Technical The triangle with ! is back!

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Technical The triangle with ! is back!

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Jul 7, 2011
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Barnsley, South Yorkshire
Hello

I've got a yellow triangle with an ! mark flickering away again! I had it before but after having a new wiring harness fitted for a preheat fault it went. Then a week later it came back but this time it was a blown bulb, after a new bulb, it went again. However its come back and all the lights seem to be working, although the only thing i haven't checked is the reverse lights.

Could there be an electrical problem somewere? A bad earth? Fuel cut off switch? but saying that I've not pressed it, is it worth pressing it and see if that does anything?

Any advice or suggestions would be welcome. The car is a JTD by the way.

Just to add, there are no fault messages or codes with the warning triangle.

Thanks

Phil
 
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Hello

Thanks for your reply.

I've just tried that and its still on. When I had the preheat fault, the triangle was solidly lit on startup then flickered and dimmed. Thats how it is now, is it possible one of the 4 connections may have come loose on the wiring harness (from heater module relay to each glow plug)?

Phil
 
I popped back to my local garage and asked them if its possible the new part could have come loose, but he says not really. They are a trusted, reputable garage, well its more of a car spares shop but with a little garage next to it! I'm on first name terms with the bloke!!!!

Anyway I'm popping back later during day light hours and he's going to have a look. Before I do though, does anybody have anymore ideas on what it could be? Its frustrating, its come back once since the part was fitted but that was because of a blown bulb. Is it possible theres a bad connection somewhere? I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but I've had an aftermark MP3/CD player fitted - coincidence? Would it be worth getting a multimeter on some connections? If all fails how about taking the bulb out? :D

Phil
 
Fiat reckon it could be because of the 'danger of ice' warning. However when I had that ice warning before it didn't come on. I really have no idea what this is and Fiat don't seem too sure either :confused:. I find it distracting to be honest because most of the time its there flickering and dimming, could it be a bad connection to the bulb? Would it be worth taking the bulb out?

This one has me stumped, and by the lack of replies, people on here too!!! :)

Phil
 
Flickering and dimming of the yellow triangle would suggest a phantom fault if it is not accompanied by any message on the dash. The speedo cluster is a 'dumb' unit, in that it Will only display what the body computer tells it to. The Milage as far as Im aware is the only thing stored in the clocks and it has to match what the body computer has stored (to help minimise clocking)

Im prepared to say that you may have wiring issues to the body ecu... But i Will say that from your description it sounds like a ground issue. It could be the actual speedo module itself which is uncommon but not unheard of. I think the next thing to do would be to hook up some kind of full diagnostics kit, be it FES, Fiat examiner or other to see if there is any stored codes (try to avoid the hand held scanners unles its a high end one one such as snap ons solaris as these can give false results)
 
Thanks for your reply.

So you reckon a ground issue, where do I look to check and how do I know if that is the problem?

Although I haven't seen this triangle before when I had the 'danger of ice' warning, is this warning triangle supposed to accompany this message?

Phil
 
im saying that, to me, it is typical of a ground issue, yes. it could be the body computer or clocks wiring that is at fault or it could be an internal error of either (faulty PCB). Deckchair5 is THE MAN when it comes to wiring so it might be worth having a word with him to see if he could give you some pointers of where to start looking. the last thing i want to do is send you down the wrong route as i think the body computer is a right bitch to get to

Catagorically the warning triangle should NOT come on with the ice warning. as far as i am aware it only comes on with the 'speed warning' but im sure it would come on with others (just not the ice warning)

hope ive been some sort of help with my blitherings
 
Well I may be getting near to a solution about this. I had the car put on a diagnostics machine at an auto electricians near me. He picked up 4 power steering codes and a cig lighter ground fault. Anyway he reset all the codes and told me to come back when the triangle came back and stayed on for about 30 mins........I was back the next day!!!! He put the car back onto the diagnostics and it came back up with the cig lighter fault and an EGR valve fault which also came up on another machine ages ago....no power steering faults second time round. So he reckons its the EGR valve. He wants the car back in to diagnose further to see if the actual valve needs replacing or theres a bad connection. With regards to the cig ligher, it could be a faulty lighter or a bad connection but he doesn't think that is the cause of this warning light. Fingers crossed :)

Phil
 
I had the problem investigated further today and 'richydraper', you were spot on! :) The bloke says it isn't the EGR valve but its either the instrument cluster or the body computer. He did say to fix the problem could be costly and a case of trial and error. What costs would I be looking at to get a new cluster and/or body computer? I probably won't be faffing changing them but just interested in knowing how much it could cost. It's got to come to a point where I'll have to stop chucking money at the car for things like this but obviously servicing costs etc will need keeping up! Anyway saying this it doesn't affect the car so I'll just have to live with it!

I also mentioned the power loss issue and he reckons thats not the EGR valve either. I mentioned about the maf and map sensors but he advised not to touch these if the car runs fine, so I'll leave it be! Its well over due a service though. He did mention water in the fuel filter could lead to power loss.

So thats that! I now know what that triangle is!

Phil
 
2 options

1) buy replacement clocks... altho all the clocks (apart from abarth) are the same they have different scaling on the dials so you would have to buy/transfer your dial faces over to the replacement unit. and you need to ensure that the unit has LOWER milage on than yours because when you do a proxi alignment with FES it will only adjust milage UP not down (to aviod 'clocking'). say for instance you get a set off a 1.2, 1.6, 1.8 and transfer your dial faces across, your rev and speedo needle will read incorrectly but when you do the proxi alignment the scaling for the JTD will be applied.

2) i dont know how much downtime you can afford to have, send clocks off to be repaired (usually 7-14 days turnaround) i keep posting this url but BBA Reman,they test the unit to determine if it is at fault, and if it is they will test and replace components with OE or better quality replacements. they offer a lifetime warranty on the component that was replaced and by the looks of it offer a 2-3 day turn round on instrument clusters, the stilo one isn't listed though. i know for a fact that if they haven't dealt with a particular 'ECU' then repair is free and you only have to cover postage! if they test and find the unit to be not at fault they charge you a lesser amount just for testing and if they replace anything they charge you for that. it has to be worth a ring!

as for the BC, same applies to that really but im 99% sure that the BCs are 'chassis specific' (due to security info and milage and stuff thats stored on it) so your only option is repair, BBA Reman deal with that too.
 
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Well this is interesting! The other week i suspected that my EGR valve had packed up and had it blanked off to test, and it was. However this triangle warning light has gone! Since the valve packed up or blanked off, the light has stopped flickering/dimmering. The diagnostics did bring up an EGR valve fault but the auto electrician was adament this wasn't the cause. But could it have been all along? It was blanked off saturday and its not come on since. Isn't it fun being a Stilo owner, never a dull moment! Phil
 
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