Hi all I am hoping one of the ever useful techs can point me right here. First things first my 2008 Bravo has blown a fuse, its knocked out the air con and the stereo and the rear interior light. Also the canbus. Fuse F39. This is troubling as you can imagine, i cannot read codes. Also the mileage is flashing. The car has never been to Fiat in my ownership until a week before the issue where they reset the service schedule as the car had been serviced elsewhere. Now the car has thrown up several random warning lights but not any that have stayed or have caused anything to not work. The car drives perfectly even when it momentarily said Check Engine. I know this all points to a battery unit but it really is working fine on testing. Alternator too. Remember this car is repeatedly blowing the Fuse 39. An auto electrician of great repute spent an hour plus on it and said in his opinion it is an agressive short and most likely caused by the BCM. Of course Fiat want £558 for the part alone. I have now stripped that out of the car and considering the short is agressive, I see no burning or smell anything from any of it. I have it totally dismantled. I have cleaned up all earth contacts and even every fuse. The only slight clues I have to go on is that the car was fine until i pulled upto a friend locked it and returned opening the tailgate with the remote and placing a heavy unit in there, then opening the doors with same remote and starting the car to then see the lack of centre console and flashing mileage. Occasionally i have to press the remote few times to unlock despite new batteries etc. Any ideas or pointers ? I do not believe the BCM is faulty it is so well made if it is I personally cannot test it, but have someone lined up who can clone it to an identical one from a second hand car for £120, still cheaper than the Fiat price plus fitting which will ruin me to be honest. I personally still think the short is elsewhere.
Technical Body control module or not ?
- Thread starter dymmy
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Technical Body control module or not ?
The earths all seem ok as in i have cleaned them all from the battery to engine and body etc. IT has been described as an agressive short ?? However the battery is original and the car is 2008 so nearly 8 yrs old ! Can that really cause fuses to blow repeatedly ? I will get one as whatever happens its too old to be reliable despite testing fine. Thx I shall unlike many keep this thread uptodate and publish the resolution.
it's true but what has thrown me is the constant fuse blowing too. Tomorrow i will fit a new battery and inspect all wiring especially the alternator.
Went to ECP with the battery removed from the car and had it tested on a DHC device and the result is 'bad - replace' State of health 78% state of charge 82%. I bought a new battery. However I am wondering what apart from charging and ability to hold charge has been tested. Cells ? I am sure it would take more than two leads and a digital readout to test more than the basic two. I may be wrong of course, I shall keep this thread updated.
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Sorry to hear of your woes. I have not experienced the same on a Fiat but have had some very funny lights flashing on a Seat. On this car the engine management light came on and the fix was a new foot brake light switch! I did not believe them one little bit when told what the full read out of the ECU suggested, but it did work...... I think you are probably right that your main box of tricks is not the problem. Is the interior light affected at all? I wonder if there is a sticking micro switch in the door lock causing the fuse to blow on occasions. I have this problem on the seat. It has a habit of locking us out!
I am thinking of an ECU reader from Gendan which might well answer the problem. If you get stuck I will take the plunge and you would be welcome to a free readout.
Best of luck
I am thinking of an ECU reader from Gendan which might well answer the problem. If you get stuck I will take the plunge and you would be welcome to a free readout.
Best of luck
Who is Gendan ? I think you have the right idea here though, yes the interior rear light doesnt work either. Fiat decided to put lots on one fuse. Pretty randomly if you ask me especially when i know and can see there are spare fuse slots. MAybe when and if i sort it i shall think to reroute the Canbus at least as to lose this has been a nightmare. In my old VW days I had a VagCom readout claiming that all sorts of engine components were faulty, MAF throttle sensor etc, all adding up to around £700 plus fitting oddly enough the same amount as Fiat want. In the end the car was diagnosed by an RAC man i bumped into as a rotor arm !! which was new and had failed. HE had a spare charged me nothing and it drove better than ever.
I think I am going to disconnect all 4 doors electrics tomorrow and the tailgate and narrow down this issue. Lets just hope it stops raining long enough. Thx for your advice I shall investigate further.
Just googled the Gendad ECU reader, I actually have another type of reader, the problem is that the power to the OBDII port is dead too. Remarkably its on the same circuit.
