Mercky said:

Well I got mine under warranty after 2 years but I had reported issues early on, it was more of a good will gesture tbh as I have a good relationship with them. If I was you I'd bite the bullet and just buy one but make sure it's fresh and designed for SS. It does make driving the car more enjoyable when it works correctly, also my mpg went up significantly partly due to less load on the alternator but also obviously with the engine cutting out more frequently and for longer. As a plus you can use the old battery in a non SS car as it will work just fine for years to come.

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The Pretender said:

Pulled the F90 fuse today, but it changed nothing.
Still no working start stop.

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WoollyPanda said:

Yes, it only worked for few days for me before refusing to switch off. I'm going to charge the battery overnight. If it then works then I know its the battery at fault.

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WoollyPanda said:

Yes, it only worked for few days for me before refusing to switch off. I'm going to charge the battery overnight. If it then works then I know its the battery at fault.

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Mercky said:

Note it takes a few miles for the SS System to relearn the battery after a charge if you disconnect, incidentally charging made no difference to mine

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WoollyPanda said:

Does the battery need to be disconnected to charge it? (It will be a trickle charger.) I know not to connect the charger directly to both the battery terminals, just the positive on the battery and an earth elsewhere but wasn't aware you had to disconnect it completely.

Thanks.

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R1NGA said:

You shouldn't need to and you can connect the charger directly to the battery in normal circumstances - it really shouldn't do any harm. But I'd recommend buying one of the modern 'intelligent' charges that trickle, boost, condition and all many of other things automatically. I have a brace of CTEK chargers for my cars and very good they are too. Similar to this;

http://www.ctek.com/gb/en/chargers

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WoollyPanda said:

I didn't get around to charging the battery but the SS started working all by itself today! I still intend to give it a charge when it decides to stop working again.
The reason I ask about how to charge the battery is that I was told by a dealer NOT to charge it directly on the terminals because the battery has a meter that can be damaged by charging it directly. I find this hard to belive if using a modern, "intelligent" charger as you described, which is the type I'll be using. Maybe if it were a heavy duty "boost" start or using jump-leads this might be true?

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WoollyPanda said:

The reason I ask about how to charge the battery is that I was told by a dealer NOT to charge it directly on the terminals because the battery has a meter that can be damaged by charging it directly. I find this hard to belive if using a modern, "intelligent" charger as you described, which is the type I'll be using.

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jrkitching said:

Believe it.

I was given a printed sheet of instructions and had to sign a declaration that I'd understood this specific point before being allowed to drive my new 500 out of the dealership. This was when S/S was first introduced as standard; apparently they'd had cases where customers had damaged the system by charging the battery across the terminals and Fiat had refused a warranty repair.

If you need to charge the battery in the car whilst it's still connected, you can do so safely by first attaching the positive lead to the positive battery terminal, and then attaching the negative lead to a secure earthing point on the chassis. Disconnect the leads in the reverse order.

This is good practice on any car, as it also mitigates any risk of a spark causing a battery explosion (it has happened).

The same rules apply to using jump leads, only more so due to the much heavier currents involved.

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Dunturin said:

The start stop on my TA Lounge has not been working for the last month or so and I was scratching my head as to a possible fix. Anyways I had a look in the handbook and noticed that there was a battery sensor fuse located inside the bonnet fusebox at position F90. So I pulled out the afore mentioned fuse to examine it only to see the fuse wire inside was still intact - bah!

However since putting the fuse back in - my start stop has started working again - quite bizarre! Anyway it might be worth you trying this fix if you have exhausted all other possibilities - good luck [emoji16]

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