Technical F32 keeps blowing

[Mastus]

Hi,

I happen to own a Stilo 1.2 (2002). Over the two months I have owned it, there has been numerous calamities (I am not trying to badmouth Fiat, all cars have faults):

- Front left wheel hub threads gone
- After the service, ABS sensor gone (takes weeks to have the part...)
- Back left wheel brake binding (is little better after greasing the slide pins but still binding)
- 24 hours of "Bulb failure front" -warning - after that the car decided that they are fine and no more warnings.

And now - no central locking or power windows. 20 Amp fuse F32 blown -> I only had 15 Amp fuses, so replaced it with a 15 Amp fuse and it worked for a day, until it blew again.

Thought that correct rating would help and changed it to 20 Amp fuse. Worked fine while testing, after the night still worked great on the way to work and when I left at work -> blew the fuse again.

Has anyone come across this kind of problem before? If so, where might the problem be?

I have some experience in general electronics, and I have the eLearn manual (usability and user interface of it is ridiculous, by the way... )

 

[Mastus]

Before somebody points out - I just checked the manual... F32 SHOULD be 15Amps.

But the "orginal" fuse was 20 Amps. Previous owner must've put it there.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

You don't say the mileage, but for a car that's 8years old and has possibly been neglected by the previous owner everything you've mentioned can be put down to age and wear and tear.

 

[Mastus]

You don't say the mileage, but for a car that's 8years old and has possibly been neglected by the previous owner everything you've mentioned can be put down to age and wear and tear.

108 thousand kilometers on the clock (~67t miles), so practically nothing. And 8 years old car isn't a old car in my opinion. And I can't see any gross neglections by the previous owner (besides fitting the wrong fuse) - the car has a full service history and so on.

I agree that the earlier things can be blamed on age and wear. But repeatedly blowing a fuse is not such a thing - that's a simple and plain fault. And as I stated, I'm not saying that Fiat is an unreliable car. These things happen.

Put if we could get back to the fault:
If I interpret the horrendous eLearn sorry-excuse-for-a-manual correctly, there are no relay connections to fuse F32 and all the fuse connections go via the door hinge plug?

Visually it seems to be in a good shape - no corrosion etc. Does the hinge plug have known problems to have internal shorts? If not - what might it be? Could it be the central locking motor or power window motor? Or would a wire insulation fault be more probable?

Btw. I'm sorry for my language, my english is a bit rusty.

 

[Deckchair5]

F32 runs a lot of systems. Door locking, courtesy lights,heated rear screen and heated mirrors and mirror adjustment motors and parking sensors. That will involve some work trying to eliminate which one is going to earth

 

[Mastus]

Progress report:

After a fuse or two I realized that the power windows and door mirror adjustments work just fine. Doesn't blow a fuse if they are operated.

When using the central lock (driver's side door with a key), it locks both doors, boot and the fuel flap just fine. But when i unlock the door - it blews a fuse. Every single time.

So I disconnected the door hinge connector (D30 I think) on the drivers side and the central locking works just fine on the passengers side door (and boot and fuel flap) and doesn't blow a fuse.

Then I reconnected the D30 and disconnected the drivers' side control panel from the door (connector M66A probably) and voilá - all locks work just fine. But the driver's side power window obviously doesn't.

So I dismantled the control panel and found that the male connector of the panel is soldered poorly into the circuit board. No cracked or cold solder joints, but mainly lack of solder.

I soldered the pins properly, and the car hasn't blown a fuse for a few days. Let's hope that those solder joints were the cause...

 

[Mastus]

Progress report:

After a fuse or two I realized that the power windows and door mirror adjustments work just fine. Doesn't blow a fuse if they are operated.

When using the central lock (driver's side door with a key), it locks both doors, boot and the fuel flap just fine. But when i unlock the door - it blews a fuse. Every single time.

So I disconnected the door hinge connector (D30 I think) on the drivers side and the central locking works just fine on the passengers side door (and boot and fuel flap) and doesn't blow a fuse.

Then I reconnected the D30 and disconnected the drivers' side control panel from the door (connector M66A probably) and voilá - all locks work just fine. But the driver's side power window obviously doesn't.

So I dismantled the control panel and found that the male connector of the panel is soldered poorly into the circuit board. No cracked or cold solder joints, but mainly lack of solder.

I soldered the pins properly, and the car hasn't blown a fuse for a few days. Let's hope that those solder joints were the cause...

Oh well...

Joy lasted for three weeks. Now fuse blows immediately if the control panel is connected. If I take the panel off, I can lock the doors but upon unlocking -> blows fuse F32.

Probably time to dismantle the door. Any known things to check? Maybe inside the control unit M66?

 

[Mastus]

Sorry,

I forgot to write the solution here...

- Remove the door card
- Inspect the door hinge plug and follow the wires...
- Inside the door is a metal plate and it has a hole in it where the wires go through
- There is NO extra insulation between the sharp metal edge and the loosely dangling wires which move about every time you slam the door

Metal edge had scraped the insulation off of two wires...

- Either replace or repair the wires
- For god sakes, put something (tape, glue some rubber etc.) around the hole in the metal plate that this doesn't happen again.


OT:
Left side rear brake caliper is now replaced - twice...

In the orginal one piston was moving good, slide pins were stuck. And kept on being stuck after 10-15 kilometers. Greased with caliper grease and they were working great, and stuck again after few km's... :bang:

Bought an used one (which was expensive for a used one), and brake still binding. Not that much, but still very very noticeably.

Bought a new brake caliper (which costed a fortune), but least it worked.

I've had almost 3 months of trouble-free driving.

Until I came home today. On the way home I started to hear all-too-familiar screeching from the back of the car...

Few kilometers later I parked the car in the driveway, and felt the left side tyres - both cool. Right side front tire - cool. Right side back tire - smelly and hot.

So now it's probably the right side rear brake caliper...

 

[Zenithtb]

Many thanks for the helpful update