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thx, unfortuneately i have found the cause and am in the process of finding where the melted wires have shorted out. PRoblem is to find it i had to do this 
The upside is i now know my car inside out, and if anyone needs to ask me anything relating to where a cable goes and how to dismantle their car i am the man. I shall let you know once sorted how long it takes me to get it back together. If ever !!
The upside is i now know my car inside out, and if anyone needs to ask me anything relating to where a cable goes and how to dismantle their car i am the man. I shall let you know once sorted how long it takes me to get it back together. If ever !!
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You sir, are brave. ?
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How do I remove the glovebox? I'm trying to get a cable from the glovebox up the A pillar. Keeping wires hidden best I can. Do you know a way?
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yes I do I would attempt to get it up through above the bonnet release though, as the glove box is not really in the way too much. To remove it however involves undoing two screws inside on each pivot and pushing the pivots into the glovebox from the outside. Once off it should help to slide a cable up next to the loom. I would cover the cable in talc to get it past the loom. Remove the white plastic panel on the pillar. The one with the Airbag logo, the screw is hidden underneath that logo, all the rest is pull clips. disconnect the battery of course but dont be scared of airbag etc.
I would attempt to get it up through above the bonnet release though, as the glove box is not really in the way too much. To remove it however involves undoing two screws inside on each pivot and pushing the pivots into the glovebox from the outside. Once off it should help to slide a cable up next to the loom. I would cover the cable in talc to get it past the loom. Remove the white plastic panel on the pillar. The one with the Airbag logo, the screw is hidden underneath that logo, all the rest is pull clips. disconnect the battery of course but dont be scared of airbag etc.the message above is for you.
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Thanks for that! The detailed description came in handy and I would never have noticed that screw behind the Airbag badge if you hadn't said.
Cheers
as you can imagine from my photos I saw it from the otherside, and always assumed they were where the airbags came out from. So far the only thing i could get off without breaking was the bonnet release. Its a bad design and you will either sacrifice the handle or the cable holder as it is bolted on with two torque screws and the panel and handle cover them and once they click you are sort of screwed (see what i did there! )
(see what i did there! ) i have rewired the burnt cable and found the short, i also repaired that. Now to test it i put all the modules back and a new fuse and hey, no blown fuse. Fingers crossed ignition on a few beeps and complaints from ESR and hill holder as usual but the mileage has stopped flashing. After warming up and waiting patiently no fault codes and no issues. All i have to do is put the entire interior back together. Happy Days....so far !
I say I found the short, I thought i had but it turns out that despite most things working correctly the interior rear light still wont work. I recall having trouble with it back in the dark evenings of February but rarely use the car at night due to young kids and bedtime etc so a bit of investigating was needed. As my model is the panoramic roof one I only have a single rear light unit in the centre of the roof panel between the two glass panels. I followed the wires and strangely he live wire disappeared behind some bracing brackets that hold the roof glass in. I tried to pull it through slightly to understand the colours of the cable and to my horror i discovered the real cause of all this crap. FIAT had sandwiched a live wire underneath the sharp edge of the bracket and screwed it down tight crushing it against the body the wire was distorted and melted and connected behind the apron airbag in the roof to the green/red cable i have been chasing. All the way back to the Body Control Unit pin 52 which had melted the circuitry and lifted a copper pad/track. As you all know by now this unit costs a fortune and needs coding so not a chance of replacing it, luckily i repaired it with some very careful solderingi tested it and checked and rechecked it and so far it works perectly. Which it didnt used to do before, it used to be intermittent. Now I think Fiat have f***ed up royally here and proving it is impossible however, this is what caused the stereo to be temoremental this i know has been attempted to be repaired as it the head unit has been out and had purple pen marks drawn all over it to help with reassembly. Which imo is worrying as it is obvious how it assembles and no amount of pen willl help you. I am the cars second owner and was not informed of any repairs it had, so I am 99% sur ei have nailed the cause an slightly less confident i have 100% fixed it as I hate to say it the soldering of the track imo is not great but it is all that can be done for now. I shall keep an eye on it but know if necessary i can strip it down in under 30 minutes
I now know more than i ever wanted to know about how to build a Fiat Bravo Tjet.
