Dear all,

I am a proud owner of a FIAT STILO 2006 1.4 Dynamic with 26.000 km in Greece.
Till now I have faced no problems, I am very satisfied (as all my previous FIATs) and I love it a lot!!
Recently a specific problem has come up:
It has happened 2-3 times when I drive to face sudden electric power cuts within the cabin of the car, where the lights of the RADIO/CD and the display for a second become off and on and various failure lights are activated. This may happen 5-6 times for 1 sec each time, where I do not understand any other issue with the engine. The dynamo was replace by the FIAT official garage but the problem appeared again. It doesn't have specific periodicity.
I have observed that it appears when I use to turn the key to ignition very quickly without waiting a few seconds for the initial check test. I do not know if this matters, but since I wait 4-5 seconds with the key inside but before turning it for ignition, it has not appeared again.
But I still worry on this.... Any ideas? Similar experience????

Thank you for your responses.

Regards

Harry

I would suspect a bad battery earth connection
It's probably why your alternatior was changed unnecessarily too

Do a voltage drop test
One lead on alternator casing and other on negative battery post
You want to see less than 0.2 volts

Thank you for your reply.

Do you believe that it may be also caused by a defective multiplier?
Because I try to connect the fact that it doesn't appear when I start the car, waiting a little in the initial check....
Concerning the earth connections, I have checked them on the battery and all look to be well fitted.... Do you think that I should add any extra earth connection?
I am confused.......... :-(
I do not have the equipment to perform a voltage drop test....

Deckchair5 said:

I would suspect a bad battery earth connection
It's probably why your alternatior was changed unnecessarily too

Do a voltage drop test
One lead on alternator casing and other on negative battery post
You want to see less than 0.2 volts

Click to expand...

A multimeter should cost around 10 euros. Buy yourself a present. You'll be glad you did

OK... and how exactly do I perform the voltage drop test?? Please provide more info... Thanks for your support

Deckchair5 said:

A multimeter should cost around 10 euros. Buy yourself a present. You'll be glad you did

Click to expand...

WHAT TO DO
There should be hardly any voltage drop between these components. A large drop shows a poor connection

Engine running- load on - so select heated rear screen

Multimeter on volts
Be careful not to get leads tangled around rotating parts!

1 Touch one end on alternator output wire and other on + battery post

2 Touch one end on alternator casing and the other on - battery post

In both cases you're looking for less than say 0.2volts as they should be direct connections with hardly any resistance __________________

OK Done.... Everything looks normal..... so what else may be........ :-(

What were the results of each test?

Why was the alternator changed previously?

the lights of the RADIO/CD and the display for a second become off and on and various failure lights are activated

Which "failure lights" are activated ?

The better your description the better the answer

Thanks for your support....

The alternator was initially changed by the official FIAT garage because they said that it provided more current than the necessary one, so this was the problem. But the problem appeared again... :-( I visited an electrician and check it with a polymeter and everything was OK for him. He told me that if it didn't happen during the measurements, he is not able to understand if it is an electric or electronic problem...

Let me describe to you exactly what happens: When you are either on the move or stopped somewhere, it suddenly happens an electric voltage drop. In case that you have the light on in the cabin, you see it to be dimmed. This lasts for 1 or 2-3 seconds. Usually the ABS failure light is the first that is activated. In case that the voltage drop is higher, then the ASR message also appears and in more severe case also the airbag message appears. All of them are disappeared when the current returns to its normal level. Also during the voltage drop, the RADIO/CD switched off and on respectively.... and the info screen in front of the driver position is also dimmed. The steer wheeling system seems to work fine... no more problems.

