Hi all. Thanks Ben for the welcoming message. Newbie here with a nightmare ducato electrical issue/s. Any help greatly appreciated. I’m in Australia which seems is the last place on the planet to own one of these lol. I hope everyone is well and look forward to the upcoming convos
Technical Newbie with a Ducato meltdown lol
- Thread starter Dj376
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Technical Newbie with a Ducato meltdown lol
Hi everyone. I have a ducato that seems to endless intermittent fault codes. Starting issues. Glow plug issues. Wiper intermittent issues. Slow crank issues. Now latest is went to start. Key not recognised. Same with spare. Checking fuses relays and when got to engine bay relay box # 1367671080, found it was buzzing away, few seconds later burning smell. Disconnected battery immediately and on removal of fuse box found box melted and harness plug melted shorted. Now her is my dilemma…cause or effect?? I can’t seem to find this fuse box anywhere. No one in Australia will work on this vehicle even the fiat commercial dealers. Worried if I eventually replace or rebuild it and connect it happens again. Long but brief overview of issues. Anyone able to assist me please. I’m a mechanic with some electrical and electronics experience but I’m up the creek with this. Spent probably 30 hours scouring this forum and Web. Thanks. DJ
Do I just reconnect it all and get out the marshmallows.
Thanks, also if Ben could link my thread with bugsymike to the ducato section as there is a detailed list of faults,events,vehicle specs and photos and a 3 page explanation of it all. Thanks for your help and response and thanks to this forum for being available and user friendly. You guys are awesome.Hi and welcome
That's a bit of a worry isn't it.
Hopefully a Ducato regular will have seen the bulk of this before
First a bit more info...
Ducato BUILD year
It's Model (244..as an example)
The motor spec too
Maybe @ben could link this to the Ducato section?
I can't see any other thread?
Thanks all.It was a conversation via PM
Further to the PM, much better to widen the area of experience across the Forum
.
It does seem from what you have mentioned that corrosion at the fusebox was the start of problems, though locating parts sounds a nightmare.
By the way earthing points on fusebox and ECU etc need to be correct too.
Incidentally a wiring short can travel faster than you getting out of the van. So I would check thoroughly that no other damage.
I knew of a car written of due to a owner running a wire under a back seat which shorted and car was scrapped!
I never saw any of the photos you mentioned earlier?
.It does seem from what you have mentioned that corrosion at the fusebox was the start of problems, though locating parts sounds a nightmare.
By the way earthing points on fusebox and ECU etc need to be correct too.
Incidentally a wiring short can travel faster than you getting out of the van. So I would check thoroughly that no other damage.
I knew of a car written of due to a owner running a wire under a back seat which shorted and car was scrapped!
I never saw any of the photos you mentioned earlier?
Here is SOME of the PM info:
Initial post:
I have a ducato that seems to endless intermittent fault codes. Starting issues. Glow plug issues. Wiper intermittent issues. Slow crank issues. Now latest is went to start. Key not recognised. Same with spare. Checking fuses relays and when got to engine bay relay box # 1367671080, found it was buzzing away, few seconds later burning smell. Disconnected battery immediately and on removal of fuse box found box melted and harness plug melted shorted. Now her is my dilemma…cause or effect?? I can’t seem to find this fuse box anywhere. No one in Australia will work on this vehicle even the fiat commercial dealers. Worried if I eventually replace or rebuild it and connect it happens again. Long but brief overview of issues. Anyone able to assist me please. I’m a mechanic with some electrical and electronics experience but I’m up the creek with this. Spent probably 30 hours scouring this forum and Web. Thanks. DJ
Do I just reconnect it all and get out the marshmallows.?
