General Calling all start 'n' stop owners!

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General Calling all start 'n' stop owners!

Do you experience this issue?


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I posted in December 2012 re the stop start problem with my Chrysler Ypsilon, the problem was never fixed either by Platts of Longton or technicians from Chrysler. Then the car started dropping out of gear in February of this year and only after an Allianz technician came to look at the car did they believe the car had a problem. Luckily I had just paid half of the HP agreement so I voluntary terminated the finance agreement.
 
to be fair most batteries simply don't work that well with short journeys....

Now that I have a car with S/S (a 62 plate Punto 1.4 Easy), I feel like I can actually contribute to this thread!:)

Have had the car for six weeks now and on the whole S/S has worked fine as expected. However, it hasn't worked at all on three or four separate occasions now before kicking into life again a few days later. This does seem to tally with several days of very short journeys followed by slightly longer ones.

I am under no illusions that this is probably what will happen with the car as it does get used for quite a lot of short journeys, and this will probably just get worse as winter comes. But as long as the car starts up every morning I don't care!:D

The car battery was charged properly by the dealership before I bought it (in fact I had a really good chat to them about it and how things have become harder for them in some respects as modern cars are so utterly reliant on a quality battery, and yet some customers refuse to accept that certain issues are because they have all the electrical items on and do about 50 miles a week:eek:). But it only did about 1500 miles in the 12 months before I bought the car, so it's quite possible the battery may have suffered some damage. Who knows.

Anyway, I will probably invest in a ctek charger in the next couple of months as I think that will help, especially as I know a lot of our journeys will be sub 10 miles now that we have moved house.

But other than that, it seems like quite a good system.
 
can I ask a question (this thread is way too long to read all the way through, so sorry if already answered...)

My SS on the new car is now working after initially not (due to battery getting charged no doubt)... but often, whilst sat with it off... it restarts the engine again all by itself.

Is that normal too / why?
 
can I ask a question (this thread is way too long to read all the way through, so sorry if already answered...)

My SS on the new car is now working after initially not (due to battery getting charged no doubt)... but often, whilst sat with it off... it restarts the engine again all by itself.

Is that normal too / why?

It's designed to restart if left idle for 3 minutes. If it's starting sooner, say after 30 secs then most likely it's not happy with your battery. Not sure what year your car is but it would be worth checking with a dealer if you have latest SS software installed. I would suspect the battery though, you could try a full charge with a smart charger such as a CTEK.
 
When you charge the battery in position do you have to disconnect the neutral and are there any consequences of disconnecting ? Like key-codes.

I'm about to install a new battery and wondered about that.
 
can I ask a question (this thread is way too long to read all the way through, so sorry if already answered...)

My SS on the new car is now working after initially not (due to battery getting charged no doubt)... but often, whilst sat with it off... it restarts the engine again all by itself.

Is that normal too / why?

It depends on how soon it restarts. It's designed to restart after 3 minutes off in any case, but it may restart sooner under certain circumstances such as a heavy load on the battery or A/C compressor engaging. It will sometimes restart sooner the first time after starting cold as well - all normal.

If it regularly restarts after shorter periods it may be that the battery is unable to hold a sufficient charge and voltage is dropping rapidly after the S/S stops the engine. This is what happened to mine, it was restarting within seconds eventually! Regular recharging might keep it up to scratch but ultimately the solution is a new battery.

My car was new but had been built some ten months before I took delivery and must have been in storage, unused and uncharged, for long enough to terminally (sorry;)) affect the battery.
 
can I ask a question (this thread is way too long to read all the way through, so sorry if already answered...)

My SS on the new car is now working after initially not (due to battery getting charged no doubt)... but often, whilst sat with it off... it restarts the engine again all by itself.

Is that normal too / why?
how long does car stay closed before it turns itself on again? should be around 60 seconds under normal circumstances (assuming ac isnt on of course and engine warm.)

if less than that maybe battery not strong.
 
Well after almost 30 months of non-existent S/S. I splashed out and bought a charger from Lidl last week. Charged the battery overnight and the S/S has worked flawlessly for past 10 days or so. Touch wood.
if u are under warranty you should let fiat deal with these things.
 
It depends on how soon it restarts. It's designed to restart after 3 minutes off in any case, but it may restart sooner under certain circumstances such as a heavy load on the battery or A/C compressor engaging. It will sometimes restart sooner the first time after starting cold as well - all normal.

If it regularly restarts after shorter periods it may be that the battery is unable to hold a sufficient charge and voltage is dropping rapidly after the S/S stops the engine. This is what happened to mine, it was restarting within seconds eventually! Regular recharging might keep it up to scratch but ultimately the solution is a new battery.

My car was new but had been built some ten months before I took delivery and must have been in storage, unused and uncharged, for long enough to terminally (sorry;)) affect the battery.
did you get fiat to fit a new battery?
 
did you get fiat to fit a new battery?

Yes. Thanks to the information I got from the discussions here I was able to make them realise I knew what I was talking about so they couldn't palm me off with the usual excuses (you know; "short trips", "A/C on", "too many accessories connected"...).

According to the report the battery failed their first test, was recharged and retested but failed to hold the charge again - they replaced it without further ado. S/S has worked flawlessly ever since.
 
