Technical 500c - driver information panel cycling through lots of warnings?

[Nurse Gladys]

500c, 2016 model with 28,000 miles, 1.4 petrol.

The car works and runs fine, no discernible loss of performance but has twice now started to show dashboard warning messages. It cycles through "ESR unavailable - Start/Stop unavailable - Hill Start unavailable - Check tyre pressure - Check engine". This is accompanied by the ESR light, an amber engine light and the Start/Stop light being illuminated.

My tiny brain links all of these together; they're all related to wheels rotating at different speeds, therefore there must be a (or more than one) sensor on each of the wheels measuring and comparing and if there's a noticeable difference it activates one or more of the safety functions on the car.

The car does very little, a gentle pootle for 6 miles a day, 4 or 5 days a week and then stands outside on the drive for the rest of the time.

When this fault happened before, about 8 - 10 weeks ago, it was taken for a polite thrash around the byways, and it seemed to cure the problem - is that a coincidence or did the exercise do the car good?

Thoughts welcome - thanks in advance.

Becca

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi and welcome Becca

Its possible its a low battery.. as Sensors 'starved of power' can flag faults


But my suspicion is another relatively common 500 failing..

Search 'maybelline' on here

Let us know if that sounds a likely candidate for your problem

Charlie

 

[MN500]

It sounds to me as though your battery is failing, not helped by reasonably short journeys in normal use. Perhaps on its original battery at 6yrs old. Your long run 8-10 weeks ago temporarily cured the issues by giving your battery a decent charge.

I would recommend replacement with a good quality stop start battery. They're not cheap but you hopefully will get another 6yrs peace of mind

 

[MN500]

We were replying simultaneously

 

[Nurse Gladys]

The battery makes sense, short runs but at increasingly colder and darker times can only exacerbate the problem. The guy next door runs a motor factors in the local town, perhaps he can check the battery condition.

Maybelline seems a little older that Bryn, perhaps the good folk at Fiat listened and made modifications. He's also a C, so a small boot rather than a hatch but I'll have a look in daylight at his grommets.

 

[Nurse Gladys]

Update -

Went to the car this morning, the only message was "Start/Stop unavailable - check engine", all other error codes had disappeared.

20 mile brisk run with only essential electrics on, getting it all nice and warm and lubricated, once again the issue disappears.

The harnesses running through the door apertures and boot seem to be fine, although there is an inner wrap inside the rubber bellows so it's impossible to be absolutely sure.

How does a stop/start battery differ from a normal one?

 

[varesecrazy]

Stop start batteries are a more modern construction.. to cope with higher electrical loads

Ive got an original 2012 battery on my twinair...S-S been dead for 5 years
.. so am shopping around before winter comes

Old style battery @£65

Efb s-s @£95

Mat style s-s @£130

Supposedly all work in a modern car

Cheapest wont enable s-s


EFB will do s-s but is a cheaper build so potentially 3 / 5 years life

Mat style is like the factory.. could last 8 / 10 years again

Tricky to call.. but if your current battery is over 2 years old....

Might be worth a try

 

[Nurse Gladys]

Battery tested, all seems fine, pumping slightly more amps than its rating suggests it should. I could stomach a new battery, that is a relatively easy fix.

The fault has returned, albeit in a different combination of the messages each time, however Start/Stop seems to be the common theme and seems ever present along with a random collection of other warnings.

If I manage to manually turn off the S/S system before moving off, this seems to rectify all faults for that particular journey. Can we isolate S/S permanently and run without it? albeit that is,
a) masking rather than solving the problem and
b) potentially harmful to the way the car runs??

'Maybe it's Maybelline' after all?

I predict a long battle 'looming'.....

p.s. - do we get extra points for double puns?

 

[varesecrazy]

Currently I am Starting to doubt that


Bateery terminals should have little boxes on the cable clamps... these are the battery monitors the s-s uses to decide when Switch off is 'safe'.. and when Re.start needs to occur

Have you tried powering down the car..?

Diconnecting the black cable clamp for 30+ minutes should reset things ( but error codes may remain stored)

 

[John202020]

6 yearly old engine earth strap?

 

[Nurse Gladys]

UPDATE.

So we appeared to have had two faults, both of which were intermittent and broadly similar insomuch that they were affecting the fuel/air ratio.

1 - there was a leak in the manifold that was causing the car to go into limp mode, there was no response on the throttle pedal, this usually happened whilst waiting at lights, roundabouts etc. The immediate cure was to switch off and on again, it did not solve the issue permanently. The garage recommended it was the intake solenoid valve and so this was changed and the limp mode has not occurred again.
2 - the MAV/MAP sensor was fouled with oil, possibly as a result of short runs to and from work. This was changed and as ever the problem would disappear for a while, but then the same old cycling of "ESR unavailable - Start/Stop unavailable - Hill Start unavailable - Check tyre pressure - Check engine" would come back. My understanding from the technicians was that the oil on this sensor would confuse the car's brain and cause it to behave erratically. We dropped a pint of oil out of the car to relieve some of the oil pressure in the engine and the problem appears to have been solved - I'm not quite sure how, (perhaps someone with a little bit more tech knowledge than me can make sense of it but perhaps overfilling with oil causes excess pressure and the only escape for this extra oil is to be induced into the combustion process until it the excess is burnet off and reached a level that it's happy with??)

Touch wood, it's been good for a couple of months, it gets a couple of runs a week to work in lower gears to help it along and get's a buzz round the lanes when I can get my hands on the keys.

https://www.fiatforum.com/threads/newbie-with-many-years-exp-p0101-p0106.462467/ - There appears to be a similar scenario here

We'll have to wait and see if it a permanent cure.

 

[varesecrazy]

Thanks for the update


Oil level...

Have you gone from Max to Min on the dipstick..or more extreme..??

 

[Nurse Gladys]

So the problem reoccurred, legacy of short runs (less than 3 miles) we think. Quick clean of the MAV/MAP sensor and it's cured it.
- we need to more diligent with using the car, we've had illnesses and bereavements so things have got pushed to the bottom of the queue and the car's usage suffered as a result. It seems to just need a run round the lanes once a fortnight.
- service next week, I'll remind them not to fill the oil too much.

 

[Nurse Gladys]

Thanks for the update


Oil level...

Have you gone from Max to Min on the dipstick..or more extreme..??

Sorry - I'd missed this reply and question.

I didn't go lower than minimum, probably halfway between the Max and Min marks.