Ok, it’s a ducato maxi delivery van so empty rear section other than interior lights etc, all of which is stock standard, no additional components or aftermarket mods what so ever anywhere in this vehicle. When I examined the fuse box (engine bay) further after removal and separation of upper and lower sections I found an incredible amount of corrosion all thru it due to water ingress I’m assuming, which may have caused the meltdown after I was tapping the relays gently to see if I could stop the buzzing sound. So I think the melted harness plug and fuse box connection is a secondary issue. After being parked up all day went to start it and keys not recognised etc and padlock symbol on cluster, first time for this fault to appear,
I’ve had this thing for 18months, first 5 months hardly used, then after a 6 week holiday I returned home and battery flat, jumper pack 1200amps barely helped and ended up with jumper leads from my land cruiser to get it started. Shortly after it started having flat battery issues, battery replaced but problems remained. Charge battery to capacity and would last a week or two before unable to start. Vehicle driven daily though only short distance…12 kms at most. Alternator voltage and starting crank test all good. Then battery died altogether, another new battery,correct specifications etc and century brand. Now I should add when I purchased it it had a engine light on which only show a code for glow plug module/circuit fault. Ambient temp average here is 27 degrees celcius…who needs glow plugs.
Then other issues started to appear, wipers not working, if left in on position for 2-10 minutes would randomly come on and then could switch on and off as many times as you liked with no issues. Then it started to fail to start up, hot cold, just driven or parked for 13 hours. Crank but no start. Lock vehicle. Unlock vehicle 1-3 times eventually it’d fire up. Then a couple of random cut outs while driving, then fault codes in morning of fuel filter fault on cluster display and no start. Replaced filter, flushed system etc. Still happens occasionally. Upon scan of ecu etc found a list of codes too long to list, I’ll get a pic off scan tool in morning and post it. Dpf burn off/regen happening almost every time it’s driven more than 20 mins, and strangest smelling diesel exhaust fumes when running normally I’ve ever encounted. And all this said it runs like a dream and plenty of power etc, cannot fault it other than thin gremlin.
So as you can see I have so many issues which I suspect is most likely an earthing issue, known fault on this model, as so many components affected. I might add that I did eventually replaced glow plug module/relay with genuine part, made absolutely no change to fault code and engine light and upon scan same code still remained. I’m hoping I’ve caught the meltdown in time as it barely got hot enough to melt the plug and box all that much. I’d say less than 10 seconds after smell and heat notes from fuse box till battery disconnected. Thankfully I’d charged battery out of vehicle overnight so covers off and 10mm spanner still on seat.
My problem now is sourcing a replacement fuse box and harness or at least harness plug to then move forward. Only one unit in Australia and it interstate and wants $1080.00 plus freight, no warranty and no returns, for second hand unit and harness. Given the known issues these have I’m reluctant. Especially when a new one is 200 pounds in uk. But I can’t find my part number and I’m not sure if others are compatible. If you call any fiat dealers or auto electrician they pretty much laugh or hang up as soon as I tell them it’s a Ducato 2nd Post
Initial post:
I have a ducato that seems to endless intermittent fault codes. Starting issues. Glow plug issues. Wiper intermittent issues. Slow crank issues. Now latest is went to start. Key not recognised. Same with spare. Checking fuses relays and when got to engine bay relay box # 1367671080, found it was buzzing away, few seconds later burning smell. Disconnected battery immediately and on removal of fuse box found box melted and harness plug melted shorted. Now her is my dilemma…cause or effect?? I can’t seem to find this fuse box anywhere. No one in Australia will work on this vehicle even the fiat commercial dealers. Worried if I eventually replace or rebuild it and connect it happens again. Long but brief overview of issues. Anyone able to assist me please. I’m a mechanic with some electrical and electronics experience but I’m up the creek with this. Spent probably 30 hours scouring this forum and Web. Thanks. DJ
Do I just reconnect it all and get out the marshmallows.?
