Waiting for break down recovery in Italy (1 Viewer)

[dunnah01]

I always buy the manufacturer specific diagnostics for all my vehicles. They always pay for themselves within a few weeks...

I had to clear a limp mode engine issue the other day on our current euro tour. It last appeared about 3 years ago saying the turbo was about to self destruct - 20k later it hasn't. Erased it this time and about 1k mikes later it still hasn't exploded.

I also had a limp mode on the Smart car a few weeks ago. Plugged it in to my copy if mercs Xentry/DAS but no errors. It did tell me I'd set the speed limiter to 30mph though

 

[daveclare]

Glad you managed to get it going. LIDL Europe had an offer on last week for an obd reader. It might be worth finding one near you.

 

[Simon Meadwell]

We had to use nationwide breakdown cover this summer three times in one day. Twice in France and once in Spain came out in an hout and half on all three occasions. Maybe you are too remote?

 

[DavidG58]

Have you told your recovery firm you have moved? If you do them again you might then even slower if they turned to find you gone

Annoying as they were I wouldn’t go burning bridges just yet

 

[Paullo]

Glad you managed to get it going. LIDL Europe had an offer on last week for an obd reader. It might be worth finding one near you.

Interesting. Will be passing one in a couple of days so I'll have a look in.

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[Paullo]

We had to use nationwide breakdown cover this summer three times in one day. Twice in France and once in Spain came out in an hout and half on all three occasions. Maybe you are too remote?

The European control center told us a couple of times that they always seem to have problems in Italy. The problem was finding a large enough tow truck for our (average) sized motorhome. Strange considering the number of MH's that visit the area.

 

[Paullo]

Have you told your recovery firm you have moved? If you do them again you might then even slower if they turned to find you gone

Annoying as they were I wouldn’t go burning bridges just yet

Yes told them and closed the incident. Worst part is we are thinking about getting out of Italy sooner than planned as we don't feel confident they would be any better if it happens again. Shame though as the Dolomites are so beautiful.

 

[Peavy]

Not a lot really other than sorry can’t find a fault (after trying to replicate it for 3 weeks). I’m waiting for it to happen again and then it will be a conversation with Fiat Customer Services. Intermittent faults are bloody frustrating but there must be a technical guy somewhere who can recognise the interaction of the 3 different systems and work out some possibilities. The positive is the van drives perfectly.

Video too big to post here but some screen shots all in the same episode if you’re interested. Only happens on starting and clears after a few moments, except red airbag light that takes a bit longer.



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That's awful. Hope they can give you an answer as that's not normal.
But, from my own experience, they have not much idea of what they're doing.
So sad.

 

[seasideBill]

It reminds me of the NASA space mission many moons ago (geddit?) when a warning light came on in the capsule indicating a serious fault.

Mission Control went into action checking every possible circuit and system but could find nothing wrong.

A highly qualified but young MIT graduate then suggested tapping the warning light with a pencil.
pOn doing so, the light went out and the mission was completed successfully.
JJ

I can believe it, my son works on Typhoon jets. It may be a £100 million aircraft but turning it on & off again is still the way some problems are fixed!

 

[Spriddler]

It's peeing outside but at least we're comfortable and (hopefully) safe.

Thanks. It's too dark and wet at moment but I may have a look in the morning.

it's down to the one warning light now

Well I'll be blowed. After waiting almost 24 hrs and many calls for updates, and absolutely no indication of when to expect assistance, I decided to chance it and drive to the nearest campsite. Low and behold when I turned on the ignition no sign of any warning lights and it drove as if there had never been a problem.

Just an off-the-wall thought............
Had the rain stopped when you drove to the camp site? Could it be rain/damp getting on the electrics causing the problem, e.g. blocked/overflowing scuttle drains which have now drained or the damp electrics elsewhere have dried out?

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[Peavy]

I also read somewhere something about an electric harness getting affected because of water ingress and causing general problems in the electronics.

 

[gus-lopez]

turning it on & off again is still the way some problems are fixed!

Does this work 'inflight' also?

 

[seasideBill]

I also read somewhere something about an electric harness getting affected because of water ingress and causing general problems in the electronics.

There may be something in that, the scuttle drain clearly has potential to direct water where it isn't wanted and I’ve heard mention of Fiat dealers blaming corrosion in a wiring harness which might be all linked?

 

[The Coops]

Does it on ours, peeing down we get Blackpool illumations on the dash, switch off let it stop raining, no problem, told its triggered by the obstruction warning radar sensors that think the volume of water is something in front of the van and like you we were waiting ages for the RAC to turn up only to be contacted by Fiat in the morning and told what was causing the problem and to ignore it if it came on when it was heavy rain!

 

[Paullo]

Just an off-the-wall thought............
Had the rain stopped when you drove to the camp site? Could it be rain/damp getting on the electrics causing the problem, e.g. blocked/overflowing scuttle drains which have now drained or the damp electrics elsewhere have dried out?

Good theory Spriddler but it rained heavily during the entire night and continued with lighter rain the following day when all of warning lights disappeared so there was no chance of it drying out. I thought the days of heavy rain affecting auto electrics were long gone but you never know.

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[Paullo]

Does it on ours, peeing down we get Blackpool illumations on the dash, switch off let it stop raining, no problem, told its triggered by the obstruction warning radar sensors that think the volume of water is something in front of the van and like you we were waiting ages for the RAC to turn up only to be contacted by Fiat in the morning and told what was causing the problem and to ignore it if it came on when it was heavy rain!

Interesting. Maybe there is something to this...but surely it would happen to a lot Fiat MH's

 

[Paullo]

There may be something in that, the scuttle drain clearly has potential to direct water where it isn't wanted and I’ve heard mention of Fiat dealers blaming corrosion in a wiring harness which might be all linked?

I must admit I haven't cleared the scuttle drain for a while so that's on my to-do list.

 

[lorger]

I can believe it, my son works on Typhoon jets. It may be a £100 million aircraft but turning it on & off again is still the way some problems are fixed!

Our shift sparky would always recycle the power before doing anything else, 99% of the time it worked

 

[seasideBill]

For the generation raised on ALT-CTR-DEL this all makes complete sense.