Technical BIG Electrical Fault

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Technical BIG Electrical Fault

Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
108
Points
26
Location
Denton, Manchester
Hi all,

Bit of an interesting one for you, went to start my GP before, and the engine warning light (the orange one, think that's what it's called) lit up for a few seconds, and then the car seemed normal at first glance, I started the engine fine, and drove away as normal. It was only when I glanced back down at the dash and noticed that even though the car was moving, the speedo and rev counter were both at 0, and I also had the following:

  • Airbag warning light lit
  • Power steering warning light lit
  • Brake system warning light lit (even though handbrake was off)
  • ABS warning light lit
  • Fuel gauge warning light flashing constantly
  • Temp and fuel gauge both at 0
  • Speedo and rev counter fixed at 0
  • Stereo display read "CANCHECK"
Spoke to my dealer (albeit at 6.30 when the service team had gone home) and the salesman (I assume) advised me to turn the engine off, lock and unlock doors and then try again. The problem persisted so I took matters into my own hands and disconnected the battery, waited 5 mins, and then re-connected it again. Lo and behold, everything worked normally! Drove around all night quite happily with no issues at all.

No idea what caused it, what it means or anything like that, so was just wondering if anybody on here happened to know what it could be a symptom of? My car is already booked in for 11th May so will ask them to check it then, but until the time comes I'm quite curious.

Cheers

B
 
every electrical fault Ive had, including the car cutting out a few times were solved when I checked the positive battery terminal, it wasnt completly on the battery terminal and the nut was very loose so I had to tap it down with a hammer and tighten the nut up

dont think its the problem in this case but it might be worth a look
 
Well the battery terminals should be on good and proper now because I took them both off and put them back on again and made sure they were fastened tightly. Spoke to Fiat this morning and mentioned to them that I turned the key to start it and didn't hold it there quite long enough so the car didnt start, and it was after that the problem occured. So the technician said that the ECU probably detected that as a low battery voltage and cut off many of the circuits to keep the battery running to get me home (luckily I was at home anyway). Either way they are going to run it on the diag machine when it goes in and check it out just to be sure that it isn't a major problem, but they told me it's nothing to worry about for the time being.

B
 
it might come back. i think it would be a nice move to update the computers software.
 
Mine did this. It was caused by low voltage in the battery which was caused by my car having a dodgy alternator. Replaced this and battery and its been find since.

you were lucky it did it before you had chance to drive, everything died on me doing 80 down a dual carrigeway lol
 
You haven't got Blue&Me have you? As with all products bearing the Microsoft logo, if you have a problem it often helps to turn it off and on again ;)
 
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