Last edited:
Ahah makes sense they didn’t upload. I’ll post again now and in a couple of hours I’ll upload the list of codes from scan tool, better pics of harness and fuse box damage and the extensive corrosion I found inside the fuse box after I split the unit, would anyone know of compatible part number/s, if any, for the fuse box 1367671080 that I can’t seem to find. Surely any box from the same year range and specs etc will be interchangeable, but we all know where assumptions lead. Help please. Cheers@Dj376
The forum requires 5 posts before you can add photos
Chances are you can add them to this thread now
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Greetings Dj376
From the information and pictures you have already posted, Your van is an X250 model (2006 to 2014) dating from 2013. If you can get a copy of eLearn, this will include all the schematics. As I am sure you will appreciate, modern vehicles have so much kit that there is no such thing as a single "circuit diagram", it is all spread out over many sheets.
Smoke and smell is due to heat in the wrong place, which can be due to a high resistance connection in a circuit carrying appreciable current. This high resistance may be the result of corrosion due to water ingress. Vans used every day never suffer from this as they dry out. Vans laid up for long periods frequently do suffer - call it poor design if you like.
The general electrical arrangement is like a tree trunk dividing into smaller and smaller branches. The under bonnet fuse/relay box is near the "trunk" end, and is where the 12 volt supply first splits out to the larger current consumers like glow plugs. The under dashboard fuse box further splits things and deals with all the smaller current consumers.
The under bonnet fuse box is "passive", in the sense that it is purely electrical connections to fuses and relays, in the form of stamped metal strips set in a plastic carrier. There are no fancy electronics. This means that if not too far gone it is repairable with patience by cleaning all the contacts and dealing with any distortion of the plastic parts from heat.
Multiple fault codes generally indicate a problem with the electrical supply which is common to multiple items. In practice this means the 12 volt supply early on in the "tree" before it has has split into branches. It can also mean the earth return, where all the individual return paths are gathered up before being taken back to battery negative. This model Ducato is unusual in that all the earth return current from the engine/gearbox (e.g. starter motor, glow plugs ) goes via a flexible strap from the gearbox to the body. These corrode inside and look fine but are not. I suggest you change this (get an auto electrician to make one up) as a precaution to eliminate it from the picture. Then clear the fault codes and see how you get on.
I attach some example schematics from elearn which I have added annotations to, to get you started.
Good luck, keep us posted with any more questions
From the information and pictures you have already posted, Your van is an X250 model (2006 to 2014) dating from 2013. If you can get a copy of eLearn, this will include all the schematics. As I am sure you will appreciate, modern vehicles have so much kit that there is no such thing as a single "circuit diagram", it is all spread out over many sheets.
Smoke and smell is due to heat in the wrong place, which can be due to a high resistance connection in a circuit carrying appreciable current. This high resistance may be the result of corrosion due to water ingress. Vans used every day never suffer from this as they dry out. Vans laid up for long periods frequently do suffer - call it poor design if you like.
The general electrical arrangement is like a tree trunk dividing into smaller and smaller branches. The under bonnet fuse/relay box is near the "trunk" end, and is where the 12 volt supply first splits out to the larger current consumers like glow plugs. The under dashboard fuse box further splits things and deals with all the smaller current consumers.
The under bonnet fuse box is "passive", in the sense that it is purely electrical connections to fuses and relays, in the form of stamped metal strips set in a plastic carrier. There are no fancy electronics. This means that if not too far gone it is repairable with patience by cleaning all the contacts and dealing with any distortion of the plastic parts from heat.
Multiple fault codes generally indicate a problem with the electrical supply which is common to multiple items. In practice this means the 12 volt supply early on in the "tree" before it has has split into branches. It can also mean the earth return, where all the individual return paths are gathered up before being taken back to battery negative. This model Ducato is unusual in that all the earth return current from the engine/gearbox (e.g. starter motor, glow plugs ) goes via a flexible strap from the gearbox to the body. These corrode inside and look fine but are not. I suggest you change this (get an auto electrician to make one up) as a precaution to eliminate it from the picture. Then clear the fault codes and see how you get on.
I attach some example schematics from elearn which I have added annotations to, to get you started.
Good luck, keep us posted with any more questions
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camionpilot
Member
A additional thick ground from the engine /gearbox to a to a bare metal spot on the chassis also helps.
Are you any further forward with this?
