Car problems, any ideas please *update*

[boo2]

I’ve got my car booked Into the garage for Monday but just thought I would ask if anyone had ideas or similar has happened to them.
I’ve got a Fiat 500, almost 4 years old but only done 17500 miles.
Last week the check engine light suddenly came on along with a lot of dashboard lights. I was at work so had to drive about 20mins across town to get back to my office. When I finished at the end of the day and got in the car to drive home all the warning lights were off. Car had been sitting in the sun and temperature outside reading 6 degrees.
I wondered if it was something to do with the cold weather ( it’s being snowing with very icy roads between the snow for a few weeks now, currently -3.
Car has then seemed fine until Wednesday, the same thing happened
but this time the lights haven’t gone off!
It seems to be driving fine, not loosing power at all.
Anyway it’s booked in for Monday with a starting price of £120 odd pound for diagnostics 🙁

[mickey house]

The outside temperature shouldn't cause any issues because cars are designed for hot and cold temperatures.. My old car that my son now has is being stored on a drive and the battery recently went flat and I charged it but that caused lots of warning lights to come on! I did google it and managed to clear some warning lights but one is still on.

Unfortunately car warning lights do come on and sometimes for no particular reason, and from experience I don't always trust them. £120 is really expensive for them just plugging a device into the car's port and reading the faults. Sometimes they press a reset button and that can solve it, although the warnings can of course indicate genuine faults that need resolving.

[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.

[boo2]

Originally Posted by mickey house

The outside temperature shouldn't cause any issues because cars are designed for hot and cold temperatures.. My old car that my son now has is being stored on a drive and the battery recently went flat and I charged it but that caused lots of warning lights to come on! I did google it and managed to clear some warning lights but one is still on.

Unfortunately car warning lights do come on and sometimes for no particular reason, and from experience I don't always trust them. £120 is really expensive for them just plugging a device into the car's port and reading the faults. Sometimes they press a reset button and that can solve it, although the warnings can of course indicate genuine faults that need resolving.

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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?

[boo2]

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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Thanks Mr TM, battery could be an issue. Low mileage and lots of short journeys. The car is used for work 5 days a week but only 17500 miles ( will be 4 years old in June)

[daytonababe]

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

[Anne]

Originally Posted by boo2

Thanks Mr TM, battery could be an issue. Low mileage and lots of short journeys. The car is used for work 5 days a week but only 17500 miles ( will be 4 years old in June)

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Find somewhere reliable that sells car batteries and they will run a check on it to see if you need a new one. I would have thought you do.

[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.

[400ixl]

Agree for the first step, take it to a quick fit type place and ask them to do a battery test.

If you have a charger or can borrow one it is worth getting it on charge anyway.

To read the codes all you need is a cheap Bluetooth reader and an Android phone.

The dealer is charging you an hour's labour for a 10 minute job.

[DrMagical]

As others said, probably the battery. They start to go at 3-4 years especially in low milage cars. They throw up loads of error messages as every system in the car relies on a power supply. Would also explain why things went away with a drive and warm up!