Fiat 500; ASR, ESP & PAS not working
Discussion
Hi, my wife has a 2015 Fiat 500 1.2 and, in the recent cold snap, the ASR, ESP & PAS have been failing; I get ASR and ESP warning message and lights and the PAS fails.
I tried a new Halfords (Yuasa) battery but no joy. Had the codes cleared, ditto. It only happens at 0 degrees and below. Likely culprits seem to be;
- new battery is faulty
- steering column earth strap is failing
- maybe the brake light switch is failing?
If none of them it might need a refurbed steering column/PAS assembly - which I'd like to avoid like the plague because £££.
Anyone on here had this problem on a 500 or similar?
I tried a new Halfords (Yuasa) battery but no joy. Had the codes cleared, ditto. It only happens at 0 degrees and below. Likely culprits seem to be;
- new battery is faulty
- steering column earth strap is failing
- maybe the brake light switch is failing?
If none of them it might need a refurbed steering column/PAS assembly - which I'd like to avoid like the plague because £££.
Anyone on here had this problem on a 500 or similar?
The problem dragged on over the cold snaps in Dec & Jan.
Had it checked over by the AA who confirmed that the battery was fine.
Then drove it onto my local garage who tested the earth - that was OK.
Refurbed steering column assembly it is then. £650 + labour.
Feck me, for an "ecomony" car it isn't half throwing up the bills. That + the battery + all the clutch gubbins I had to pay for last year is adding up!
Had it checked over by the AA who confirmed that the battery was fine.
Then drove it onto my local garage who tested the earth - that was OK.
Refurbed steering column assembly it is then. £650 + labour.
Feck me, for an "ecomony" car it isn't half throwing up the bills. That + the battery + all the clutch gubbins I had to pay for last year is adding up!
stevemcs said:
In theory but not all the refurbers can fix all the units. The first one thought they could, based on the reg number, but it turned out they couldn't and sent it back after 10 days. From that point on the garage started using the part number. The second place they tried said they couldn't do that particular version. The third one said they could. It's been with them for a week so, in theory, it should come back next week.Assuming it does get fixed this time, the car will have been off the road 9 weeks of the last 13 and I'll be hit with another £1,000 bill. I just found my bill for the clutch work last year. Master, slave, valve, pipework and labour. £960.
I'm not impressed. The car is 8 years old and on just over 20k miles. I've run a string of V8 Mercs until they were far older and on far higher miles with very few unexpected bills. In total, I've replaced an air compressor, a couple of air springs, a boot lock and a starter motor on them. And that's over two decades.....
Arrived back from Dublin very late on Thursday and messaged the garage having remembered that Refurb Place No 3 had been due to return the steering assembly on Monday and so therefore I'd need to pick the car up yesterday.
But no.
They, like the previous two places, can't fix that particular one for reasons that are a bit obscure but seem to revolve around sotware and/or firmware. Welcome to modern electronics. The garage messaged back to say that the refurb place will be sending over a "plug and play" unit towards the end of next week. I asked the garage "will it work?" and have so far heard nothing.
By the end of next week that car will have been off the road for 6 weeks solid on top of the 4 weeks in December and January.
My wife's now using my E500 as a daily. I ceramic waxed it two weeks ago and it was looking amazing. Now it's covered in crap.
Again. And the wheels are caked in brake dust. Again. And, in the last two weeks, she's managed to kerb 3 of the 4 AMG Style IV's.
Great. Just great....
But no.
They, like the previous two places, can't fix that particular one for reasons that are a bit obscure but seem to revolve around sotware and/or firmware. Welcome to modern electronics. The garage messaged back to say that the refurb place will be sending over a "plug and play" unit towards the end of next week. I asked the garage "will it work?" and have so far heard nothing.
By the end of next week that car will have been off the road for 6 weeks solid on top of the 4 weeks in December and January.
My wife's now using my E500 as a daily. I ceramic waxed it two weeks ago and it was looking amazing. Now it's covered in crap.
Again. And the wheels are caked in brake dust. Again. And, in the last two weeks, she's managed to kerb 3 of the 4 AMG Style IV's.
