intermittent electric fault

[Dahoon]

I have a strange intermittent fault in my '96 Fiat Brava ELX 1,8. I really hope someone here can help me find the cause because it is driving me crazy trying to fix it!


The symptoms are:
* Electric windows suddenly doesn't work (no voltage to them in the door switches)

* The ABS light in the dashboard is lit

* The green "external lights" in the dashboard turns on


The symptoms happens one or two at a time. Almost never all 3 at the same time though it happens.

What i have looked at:
Earth connections (main and left dashboard), fuses, wires. All seems to be okay.

Driving over bumps in the road sometimes fixes it (or causes it to happen). It does happen even when the car is standing still too though.

ANY ideas at all? :-|

 

[Will]

It's Italian! Welcome to the world of spaghetti electrics

 

[Anonymous]

symptoms says something loose somewhere. best of luck

 

[Dahoon]

Yes it does seem some spaghetti is loose somewhere

But where does those three things connect except at the earth connection??

 

[Sven]

Check the connector on the back side of the fuse box, earth for the dash, clock connectors, door connectors.

Members Site ---------My Site

 

[Dahoon]

Earth is looking fine. What do you mean by clock connector?

I'll have a look on the back of the fusebox.

 

[Dahoon]

Whatever is causing the ABS light to lit up must be somewhere around the dash and not in the door right? I seem to remember the external light in the dash, ABS light and electric window control have something in common but i can't remember precisely what it is!

 

[Dahoon]

Anyone?

I would really like to get ABS working again...

 

[Hellraiser]

Considering the age of your Brava and the fact that it is a 1.8 the ABS fault is most likely due to bad solder connections inside the ECU module. I've posted a link on here recently detailing how to fix it, might be worth a look...

Hellraiser..........>

 

[Dahoon]

I'm almost sure it is a bad connection somewhere inside the car. Measuring on the door connections when the electric windows doesn't work I get 0 volts and when they do work there's is ~12 volts.

But I'll try and see if a read of the ECU shows something as soon as I can get my hands on a cable just to double check 'cause you never know! Thank you for the tip

 

[Stu]

Same problem - anyone fixed theirs?

I have the same fault - can't trace it to loose connections or at least with a cursory push, prod, unplug/plug of cabling and connectors etc.

Both windows die at the same time and occasionally when driving I get the injector and abs lights too but they often clear themselves within a few seconds.

Like the OP these things don't happen at the same time. In fact the windows have stopped working for 4 or 5 days now but no dash light gremlins have occurred this time, and it is driving me fairly mad!

It has to be something daft as the power doesn't get to the door switches and all the fuses are fine everywhere I've found 'em.

 

[Karl]

Electrical Gremlins dont you just love them....

Try moving the steering wheel up and down...

If i adjust the height of my steering wheel the dashlights and headlights go out lol so the wheel is perminately set at half way...