Yes. Thanks to the information I got from the discussions here I was able to make them realise I knew what I was talking about so they couldn't palm me off with the usual excuses (you know; "short trips", "A/C on", "too many accessories connected"...).

According to the report the battery failed their first test, was recharged and retested but failed to hold the charge again - they replaced it without further ado. S/S has worked flawlessly ever since.
Excellent! I am on battery number 3. The 3rd one is the first one i paid for and i got it from Bosch with a higher capacity than stock so lets see how long this one lasts. I am 1 year into its 2 year warranty.
 
Excellent! I am on battery number 3.

How old is this car please ? I tried for a new battery even before I was aware of the SS failings and was fobbed-off with a likely excuse.

As an aside, there is a habit amongst some to keep the annual milage down on a vehicle, I'm not sure if this is down to traders wanting low-milage vehicles for PX. I have a very low milage vehicle that has suffered from being forced into low milage, the batteries didn't suffer because it was always on charge but other things fell to bits through corrosion and under-use. In the case of shopping-basket type cars the battery gets a right hammering but the assumption is, "Low milage".

My ride-on mower has low milage, the battery which is holding 12.7 after two weeks use is 7 years old though kept on charge through winter and regularly connected to a charger for a week.

A comment from a forum member in the past suggested that our new car batteries had probably suffered terminal damage in storage before we bought the car.
 
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if u are under warranty you should let fiat deal with these things.

I almost pissed myself laughing at your post. Are you serious? That bunch of comedians could not be trusted to fix a blown fuse.
Edit. Sorry Ahmett, I sounded a bit rude there, not intended. Just the amount of **** I have had to deal with due to incompetent Fiat dealer, I tend to stay well away and fix it myself, if possible.
 
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When you charge the battery in position do you have to disconnect the neutral and are there any consequences of disconnecting ? Like key-codes.

I'm about to install a new battery and wondered about that.

My battery was totally disconnected from both positive and negative terminals for over 12 hours. Everything was okay when reconnected, just had to set the date and time. Radio stations were still stored in memory.
 
How old is this car please ? I tried for a new battery even before I was aware of the SS failings and was fobbed-off with a likely excuse.

As an aside, there is a habit amongst some to keep the annual milage down on a vehicle, I'm not sure if this is down to traders wanting low-milage vehicles for PX. I have a very low milage vehicle that has suffered from being forced into low milage, the batteries didn't suffer because it was always on charge but other things fell to bits through corrosion and under-use. In the case of shopping-basket type cars the battery gets a right hammering but the assumption is, "Low milage".

My ride-on mower has low milage, the battery which is holding 12.7 after two weeks use is 7 years old though kept on charge through winter and regularly connected to a charger for a week.

A comment from a forum member in the past suggested that our new car batteries had probably suffered terminal damage in storage before we bought the car.
Hi. I do not have start and stop but i believe Fiat as a rule fit batteries not fit for purpose as in they are too weak to cope with all the electronic stuff (charging iphones, lights on etc). My 1st battery died after 1.5 years of use. It completely died and refused to charge. When we quick charged it it would lose all its charge even after a long drive and not start again. So got that replaced under warranty, but then around 1.5 years later the same thing happened. Fiat replaced it with a rubbish battery for sure, the stock specs. So after that and out of warranty, I bought a Bosch 54 ah battery (Fiat stock 42 ah for non SS 500). Since then all is well. Last service Bosch did a battery condition test and all was well.

Mind you both batteries had died without any previous warning whatsoever.
 
I almost pissed myself laughing at your post. Are you serious? That bunch of comedians could not be trusted to fix a blown fuse.
Edit. Sorry Ahmett, I sounded a bit rude there, not intended. Just the amount of **** I have had to deal with due to incompetent Fiat dealer, I tend to stay well away and fix it myself, if possible.
not being rude i agree with you completely! they have never managed to fix my dualogic issue so i just live with it. Now they want 30 euros for diagnostics then to 'see if they will fix it', but ive given up wasting my time after at least 10 dealer visits.
 
It can be anything from as little as 20 seconds but that is more rare, I would say 1 minute is the average. Personally I feel the battery is probably low being brand new car; we have a long motorway run tomorrow so i will see how it performs after that. Otherwise a trip to the dealer is called for to get them to fully charge / replace the battery with a new one.
 
It can be anything from as little as 20 seconds but that is more rare, I would say 1 minute is the average. Personally I feel the battery is probably low being brand new car; we have a long motorway run tomorrow so i will see how it performs after that. Otherwise a trip to the dealer is called for to get them to fully charge / replace the battery with a new one.

Hi. In case you didn't read it in an earlier post I did, our own car, a TA, had a similar problem. The S/S would operate but would cut back in and start the engine again after 19 seconds. We put up with it until the car had its first service in September. The dealer had to keep our car overnight as initially they couldn't determine what the fault was with the S/S and then they discovered it was a faulty heater flap motor linked to the climate control that was causing the S/S to function incorrectly. Once they had replaced the offending part, S/S has worked flawlessly ever since. Nothing at all wrong with the battery. I'm not saying this is the problem with your own car, but might be worth mentioning to the dealer next time you are in.
 
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