Alfa 147 Fault Brewing?

[gengis]

Hi guy's

Maybe getting a fault brewing on the wife's Alfa, couple of times over the weekend when starting from cold, it fails to start on the first attempt starting on the second or thrid. The alarm indication in the display reads - ABS system failure, ARS system failure, and I'm sure i've seen EDB? also.

When started, after a few yards the indication returns to normal. The only thing I can think of at this early stage is the high temperature over the weekend, (high temp inside car) and the brain has it's knickers in a twist? Or it's a genuine fault with the ABS system...but why clear after a few yards, and why inhibit the engine starting?

Any Ideas?

Confused!..gengis.

 

[muppet42]

Not sure how much of the electrical gubins the 147 shares with the Stilo, but I know the latter often has issues with it's earths that can throw up loads of issues. Not sure if that could be a problem in this case but could be worth checking out as a starting point, especially as the symptoms clear after a short while.

Beyond that, I'm not sure. Hamish who used to be on here a fair bit had a 147, so may have experience but haven't seen him about of late. Other than that, maybe the Alfa forums could send some specifics your way.

 

[M21MFS]

Not sure how much of the electrical gubins the 147 shares with the Stilo, but I know the latter often has issues with it's earths that can throw up loads of issues. Not sure if that could be a problem in this case but could be worth checking out as a starting point, especially as the symptoms clear after a short while.

Beyond that, I'm not sure. Hamish who used to be on here a fair bit had a 147, so may have experience but haven't seen him about of late. Other than that, maybe the Alfa forums could send some specifics your way.

Might be sore point asking him, but he is knowledgable. Hopefully he'll see this thread on the Facebook stream and have a read.

His is back in the garage ATM.

 

[gengis]

Quick update...general concensus is that it could be failing battery or battery connections.

My theory...is that when the battery is asked to start the engine, the nominal voltage level should not drop below..let's say 9.0v..so when it does drop below the threshold the ECU gets less than anticipated battery voltage, and activates the immobiliser and throws up spurious alarms. Extreme temperature would make problem worse for the battery.

I have since changed the battery, and cleaned the busbar/fuse arrangement that sits on top of the battery...Watch this space!

 

[muppet42]

Cool, sounds like the best place to start. Certainly changing my battery, at the time for a higher capacity one, really helped any electrical issues I had

 

[ABZSTILO]

Evening all - been lying for a bit when it comes to cars. Long story.

I suspect the replacement battery (hope you got the biggest one that would fit?) should cure the spurious fault codes that appear on the 147. In fact, most of the modern FIAT group cars are very sensitive to low voltage and can be a right bugger as all you get is beep beep bloody beep beep all the time.

Hateful.

Anyway, if they do come back post battery change see if you can get any error codes cleared down. Then disconnect the battery overnight and re-connect the following morning. All should be tickity boo by then.

If not, then there's almost certainly an issue which will require a dealer fix - sadly

H

 

[gengis]

Quick update...All's quite on the Alfa front.

Just seems to be in general, that battery technology is lagging behind all other engineering disciplines. Or is it that manufacturers are using cheaper electronic components, that aren't up to the job?

 

[ABZSTILO]

Pleased it's been cured.
All too often (IMHO) batteries are too small for the cars they've been fitted to.
OK, so one size might suit a car in the south of France but same battery will be under a lot of strain (for example) in the north of Scotland during much of the year. Now that means the alternator needs to be up to the job and.... yup.... most are relatively low on power output for the amount of electrical jiggery pokery that goes on in a car these days.
So I guess it may well be down to components 'built to a price' but more often - in my view - it's almost 'crisis engineering'.