Having had the 'loose connection' fault stop my Abarth in a couple of very dangerous positions (on a roundabout & overtaking a bus during rush hour), I thought I would let you know the ups and downs and cure.
Car would say that there was 'auto gearbox failure' in RED. Car would then stop in gear, even in 4th. Car would not start and would read 'loose connection, and 'engine diagnostics failure' in YELLOW. Half hour later car would start but yellow 'engine' light lit. Start and stop engine a few times and 'engine' light would go out. Fine for a week then died (overtaking bus!). Took car to Fiat (after getting light to go out). Found to be the RPM sensor and not a 'loose connection' after all. The part that tells the car there is a fault was at fault!!! £39 + labour.
Hope this is of help to anyone that gets the 'loose connection' error.

Glad you got it fixed but "loose connection" is a bad translation from Italian and it should be "Lost connection" ie open circuit and the car OBD was exactly right. Blame it on the translators

Just got my self some gremlins.


Started the car, and a few seconds later the Gas indicator started turning up and down, got ASR ESP errors, all this while at the same time strong clicking noises start coming from the place where we connect he obdII cable. Like a switch turning on and off.
Turned the car off a
nd on again, no problem.

Now I arrived home to connect the obd2 cable to see what gives, and a 1 minute later I got loose connection message.


weird...

crap

Loose connection is always there now. Car wont start.

Check battery and it's connections and the D4.


gr J

I'm having the battery charging disconnected from the car lets hope it works


It is weird that the starter didn't even activated to start de engine. I suppose that is normal ? the error prevents it from starting?


thanks

I think it has to do with voltage dropping below a certain point.

gr J

I left it charging all night! connected the battery back, and all is well! Runs like a dream again. Just drove to work and no problems!


I guess I need to buy a new battery. I think the one I have is from 2002! impressive.


thanks all

New battery and check out your charging circuit voltages otherwise the same is very likely to happen again

"My freezer isn't working well, I'll stick a block of ice in there, wow everything is fine again"
Next day....

I've just got my Stilo 1.9JTD back from the garage after they diagnosed a faulty cambelt sensor. Got a mile down the road and the same symptoms appeared - loose connection and then engine fault. Tried to get home and the car stopped all together - in the middle of traffic. 5 minutes later it started again.
Taking it back to the garage tomorrow to get them to re-investigate, but I'll suggest they check the battery connections before they start pulling it apart again.
Any other ideas would be helpful, thanks.