Hello

New to the forum (or any forum actually). I found you all when i googled Ulysee problems.....

A couple of months ago in all that wet weather the Ulyse just cut out one evening as I was driving along. It said ESP/ASR faulty and the RAC computer couldn't talk to it so it went to our local garage who dried it out and came to the conclusion that leaves had blocked the drain thing and the ECU and fuse box had got wet. And it did work okay for a bit. Then it cut out as i was driving along on a dry evening and I waited a bit and it started again and then cut out. the garage said it needed to go to a specialist for diagnosing. it kept cutting out and the warning ESP/ASR faulty came up followed by anti pollution faulty. I found someone who specialised in Fiats but he had to wait a week for it to do it again and then he could't find the fault - all diagnostics okay. He cleared all the errors but there was no improvement.We did a bit of reading and tried changing the crank position sensor - no change. I sent the ECU away for testing and it is fine. The car is now unusable as it is cutting out every few hundred metres now - it is getting worse. The pattern is predictable - the light comes on and the fault message and then the engine cuts out. I don't know what triggers it though.

We have run out of professionals to help so to save it being scrapped we are setting off down the route of trying to solve it ourselves.This is our second Ulysse because our first was so reliable. This one has done a year of great service but this problem seems unsolvable and we really don't know where to start first. Any thoughts would be most appreciated. I have read many of the threads relating to this but I really want to know which one to try first.

Firstly welcome to the forum!

I presume it's actually a 2.2 diesel not 2.3!

I would recommend getting a new(second hand ) fuse box as these are very temperamental.
Frantic fran (on this forum) will prob have one as he breaks lots of these.

He'll probably see this and pass on his wealth of wisdom too.

Where abouts are you from?
there's a few of us on here from all over the country who have the correct diagnosis software (Lexia) so you may be lucky and be near one of us!!

Yep the first thing I would do is change the fuse box in the engine bay. Then undo and reconnect all the connectors you can find after spraying them with switch/pcb cleaner.

If it sees no improvement and its cutting out then maybe suspect fuel supply low pressure or high pressure pump; high pressure pump involves timing belt

If you take off the diesel return on the diesel filter it should squirt diesel all over the place. The diesel filter is also worth changing for a new one.

When your engine cuts out, switch the ignition key OFF, then ON again (without trying to start/crank the engine). You should be able to hear the fuel pump in the tank operating. If you cannot hear it, the chances are that the engine fuse box is not supplying 12V to the pump in the fuel tank. The pump supply goes through a relay in the engine fuse box and this may have failed. The relays in the engine fuse box are not replaceable, so when they fail a replacement box is required.

If you can hear the pump, my next step would be to check the fuel pressure at the outlet port of the fuel filter (the one connected to the pipe that goes to the High Pressure (HP) pump). You can do this by clamping a short length of garden hose to the filter outlet using a small Jubilee clip. A small dial-type tyre pressure gauge clamped at the other end of the hose will enable you to check the fuel pressure delivered to the HP pump. When you turn the ignition ON the pressure should read about 2.5 Bars.

The above checks should confirm whether or not your low pressure fuel circuit is causing your problem.

To check for faults on the HP circuit you will need to connect your car to a Lexia or PP2000 diagnostic system, as this will tell you what sort of pressure is being generated on the HP rail. It needs to reach around 200 Bars before the ECU will trigger the injectors and allow the engine to start.