General Fuel Injection Warning Light Constantly On

[moonshine]

I own an A Class motorhome built on a FIAT Ducato 2.8JTD common rail engine base. The vehicle was built in 2001 and I imported it directly from Germany.

I have recently had the vehicle given a full service and put through the MOT at a large commercial vehicle company. On driving away I noticed that the fuel injection warning light remained on constantly. The service company were unable to immediately solve the problem and arranged for me to take the motorhome to the local FIAT main dealer. They tried to connect the vehicle to their FIAT computer, but after an hour and a half they said they had been unable to communicate with the Electronic Control Unit. Late on a Friday afternoon they didn’t have any other immediate suggestions. Today they are talking about removing and disconnecting the ECU before reconnecting in the hope that the error message will be cleared.

I’m really miffed as the vehicle had gone in for a service and MOT and was released with a problem that didn’t exist before. Now nobody seems clued up as to how to clear the problem. I would like to believe that it is a simple fault caused during the servicing and easily resolved. But at the moment I’m not confident that the people I’m dealing with are that concerned or have any answers. Does anybody out there have any helpful comments?

 

[BigBlue]

Hi Moonshine,

I've got the same problem with my 2.8JTD. What was the outcome of yours? Do you know what caused it and how it was fixed?

Thanks

 

[Torq]

Hi Guys,
Amazing, I've just picked up a '01 2.8JTD with the injection light constantly on and I was about to ask exactly the same question!!
Keep well,
Torq

 

[BigBlue]

I contacted my local Fiat dealer about this and they said "it could be anything" and I should "book it in for a diagnostic check". Cost: £75+VAT

Is this my only option?

 

[moonshine]

Hi Big Blue

After two visits to the main FIAT dealership to carry out diagnostic tests it was suggested that the electronic control unit (ECU) should be replaced. The Fiat lap top computer could not communicate with the vehicle. Mind you at that time they couldn't definitively say that would fix the problem. As it happens the problem with the fuel injection warning light was resolved by replacing the ECU. The local dealer wont have one in stock and will have to order it from Italy. Unfortunately the cost was £355 for a replacement unit and one hours fitting. The cost of the protracted diagnostic evaluation time came to £279 but this was rebilled to the original garage where the problem first arose. If you do have the ECU replaced by Fiat they will probably offer a reconditioned unit (not cheap as you can see). If you pay more you might get a brand new one. However I suspect they prefer to exchange reconditioned units because they won't let you keep the damaged one. If you do want to find out what caused the failure they will charge you to have it sent away to Italy for evaluation. I suspect most people like me are already p****d off which the replacement costs without having to pay more. Surely these things should be robust enough to last the lifetime of the vehicle?

Anyway five weeks after the problem arose the vehicle was OKk and the warning light was operating normally.

I'm still not happy with what caused the damage that required the ECU replacement. I still have issues with the garage where the original service and MOT were conducted. They don't want to believe that anything they did could have caused the problem. However it was OK before it went there, but it wasn't when it came back. Just a coincidence I don't think so!

 

[BigBlue]

Hi Moonshine,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I haven't taken my van in yet, hoping that the light would miraculously disappear (or until you got back to me with a simple solution!), but two weeks on and it's still shining brightly. Looks like I'm going to have to smash open the piggy bank.

Sorry to hear about your experience. If it was ok when you dropped the van off, but not when you picked it up, commonsense tells me the garage caused the fault. It could be something as simple as having turned the key before the light when out, which is what I think I did - and at the time, the van was parked at a bit of an angle due to the camber of the road.

Anyway, thanks again, and hope you manage to get your money back from the garage. Don't give up (I wouldn't!).

 

[Leeman]

I also have this problem.
It started after my battery ran down.
I dont think that it has any adverse effect on the engine.

 

[T14086]

You have to remember vehicle faults can occur at anytime so its unfair to immediately point the finger of blame at the garage in question.

I dont accept the 'cant communicate with ECU' remark,if you cant & you have checked the relevent supplies/earths then it needs a ECU...which like all things dont last a lifetime.

One problem I have come across at least 5 times on motorhomes (infact I go there straightaway now) is the injector connectors.They are a poor fit & are easily dislodged slightly to break connection,worth a look,simply disconnect (remove the yellow or blue seal) & refit...if it works fine you have cured the problem,if not then start looking elsewhere in a logical sequence.

 

[Old-Boy racer]

IMHO this kind of thing can be a problem when importing a vehicle or buying it from one of the internet sites selling them cheap. You're not going to get the same service and support that you could expect to get if you'd paid a bit more money to a dealer over here who, if he's any good like my local Fiat main dealer, would probably sort it out at minimal cost. My local now has a workshop that has a four-post lift big enough to take motorcaravans too !
It does seem strange that it has not been possible to communicate to the ECU and yet it still appears to (mostly) work apart from the fault light.

 

[BuggsK100RS]

I while back i worked for renault trucks we had one Stuck in the tacograph bay for about two weeks when the boss tryed to update the ECU. The computer was not as uptodate as the ECU and it just got wiped. renault then spent the next week trying to figer out how to fix it. The bigist problem with them trucks tho was that fact that there are 3 ECU.s a VCU (Vehicle Controle Unit) a ECU (Engine Controle Unit) and a DCU (Dash Controle Unit) and one was blank and the other two crashed and locked in a stolen mode.

That all got sorted in the end with all 3 having to be replaced tho the DCU was the most fun as it can not be removed from the dash and a hole new one had to be fitted.

 

[mikey11000]

Im no expert on fiat ecu,s but have a good knowledge all round on vehicle electrics,and a lot of ecu,s will clear a warning light if the fault does not happen again after so many running cycles,so if its not causing any probs then i would leave it and see how it goes.a lot of engine warning lights are to warn of emission faults and often nothing to worrie about.my guess as to why it came on might be the way the emissions are now tested,