Technical Nothing working after battery reset

[Sachm0]

Hi everyone - I had the RAC come over and 'reset' my Fiat 500e by unplugging the battery for a while after a public charger seemed to mess up the charging system. The charging system now works but I have an array of warning lights flashing when I start the car now and a bunch of systems not working e.g. hill start, one pedal driving, any of the driver assist features etc.

The RAC guy told me that it would sort itself out after 3-5 miles but that hasn't proved the case. Is it just a case of driving for a while to reset the ECU or is something more fundamental the issue?

 

[Maybemaybenot]

Oops. Which battery did he disconnect? Not sure he knew what he was doing. Most of the time if a charge screws things up if you leave it overnight it’s all ok. Can drive in the meantime.
How long have you waited for this to sort itself and have you/can you drive?

 

[Sachm0]

Oops. Which battery did he disconnect? Not sure he knew what he was doing. Most of the time if a charge screws things up if you leave it overnight it’s all ok. Can drive in the meantime.
How long have you waited for this to sort itself and have you/can you drive?

The main battery I believe - waited a minute or two and then plugged it back in. Took it to another charging point and it worked fine - good to know about leaving it overnight, will try that next time!

This all happened this afternoon - the car itself drives fine, it's just the other stuff which seems broken. Drove it about 6.5 miles to see if that would fix it and turned it on and off a bunch of times. No luck :/

Uploaded a short video to show what it says upon startup:

Might sort itself out in time? Or service jobby?

 

[Maybemaybenot]

I suspect he only unplugged the 12v as anything with the hv battery isn’t for the roadside and I’d hope they’d have more sense as it could be incredibly dangerous.
Anyway. Hopefully if you leave the car off till morning it’ll sort itself out. If not use the button by the rear view mirror to call Fiat for help. Try that before going near a dealer. Most are useless.

 

[Sachm0]

I suspect he only unplugged the 12v as anything with the hv battery isn’t for the roadside and I’d hope they’d have more sense as it could be incredibly dangerous.
Anyway. Hopefully if you leave the car off till morning it’ll sort itself out. If not use the button by the rear view mirror to call Fiat for help. Try that before going near a dealer. Most are useless.

Yes you are right, it was indeed the 12v battery not the main one.

Do these issues often sort themselves out overnight? He told me to drive the car for a while and it should sort itself out, which I guess means the ECU needs to relearn - but that shouldn't be the case for an electric car I'd have thought?

 

[Maybemaybenot]

All I can tell you is that nearly all errors disappear overnight at worst so there’s hope. Disconnecting the 12v isn’t a great idea if anyone tries that again.
I’ve had several (usually BP or Podpoint) AC chargers confuse the car to the point it wouldn’t accept any and it’s usually sorted itself within an hour and always by the next day.

 

[Sachm0]

Still the same issue as of this morning. Will give it a drive for a while and see if it changes anything but a bit of a bummer overall!

 

[Maybemaybenot]

Drat! Give Fiat a call in the car and complain to RAC.

 

[gazz_bee]

Drat! Give Fiat a call in the car and complain to RAC.

I assume your car is in warranty. If Fiat advise you take the car to a dealer for resetting the errors, it's worth being aware the EV warranty has a specific provision for courtesy cars when your car is being repaired. I had to get Fiat to railroad my dealer into submission when mine was laid up with system issues from new.
Whilst the errors you've got are almost certainly the result of the RAC disconnecting the battery, these also happen with a failing 12V battery which isn't an unusual issue on any brand of EV. For affected build dates, Fiat have a software fix that improves the battery management system and Fiat would be able to advise if your car is affected by this "recall". Hope it is sorted out quickly and painlessly for you.

 

[Sachm0]

Took it for a drive and it's working again! Got some advice from the people I'm leasing the car from to drive it for a bit - took it down the road for an errand and it sorted itself out 1 minute into the drive.

Thanks everyone for chipping in, appreciated.

 

[Ianbuehring]

The main battery I believe - waited a minute or two and then plugged it back in. Took it to another charging point and it worked fine - good to know about leaving it overnight, will try that next time!

This all happened this afternoon - the car itself drives fine, it's just the other stuff which seems broken. Drove it about 6.5 miles to see if that would fix it and turned it on and off a bunch of times. No luck :/

Uploaded a short video to show what it says upon startup:

Might sort itself out in time? Or service jobby?

Hi, my wife’s car has shown very similar messages to those in your video. Did they eventually disappear with no recurrence or did the dealer have to intervene to fix anything?
Thanks