the engine over, as it is direct from the battery and unfused. Back to the fuse box the other thick red wire on terminal 30 goes up to the ignition switch. So your supply for the ignition is unfused as well, so it is almost certainly going to be a faulty ignition switch.

I don't want to ask you to do something you are not comfortable with but you can bypass the ignition switch to test it but you have to remember that thick red wire is continually at 12v and is unfused, so if you accidentally touch it on the chassis there will be sparks. Let me know if you want me to tell you how to test it?

I am not trying to be awkward. I just don't know your proficiency around these sort of things and want to know if you feel happy enough to give it ago. It's my disclaimer in a way!

Tony
 
Tony if you don't mind tell us how we can by pass the switch in case someone has a problem with it is a good info, it can save you from trouble.

Thomas
 
Hi Thomas I started to write out the reply but it suddenly occurred to me it probably wasn't a good idea to say on an open forum how to effectively hot wire a 500, seeing they are not the most secure car to get into.

I can PM you the info but probably not a good idea to broadcast it. I wouldn't want anyone's pride and joy getting stolen.:mad:
 
Hi Bitesse tha k you for your response. I hope too that it is the switch that is faulty but woukd be good if you could to pm instruction on bypassing the switch if youre ok with it. In addition to that i dont know how to explain that at least the two times that i managed to turn the switch to the on position with gen and oil kight on it did not fire. I can only hope that the switch is playing up which coukd explain why i coukd not get the flashers to work or the wipers but the lights could. Not sure as flashers worked first time but then not. Anyway i hope it is only the switch and nothing else. Thomas i ll test with the voktmeter the coil too. To be clear i take off the low tension cable from the coil and with ignition on i touch the red voltmeter cable on the uncanled part of coil and then the black i earth ona bolt i find on chassis? It should read 12v with ignition on if it is all good and now issuews with low tension circuit?
 
I guess my main concern is how whether if the switch is bad those 2 attempts that turned on the gen light could it be that not the right levelvoltage fed through to coild to spark it properly.. I am hoping yes but is there something esle that may have gone bad...it was working perfectly not too long ago
 
Yeap it is in the centre of the dashboard...easy to turn key from off to mid position...more difficukt to turn from mid to off...apart from the two lucky times to turn from mid to on almost impossible to turn to on from mid position..i m trying ot thi k if when i was lucky to have turned it to on i moved the wheel any although the wheel nver locks on mine..
In mid position i have to play the key around for light light and lights to not switch off so it must be a not so great switch when in mid position i cannot turn flashers on or wipers...when i had it on on i could not turn wipers on or flashers apart from first time but i did get the gen light on all the time and then the oil light on but that switched off after a few seconds..engine cranked but no fire..wondering if i should try checking fuel or throw some fuel in the intake to see if that helps after i replace switc
 
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Ok just read your other posts. I think you are a little confused with the positions of the key possibly?

Straight up pointing at 12 o'clock is off and you can pull the key out. Turning it to the left to 11 o'clock, is a position that allows you to park the car up, switch on the lights and pull the key out, so parking lights. Turning it to the right to 1 o'clock is the position that switches on the power to the ignition circuit, so supplies the 12v to the coil and allows you to start the car and switches on the dash lights, indicators, horn etc... basically everything.

When parking up and switching off you should turn the key to the mid position and pull out the key, unless it is night and you want to leave the parking lights on.

The fact that you are having problems turning the key to the 1 o'clock position almost certainly indicates that the switch is faulty.
 
Ahh i see that makes a lot more sense now although horn works when at 11 and 12 o clock positions...lights works ok at 11 o clock position...mid position nothing works unless i push thhe key in a bit and then i can see lights on intermittently when switching them on but your explanation clarifies that...when i managed to put it to 1 o clcock i got gen light and oil light but could not work indicators or wipers..tried cranking and got no firing..i agree with you that ad i dont get all functionality and also no firing at 1 o clock position as well as diffculty in turning must be the switch almost certainly but since i did get gen light why woukd it not fire straight away as that woukd mean even for the coil alone it shoukd be getting voltage (even if wipers and indicators werent working) is is just normal behaviour of faulty switch altogether?
 
Thanks vitesse you re a top man the pdf is even more helpful...also note i can take key out even at 1 o clock position so switch has seen better days for sure it seems even more certainly now
 
In my experience 80% of all 500's have hidden switches as an antitheft device.
Are you sure yours does not have one? If it had one it could have been toggled by accident and the car would pretty much behave like this.
 
Hi Thomas I started to write out the reply but it suddenly occurred to me it probably wasn't a good idea to say on an open forum how to effectively hot wire a 500, seeing they are not the most secure car to get into.

I can PM you the info but probably not a good idea to broadcast it. I wouldn't want anyone's pride and joy getting stolen.:mad:

I guess you are probably right, better not say it, i am starting to thinking of putting a secret switch because those cars are easy to stole. I have an idea of using a headphone jack as a key. Maybe after finishing with the engine.
 
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