Hi Everyone...

This topic might of been exhausted over the years, but i am a newcomer so bear with me.

I bought a 2004 Fiat Punto 1.8 HGT, as my very first car with only 34000km on the clock.
No mechanical problems, but only the warning lights (ESP, HILL HOLDER AND ABS failure) that was constantly. The local and only Fiat dealer was talking about a wiring loom, or new ECU or the whole ABS module!

Further research on the internet said maybe a faulty brake light switch, but i checked and it seems fine. I looked for poor or dirty contacts, nothing. Although, i did notice an air con pipe was damaged so the gas must of leaked out.

Can anyone give advice on how to solve this electrical problems? It's more frustrating than anything else seeing those messages displayed!

How goods the battery? if it's on the way out
then you will get lots of messages.

John

I will test it tomorrow, but it only is 2 years old, which might be ok to some.
Can i remove it completely and test, without complicating anything?

MUCH APPRECIATED

Use a multi meter to check the voltage with
it still connected to the car.

http://www.checkthatcar.com/carfaq4.asp

Also check earths and the condition of the
earthing cables. There may also be multi
plugs that may need a clean too.

It's the cheapest option before having
expensive work done by a garge. Has the
garage done a diagnostic on it to see if
any of the sensors are duff. If so ask them for
the error codes and post them here.

John

The car is a 2004 with less than 40,000 miles but unless its been changed the cam belt is well past its 4 years use by date. They will fail when too old or too many miles.

Seriously, you should change that cam belt before it starts to lose teeth and takes out your engine. Unfortunately there is now warning system and the parts alone costs a fortune. If you are lucky it's just bent valves but blown cam belts can wreck the engine.

Get the Fiat garage to run it through there diagnostics machine, rather than guessing the fault.

My money is on the abs sensors or brake light switch.

When my car went on the FWD rolling road to get remapped the back wheels were obviously locked and didn't move while the front's were going full whack. This generated exactly the same fault your experiencing. It then cleared up once I drove it (and it detected the back wheels again).

It sounds like a wheel sensor has packed up for all three to report failure. But, as advised, get Fiat to read it. Randomly replacing parts that it might be can work out expensive.

Certainly can

Have you seen what S4P charge for rear wheel bearings? The ABS sensor is integral and its magnetic so the bearings cant be simply changed out.

I managed to get a new genuine Fiat hub from eBay for under £30 incl p&p.

I removed both the front ABS sensors and looked inside the mounting holes. I could see no magnetic ring (toothed) inside, on both sides. Even when rotating the wheels, you cannot see anything on the hub where the ABS can pickup the signal, it is just smooth.

Can anyone comment on this?......the local dealer seems to know less about the car then me!

Ahh, sorry, I'm in the wrong here. The mk1 uses ferromagnetic teeth for the ABS hall sensor to pick up. Looking more closely at mk2 ABS hubs, the ring is purely magnetic, so no teeth.

Ah damn!....I thought this could've been it....as i checked up that most cars use the toothed magnetic ring..

Back to the drawing board!