Anyone know about Fiat 500s?

[DMY23]

My other half has an 09 fiat 500 diesel, which has had starting problems (I know, its's a fiat, what do I expect lol).

 

Anyway about a week ago, the car wouldn't start, wouldn't crank at all, all electrics would power up fine, and the battery is in good health, but you turn the key and literally nothing happens, no noise, no warning lights, nothing. I was able to bump start the car, and it ran absolutely fine, just won't start again when you turn it off.

 

My other half booked it in with a local mechanic to have a look at. I know they've tried a new starter that didn't fix the issue, and they've had the car a week trying to sort it to no avail. So the garage got someone from fiat in to have a look at it, and the fiat guy is saying it is a problem with the ECU?? I wouldn't have thought the ECU would have anything to do with cranking the engine, and as I said the car runs fine when bump started, so seemed a strange diagnosis.

 

I'm going into the garage to speak to them tomorrow as my other half has been dealing with up till now, there are a few things I'm going to see if they have tested like the ground, fuses, ignition switch (I assume they will have as these are basics surely). Does anyone have any other ideas of what it could be? And does the ECU sound like a viable cause?

 

Sorry for the essay, appreciate any help or suggestions.

[berg]

You say it will go if bump started, have you tried jump starting with jump leads to see what it does?

 

Sounds like classic battery earth to me

[DMY23]

Thanks for your reply. No, I didn't try jump starting it, I put the battery on my ctek charger over night and tried starting it the following morning. I'm not great with electrics, give me spanner and I'm happy but I cringe at wiring and electrics, so am I right in saying a jump start would complete the electric circuit via the earth on the 2nd car (the car used to jump start the fiat) and if it starts confirms it is a ground issue?

 

What do you think to the fiat techs ECU diagnosis? I don't know why but I have a gut feeling they're are trying to pull a fast one charginmy other half for an expensive new ECU.

[berg]

If it jump starts from another car i would definately look toward the earth, not a garuntee but certainly puts it toward battery/wiring

 

Ive seen it on a few cars with this issue including one of my own years ago, the earth point on that was rotten on the chassis (not saying yours will be rotten, but could be a bad contact)

 

Im not specialist and not clued up on fiats but i struggle to see why a faulty ecu would cause that issue

[DMY23]

Thanks for your help, when I drop into the garage I will get them to test/look into the earth. I've been looking some fiat info and there is fuse in line for the starter so I will get them to check that, failing those two I would guess it would be the ignition switch. I would have hoped the garage would have tested all these things though, but worth checking. I'm with you on the ECU, I can't see how that would cause a problem with the starter circuit.

[Konrad]

Faulty ignition switch was a first thing that comes to mind after reading first post If it's really earth problem - fastest way to check it would be to run some kind of jump start cable between negative terminal of battery and connect near starter motor or engine in general. If it works, check earth strap between engine and neg battery, it might be simply loose. If car is running fine after jump start, ECU is usually fine (logically thinking) but then Fiat's are "different"