Alfa Romeo Mito Issue

[Kneedragger95]

I'm looking for a bit of advice as over the last few months I have been having an issue with my Alfa Romeo Mito.

9 times out of 10 when I start the car up, I will have a yellow warning light (triangle with exclamation mark inside, surrounded by a circular arrow) show up on the dash, alongside a flurry of warnings saying Check power steering, Check ABS, Hill Hold unavailable amongst others.

A few months ago I took the car to the garage and they ran diagnostics and replaced the Airbag ECU, thinking that may solve the issue. For the next few days the warnings had gone, however they slowly started reappearing and I'm back to where I started.

Has anyone else experienced this?

[Rausages]

Those warnings sound like the ones you get when you disconnect the battery on Alfa Romeos. Do they go once you start driving?

The power steering one usually needs the steering turned lock to lock and the ABS ones go once you drive off and it detects the ABS sensors.

Might be worth checking the connections to the battery or getting the battery checked to see that it is holding charge. It may be the battery is on its way out.

[ferret50]

As above, my first port of call would be battery terminals/failing battery. The various sensors in modern cars need to 'see' a fully charged battery to function correctly.

[RicksAlfas]

Sounds very much like a low voltage from the battery. Check all the connections are clean and tight. If they are, consider replacing the battery, unless you have a CTEK type charger/conditioner and can get a bit more life out of it that way. www.tayna.co.uk is a good resource for batteries.

[Kinky]

When I read the post my immediate thought was battery, and/or related connections.

Have you got stop/start? I assume that's also gone?

[Rausages]

The A with the exclamation mark and arrow round is stop/start disabled, which it would do if the battery was below a certain voltage.

[georgeyboy12345]

It needs a new battery

[Paddymcc]

Kneedragger95 said:

I'm looking for a bit of advice as over the last few months I have been having an issue with my Alfa Romeo Mito.

9 times out of 10 when I start the car up, I will have a yellow warning light (triangle with exclamation mark inside, surrounded by a circular arrow) show up on the dash, alongside a flurry of warnings saying Check power steering, Check ABS, Hill Hold unavailable amongst others.

A few months ago I took the car to the garage and they ran diagnostics and replaced the Airbag ECU, thinking that may solve the issue. For the next few days the warnings had gone, however they slowly started reappearing and I'm back to where I started.

Has anyone else experienced this?

One of your wheel speed ABS sensors is on the blink.

Get a decent code reader and it will tell you exactly which one it is.

[SuperPav]

georgeyboy12345 said:

It needs a new battery

It's this.

I've had enough cars with similar symptoms (even though never a Mito). It's a knackered battery that lets the voltage drop below a certain level (e.g. 10V) when cranking. When the modules are on (which they are as soon as "ignition" is on) and detect a low voltage, they flag an error.

The ABS modulator in particular will be sensitive as it requires a certain voltage to work. When the ABS module throws a fault, it disables everything that relies on brakes, including hill hold, ESC, traction control, pre-assist etc.

Other modules may also throw faults, and as someone mentioned, stop start would usually flash up a "Stop start" not available shortly after cranking.

Replace the battery and you should be fine.

The airbag module replacement wouldn't have fixed anyhting and is probably a red herring, all that would've happened is they possibly would've charged the battery while working on the car and cleared the codes when replacing the airbag module, which got you a couple of cranking events that didn't drop below the threshold voltage leve.

[Kneedragger95]

Thank you for the replies everyone, really appreciated.
As a few other posters have said, I suspected battery issues so had it replaced with a new one, unfortunately the issue has persisted.

I've just been on the phone with a local Alfa Romeo specialist and he suspected an issue with the steering unit, unfortunately he said the cost would be around £1000 so I think that'll be a no go if it's the cause.

[Hoofy]

What they said. First port of call would be a new battery (or recondition the battery if you're willing to take out the battery for 4+ hours).

[LuS1fer]

Despite new battery, check possible failing alternator and replace engine earth strap usually 12" 10mm hoke, they often fray.

[Paddymcc]

Kneedragger95 said:

Thank you for the replies everyone, really appreciated.
As a few other posters have said, I suspected battery issues so had it replaced with a new one, unfortunately the issue has persisted.

I've just been on the phone with a local Alfa Romeo specialist and he suspected an issue with the steering unit, unfortunately he said the cost would be around £1000 so I think that'll be a no go if it's the cause.

stick a code reader in the OBD port, go to the ABS / wheel speed sensors and see what each of the 4 of them are reading while the car is stationary.

Anything over 0 rpm and theres your fault.

All those safety systems you're describing are all linked to the wheel speed and if one of the sensors is reading higher than the others it will throw a panic and give you warning lights.

Edited by Paddymcc on Tuesday 26th March 17:00

[SwanJack]

Kneedragger95 said:

Thank you for the replies everyone, really appreciated.
As a few other posters have said, I suspected battery issues so had it replaced with a new one, unfortunately the issue has persisted.

I've just been on the phone with a local Alfa Romeo specialist and he suspected an issue with the steering unit, unfortunately he said the cost would be around £1000 so I think that'll be a no go if it's the cause.

My understanding is that a reconditioned and upgraded steering unit torque sensor is about £160. Videos on line showing how to remove and refit. The steering goes heavy when this fails.
https://www.ecutesting.com/product-catalogue/alfa-...

You need to get the fault codes read though, as they throw a wobble for the smallest thing. My son's MiTo lit up with all these warnings when a coil pack went.

Edited by SwanJack on Wednesday 27th March 00:06

Edited by SwanJack on Wednesday 27th March 00:12

[Kneedragger95]

Paddymcc said:

stick a code reader in the OBD port, go to the ABS / wheel speed sensors and see what each of the 4 of them are reading while the car is stationary.

Anything over 0 rpm and theres your fault.

All those safety systems you're describing are all linked to the wheel speed and if one of the sensors is reading higher than the others it will throw a panic and give you warning lights.

Edited by Paddymcc on Tuesday 26th March 17:00

Thank you, will any OBD code reader work? Many are listed as being useful for picking up engine fault codes, so would that read ABS failure codes?

[E-bmw]

Kneedragger95 said:

Paddymcc said:

stick a code reader in the OBD port, go to the ABS / wheel speed sensors and see what each of the 4 of them are reading while the car is stationary.

Anything over 0 rpm and theres your fault.

All those safety systems you're describing are all linked to the wheel speed and if one of the sensors is reading higher than the others it will throw a panic and give you warning lights.

Edited by Paddymcc on Tuesday 26th March 17:00

Thank you, will any OBD code reader work? Many are listed as being useful for picking up engine fault codes, so would that read ABS failure codes?

no, you need one for all systems.

[sjc]

The battery you bought,was it a stop/start spec one ?

[Belle427]

The steering fault is very common and maybe dragging the rest of the system down, id certainly investigate that first if a specialist has part confirmed it.