3200- broken down

[2b1ask1]

Beau, may not be of much comfort but my lad's Saxo was not able to communicate that also used Magneti Marelli ECU the auto electrician also could not do anything with it. The suggestion there was it was wiring loom from the module to the reader socket, may be worth seeing if anyone has a direct reader and taking the module out to read it... Just a thought.

Good luck

 

[beau]

im going to give someone a call tomorrow who does ecu's and see if they can test my ecu, i dont know what to do with it right now, im not in the best financial position right this minute, having just bought my alfa (which im using so cant really sell it) and the car runs out of tax tomorrow and grimaldi doesnt really have anywhere to park it... bugger

 

[conaero]

With Eurospares next door surely Rob can borrow a used ECU to prove the ECU fault?

 

[marios kriticos]

Beau ,
This will be a wirring problem , we have never replaced an ECU here .

Marios

 

[conaero]

^^^wisdom from the master above.

You had the dash out looking for a squeak didnt you?

Get Rob to try a ECU from ES to prove its not that, then take it to an auto electrician, they are very good at this sort of thing.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Just a thought from a newby - many FIAT group vehicles are prone to immobiliser failure.
Initially it presents as inconsistent starting then progresses to total immobiliser failure - it will crank and pump fuel but not start.
It even happens to diesels - I had exactly this happen on an Iveco van and it was a major investigation to solve the problem, until a friend spoke to a friend who works for FIAT.
The 'unofficial' advice is to get a good auto electrician (preferably with FIAT experience) to rewire to bypass the immobiliser completely.
This is what we ended-up doing.

Worth inquiring/investigating?

 

[beau]

its coming back home tomorrow, roberto has done all he can within my budget.

il add when i get the list of what his done so far, as i can understand the sd2 wont initialize to the vehicle, he said he has never seen this before.

so expect alot more help required people cos im going to have to give this one a go diy style! (or find an auto electrician as said!)

roberto doesnt want to try another ecu incase there is a problem in the car which could damage the new ecu.

 

[Parisien]

Start at basics, battery connections, earth, then feeding out from main electrical units testing as you go, tedious but for a skilled auto-spark, bread and butter...and hopefully not too dear


P

 

[2b1ask1]

Beau, I'd start by taking off, cleaning and re-making all the earths you can find on the body, given that yours has had a re-spray this would be my hunch.

Perhaps starting with the ECU one

 

[Phil the Brit]

We had a problem with a car that we were fitting a radio to. Should be nice and simple but the fitter, when feeding some wires for an amp through the bulkhead near the existing loom sliced into a wire in the said existing loom. Bottom line is that it shorted the ecu. Unknowingly it was diagnosed with an ecu fault and we replaced it at a cost of £700. This immediately blew up on fitment. It needed yet another new ecu AND A WHOLE NEW WIRING LOOM (it was a car with a one piece wiring loom for the whole car). Total cost to our company was £3500 .all for the sale of sixty quid stereo and an amp!!
Moral......has anyone messed with any wiring in the car??

 

[beau]

We had a problem with a car that we were fitting a radio to. Should be nice and simple but the fitter, when feeding some wires for an amp through the bulkhead near the existing loom sliced into a wire in the said existing loom. Bottom line is that it shorted the ecu. Unknowingly it was diagnosed with an ecu fault and we replaced it at a cost of £700. This immediately blew up on fitment. It needed yet another new ecu AND A WHOLE NEW WIRING LOOM (it was a car with a one piece wiring loom for the whole car). Total cost to our company was £3500 .all for the sale of sixty quid stereo and an amp!!
Moral......has anyone messed with any wiring in the car??

its got a sound system in it, not fitted very nicely.

but the car cut out as i was driving along, not when messing around with anything

 

[CatmanV2]

Looms move and fray. It can happen

C

 

[davy83]

I would definitely check all the fuses. not just for blown links but poor seating, as i had problems especially with the ones under the passenger footwell coming out when the car hit bumps. Immobiliser could be causing this, but not able to communicate with the ECU I think is problem number 1 as with out this you have no error code to give you clues. See if David askew or maybe the guy in Ireland who seems to have a few scrap cars has an ECU you could try? Have you measured the battery voltage with a real meter? might be worth making sure it stays above 6V during cranking, other wise the ECU can wig out and not run properly. if the immobiliser has disabled the engine it will crank but no sparks, so try taking out one of the plugs and see you have sparks, same routine with fuel injector, you could look at injector power with a scope or a meter see if they are getting power. Are you sure its not CAM belt? does not sound like it but best make sure before you do a lot of starting trials. I have a crank and CAM sensor somewhere if you need a loan to do some swap out testing (no ECU sorry!).
Best of luck, but try to aim for an error code its the best way to work out whats happened.

 

[conaero]

Another thing to try, we have seen loose battery cables. You might snigger, but taking them off and refitting them has cured major issues like this.

Take out a few of the plugs and smell for petrol after cranking, if its heavy, you have injectors working.

Remember, all you need is fuel, compression and spark at the right time and the thing will run. You don't need expensive diagnostics for this just your nose, eyes and ears!

If it were me, i would take it to Mike Roberts, he is an expert at tracing wiring issues plus he has several spare cars which he uses to test parts like ecu's.

He designed the wiring for the Airbus so a Maserati is a dodle to him.

You could always get Rob to take your ecu and put it in another 3200 and see if it runs or a member on here will offer to do it for you I am sure?

 

[beau]

It was a ******* fuse!! Yes a bloody stupid 30 amp fuse, a month and £300 spent for a 7p fuse, ah well, all fixed and running now!! It was one under the little cover offside wing

 

[Parisien]

Thats a shame Beau...it really is...............BUT....its on the road....its not cost you an arm and a leg!


P

 

[Felonious Crud]

Well done, beau. I bet you don't know whether to be hugely frustrated or very relieved. Glad you identified the problem eventually, and that it was trivial. I'm bemused as to how a blown fuse can force things to *keep* working, though!

 

[beau]

Well done, beau. I bet you don't know whether to be hugely frustrated or very relieved. Glad you identified the problem eventually, and that it was trivial. I'm bemused as to how a blown fuse can force things to *keep* working, though!

I know, grimaldi was a bit stumped when i told them, the fans and fuel pump are now behaving normaly

 

[2b1ask1]

Well done Beau, hope the confidence regrows in her so you get to put the black interior in now....

 

[BennyD]

All's well that ends well! Something for us all to learn from. Italian 'character' strikes again.