The periodicity of this phenomenon is not very often... and during the last weeks that I have applied this trick to wait for the initial check to be passed, it has not appeared again... But I am sure that if I start to turn the key at once it will appear immediately.... :-( I want to fix it!!! grrrrrrr

Now you've got yourself a nice new multimeter you may well find a whole load of useful checks to make if you read this thread.

https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-technical/141712-stilo-abarth-earth-lead.html

Personally, I strongly advocate waiting for CHECKs to complete (put seat belt on whilst it's checking) but I fail to see how not doing so would cause the problems you mention (but sometimes it's easier not to go looking for a problem )

Argonought said:

Now you've got yourself a nice new multimeter you may well find a whole load of useful checks to make if you read this thread.

https://www.fiatforum.com/stilo-technical/141712-stilo-abarth-earth-lead.html

Personally, I strongly advocate waiting for CHECKs to complete (put seat belt on whilst it's checking) but I fail to see how not doing so would cause the problems you mention (but sometimes it's easier not to go looking for a problem )

Click to expand...

Argo. Silly question, do you get the "Check OK" message before you start the car or after you start the car? I always get it after I start the car, no matter how long I wait...

Greggers said:

Argo. Silly question, do you get the "Check OK" message before you start the car or after you start the car? I always get it after I start the car, no matter how long I wait...

Click to expand...

That's right - I just mean wait until it doesn't say checking anymore. You can't fit your seat belt any faster so it's always ready to start once you're belted up

In my case that means I get to see the oil level display and then I start although at the moment it likes to tell me I've got a duff heater plug by the time I'm 50 yards down the road

I've managed to fit an intermittent heater plug if you've ever heard of anything so stupid

When you are either on the move or stopped somewhere, it suddenly happens an electric voltage drop. In case that you have the light on in the cabin, you see it to be dimmed. This lasts for 1 or 2-3 seconds. Usually the[FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,&quot] [FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,&quot]ABS[/FONT][/FONT] failure light is the first that is activated. In case that the voltage drop is higher, then the ASR message also appears and in more severe case also the https://www.fiatforum.com/#message appears. All of them are disappeared when the current returns to its normal level. Also during the voltage drop, the RADIO/CD switched off and on respectively.... and the info screen in front of the driver position is also dimmed

To have a voltage drop when the battery AND the alternator are producing power means battery earth connection problem as in my post no.2. All those warnings are the result of a sudden drop in voltage. If it was possible to keep checking the voltage drop when the problem happened you'd see a sudden rise in voltage. As that's not really possible to do without a constant monitor then you need to hunt for a bad earth connection, most likely battery to car engine earth cable

Again thank you a lot for your support... Please can you tell me how to check if it is ok the battery to car engine earth cable?? Where is it located?

Deckchair5 said:

When you are either on the move or stopped somewhere, it suddenly happens an electric voltage drop. In case that you have the light on in the cabin, you see it to be dimmed. This lasts for 1 or 2-3 seconds. Usually the[FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,&quot] [FONT=verdana,geneva,lucida,&quot]ABS[/FONT][/FONT] failure light is the first that is activated. In case that the voltage drop is higher, then the ASR message also appears and in more severe case also the message appears. All of them are disappeared when the current returns to its normal level. Also during the voltage drop, the RADIO/CD switched off and on respectively.... and the info screen in front of the driver position is also dimmed

To have a voltage drop when the battery AND the alternator are producing power means battery earth connection problem as in my post no.2. All those warnings are the result of a sudden drop in voltage. If it was possible to keep checking the voltage drop when the problem happened you'd see a sudden rise in voltage. As that's not really possible to do without a constant monitor then you need to hunt for a bad earth connection, most likely battery to car engine earth cable

Click to expand...

The battery negative is connected directly to the engine and the car body. This is what we call "earth". A poor connection anywhere here will cause resistance and the wrong voltages to occur at components. A poor connection doesn't mean that it's not tight but that there is a poor electrical contact that will often need disconnecting the connector and cleaning

The voltage drop test is a quick electrical way of testing for resistance or poor contact

Many thanks.... Since I have the feeling that you are experienced... how is the easiest way to gain access there (I mean to C2 and C3)?

... and something else... during the cleaning do I need to take any special precautions to the battery???? Many thanks in anticipation...

If you're not confident with doing these basic tasks yourself then i would contact an auto electrician to do the work for you. They're not too difficult but things can go expensively wrong if you don't take basic precautions when dealing with battery voltages