I have a 21 plate fiat 500 that keeps going into limp mode with the engine management light, stop start unavailable and warning triangle. Car has been in a fiat dealership for 3 weeks now and they are not giving me much information apart from they think it is a wiring issue and they are waiting for fiat tech to supply wiring diagrams. Has anyone had this issue and know what the problem could be?
Technical Fiat 500 wiring issue
- Thread starter Delapsd
- Start date
Currently reading:
Technical Fiat 500 wiring issue
Fiat dealer have had my car for 4 weeks and just had a call to say that the problem with the engine management light coming on is due to the engine wiring harness fault and will cost £600 to repair. The car is only 3 years old. Does anyone have any advice on this?
Ouch!
So not long out of the third year warranty. Nobody buying a new car would expect a wiring loom fault this early in its life.
I'd be asking Fiat Customer Services if they'd consider meeting the cost of the repair.
Did you
a) buy it from new as the first registered keeper
and
b) have it serviced by a Fiat Main Dealer at the recommended intervals.
If you can answer yes to both those questions, I'd say you've a reasonable chance of getting at least a contribution toward the cost.
So not long out of the third year warranty. Nobody buying a new car would expect a wiring loom fault this early in its life.
I'd be asking Fiat Customer Services if they'd consider meeting the cost of the repair.
Did you
a) buy it from new as the first registered keeper
and
b) have it serviced by a Fiat Main Dealer at the recommended intervals.
If you can answer yes to both those questions, I'd say you've a reasonable chance of getting at least a contribution toward the cost.
I bought the car from a main dealer from new and took out a 3 year service plan. By the time the 3 year service was done the garage was no longer an authorised dealership. It was only after the service was done i found this out. I called fiat uk when the light first came on a few weeks before the car ran out of warranty. I couldn’t find a fiat garage willing to take on warranty work and didn’t push it because the fault was intermittent. Car has been in to this fiat dealer 3 times and this time it has been there for 4 weeks. They said they were having trouble diagnosing the fault as they have only recently become a Fiat dealer.
I would emphasize this point when talking to Fiat CS and to the Fiat dealer which currently has the car.
It would be exceedingly bad form not to accept responsibility for a covered part which has been diagnosed as the cause of a fault reported whilst the car was still in warranty.
It is also possible you might have a valid legal claim against the warranty, though you'd need to take expert advice on this if Fiat CS won't accept responsibility.
I have raised this issue with Fiat Uk but they have been quite useless so far. The garage have taken 4 weeks to diagnose the fault as they didn’t know how to use the software properly and had no wiring diagrams to hand and had to wait for Fiat Uk to supply them. The car has been in and out with the Fiat dealer since 11th sept!
Could this be the notorious rear hatch 'wiring loom' problem? Dressed up to sound like not their fault.
If it is, then it's shameful that this should still be happening on a 3yr old car when the inherent design fault was well known at least twelve years ago.
and this forum would have advised you that the first thing to do was to check this wiring as soon as you first posted. By now, I'd expect any garage with prior knowledge of 500's, especially a franchised or former franchised dealer, would check this on day one.
But we don't know yet what the problem actually is. We've had other posts reporting wiring faults elsewhere in the loom, and this may be another such example.
Whatever, given that this fault was first reported when the car was still under warranty, I'd expect that warranty to be honoured.
Last edited:
They’ve said it’s the engine wiring harness. The first time the car went into to them with eml and limp mode they changed the cam sensor. Problem was still there so they done some sort of software update and then had to go back again. It’s been there 4 weeks with no real communication from them. They won’t even tell me what fault codes they were getting.
Last edited:
Well, they could pretty much say it was anything, but it wouldn't change the fact that they don't know, least not yet.
It's difficult for anyone to comment on here too much, as you don't have access to it, and can't perform any tests or post any other observations.
Do you have a copy of the MultiECUScan software?
Given that the car was in warranty when the OP first reported the fault, and is now only just out of warranty, I'd suggest leaving this firmly in the hands of the franchised dealer where presumably it now is.
If anyone else messes with it, this could compromise any claim the OP might have.
Yep agreed.
They can hardly quit at this stage, and when they started to investigate it, it was as you say 'under warranty'.
Perhaps the OP can as for a curtesy car? You never know?
Fiat Basildon have not really given me any information. When I ask for fault codes they don’t seem to want to say. It’s not been a great experience dealing with them to be honest.
The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
Have a chat with your trading standards department. You may find they will be interested as this sort of thing is really unacceptable and probably on breach of the supply of goods and services requirements.
found this thread now to . so get the story so far . 
found this on the Fiat e-learn if you need to use it for someone to help fix your 1.0 hybrid engine
lab-aftersales.fiat.com
E-learn-WEB FCA
found this on the Fiat e-learn if you need to use it for someone to help fix your 1.0 hybrid engine
E-learn-WEB FCA
Thank you. Car is still in the garage. I had a call to say part has been replaced and lights gone out but now car won’t start. Car has been there for 6 weeks so they were going to try charging the battery.found this on the Fiat e-learn if you need to use it for someone to help fix your 1.0 hybrid engine
E-learn-WEB FCA
The saga continues. So the fiat dealership have called to say the the wiring has been replaced but now the car is not holding its charge and it will be £300 extra for them to replace the battery. The car has been with them for 6 weeks sitting around and I never had any problems with the battery before. I had even had a health check done at Halfords the weekend before it was booked into and everything was fine.
The car has two batteries. The 2nd is the hybrid one, under the seat I believe. Ask them which one? I am sure you can get a decent battery elsewhere for about 50% less. I think the Fiat MOPAR ones are Exide but you can get an Exide one elsewhere too. Do they think they fixed the original fault?
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2013
- Messages
- 191
- Points
- 88
We too have a mild hybrid 1.0 Fiat 500. When I enter the registration in to Tayna Batteries online (who I have used numerous times before and therefore can recommend) there is an Exide battery MUCH cheaper than £300.
Given your troubles, together with the liklihood 6 weeks' standing has contributed to the battery failing, I would hope the garage would at least fit a new battery at cost...£300 is ridiculous!
Given your troubles, together with the liklihood 6 weeks' standing has contributed to the battery failing, I would hope the garage would at least fit a new battery at cost...£300 is ridiculous!
