Car problems, any ideas please *update*

[Scaramouche]

Originally Posted by daytonababe

Any garage can, I paid £30 to have mine on the diagnostic machine at the local garage .

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This, I’d find another garage to quickly plug it in. We don’t pay for ours to be done I’m sure you’re supposed to pay, but I know it wouldn’t be £120!

This happened to me, and it was the battery (different car) and then it died. So new battery and alternator for me last year.

[cornishfrogboy]

I would go for battery first. it is a question of thinking about what single issue could cause so many fault lights to illuminate at once (they are highly unlikely to be individual issues). Battery seems likely. other option would be Alternator, but this would likely have occurred when you were actually with engine running.

Although cars are marvelously complex these days, they still rely on the same fundamentals as 50 years ago, Pistons, fuel, air, oil and 'lectrics'.

[boo2]

Originally Posted by Trusty ian

Any idea what lights came on dash and for how long?
Any garage which will have diagnostics so can be cheaper at a local independant garage. £120 is the going rate at any franchised dealership.

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Engine warning light with message “check engine” at the same time start “start stop unavailable” then “ASR and hill assist not available” or something similar. Yellow triangle warning light, anti skid warning light on .

Took a photo to show DH when I stopped back at office.

[boo2]

Originally Posted by cornishfrogboy

I would go for battery first. it is a question of thinking about what single issue could cause so many fault lights to illuminate at once (they are highly unlikely to be individual issues). Battery seems likely. other option would be Alternator, but this would likely have occurred when you were actually with engine running.

Although cars are marvelously complex these days, they still rely on the same fundamentals as 50 years ago, Pistons, fuel, air, oil and 'lectrics'.

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Thanks, lights only came on after driving for about 15 mins.
Could it still be battery because of all the electrical things that are on and it being a short journey, stop start in town?

[400ixl]

Those related systems do tent to be unavailable when the battery is at fault.

[mickey house]

Originally Posted by boo2

Thanks MH, as you can probably tell I’ve got no clue whatsoever about cars! I did think £120 was really expensive. It’s the main Fiat dealership, can my local garages do the same?

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I would go for a local independent garage as most will have the device to read the codes and reset it and probably will charge half of the price you pay. My local garage resets my car when it does things like replace the brake pads etc and it's included in the price.

You can buy a scanner yourself which can do the job of reading the faults and even clearing the codes, but they can be hit and miss but if you go on the fiat 500 forum there is likely to be lots of helpful info.

Some people have success just buying a cheap scanner from places like amazon and you can get a refund if it doesn't work:

[Wazza]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

OP. I'm not well versed on cars apart from driving them.

A quick Google throws up a few similar posts such as yours and the issues were the battery was starting to fail and in doing so was causing all the warning lights to illuminate. That's the best I can do sorry.

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Yep we had this with our Qashqai a couple of years ago, dashboard lit up lik a Christmas tree. Turns out Nissan had fitted a lot of dud batteries. But rather than recall they just waited for them to fail. We were lucky that the mechanic who looked at ours was aware of the problem and we got a free replacement from Nissan

[Warkman58]

Could be one if two issues.
Yes, when a battery starts to fail, it throws up error messages as the engine management system sees a drain of the power.
With the cold, it may be your oil is low and as it thickens up in cold weather, it’s not enough to get round the engine in sufficient quantities. Check your oil level

[tspill]

If it does turn out to be the battery and your use of the car remains short journeys, then get one of these.
amazon/CTEK-MXS-5-...1-acbe80e94641

Not only will they charge a battery, but the will condition the battery and can also revive some dead batteries. I have saves a couple of batteries this way.

Maybe put this on one weekend per month or whenever suits.

[jim jehosofat]

Stop/start system and the other errors you mentioned all lead to a battery problem. The dash on my Pulsar lit up like a Christmas tree a few weeks ago and I ended up getting a new battery. I'd also try and do a long run one or twice a month if possible as I was told that these stop/start systems don't like short journeys.
Finally, you do know that FIAT stands for Fix It Again Tomorrow!