Great. Just great....
stevemcs said:
That’s not so good, what’s the betting when you get it back the mileage flashes like just about every 500 we see (service and mot)
Do you mean the mileage display flashes in the dash? I'm sure that's something I could sort with a little attention from a hammer.The garage I'm dealing with says Fiat part supply has become a complete clusterf
k "because Covid" "because Brexit" "because shipping container" etc that even normal parts are becoming impossible to source. And they've inflated the prices wildly. £3,000 for steering assembly? Oh do fk off.He says the situation's getting so bad that 500's are now getting stolen and stripped for spares.
Here's f
king hoping.FWIW my wife was hellbent on getting a Handbag Car despite my protests. I managed to put her off the expensive second hand maintenance horror that a MINI could have been but she flat refused to look at an Aygo or a Swift or any of the Korean stuff.
It had to be a Fiat Handbag so I derisked it as much as I could by avoiding the TwinBombs and upping the budget to get a low miles (16k) 6 year old facelift.
I waited ages for the "right" one. Right f
king waste of time that was.The earth strap is easy and cheap to change there are videos on YouTube , presuming you mean the one from the passenger side chassis leg. The brake light switch is also easy enough and cheap to do.
I guess it has stop start, was it a stop start battery you had fitted.
They are very sensitive to having the proper battery fitted, and having the earth straps in good condition.
What fault codes did it have.
If you need any fiat parts try these guys, genuine parts and alot cheaper https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/
I guess it has stop start, was it a stop start battery you had fitted.
They are very sensitive to having the proper battery fitted, and having the earth straps in good condition.
What fault codes did it have.
If you need any fiat parts try these guys, genuine parts and alot cheaper https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/
Edited by jds32 on Saturday 11th March 10:29
Take my advice fella and I base it on my girlfriends experience , even if it results in some skullduggery get it patched up and offed whilst it still has some monetary value . As a worthwhile secondhand buy they are complete rubbish and any real motorist who hasn't been seduced by the cutesy looks and the supposed needs of an equally cutesy partner will tell you this .
jds32 said:
The earth strap is easy and cheap to change there are videos on YouTube , presuming you mean the one from the passenger side chassis leg. The brake light switch is also easy enough and cheap to do.
I guess it has stop start, was it a stop start battery you had fitted.
They are very sensitive to having the proper battery fitted, and having the earth straps in good condition.
What fault codes did it have.
If you need any fiat parts try these guys, genuine parts and alot cheaper https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/
Thanks yes, went through all the earlier points.I guess it has stop start, was it a stop start battery you had fitted.
They are very sensitive to having the proper battery fitted, and having the earth straps in good condition.
What fault codes did it have.
If you need any fiat parts try these guys, genuine parts and alot cheaper https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/
Will look at that website.
The next time something fails.
Shouldn't be long.
reddiesel said:
Take my advice fella and I base it on my girlfriends experience , even if it results in some skullduggery get it patched up and offed whilst it still has some monetary value . As a worthwhile secondhand buy they are complete rubbish and any real motorist who hasn't been seduced by the cutesy looks and the supposed needs of an equally cutesy partner will tell you this .
Yeah we're thinking of dumping it once (if) it's working again.Update; got it back. The steering was a "plug and play" replacement which has worked. No flashing mileage indicator.
Huge bills, though, for this and for the clutch gubbins last year. The idea of this car was to offset the bills caused by my string of V8 Merc estates......it's kind of working the other way round.
My Mercs have been generally good as gold over the years although I do have to book my current one in for a rear subframe inspection - if Merc agree it's borked they'll usually replace it FOC so I'll be relaying on the 500 for a while.
Huge bills, though, for this and for the clutch gubbins last year. The idea of this car was to offset the bills caused by my string of V8 Merc estates......it's kind of working the other way round.
My Mercs have been generally good as gold over the years although I do have to book my current one in for a rear subframe inspection - if Merc agree it's borked they'll usually replace it FOC so I'll be relaying on the 500 for a while.
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