Fiat Ducato won't start (1 Viewer)

[lthoel2]

After being a member for over a year, this will be my first post. We bought our Fiat Swift Royale 610L last March. My OH was recovering from prostate cancer. It was in need of a slight tidy up and we were getting along nicely with it, when in June he had a heart attack. We managed to use if for a few days at the end of September and then we parked it up on our drive.
Over Christmas and New Year we had been planning and looking forward to a summer tour around Scotland for a number of weeks. This Thursday it was going to have a solar panel fitted. Yesterday we thought we would take it off the drive and give it a run but that was a no go. It just wouldn't fire up. He's been religously starting it up and letting the engine run every few days and never had a problem. Not a clue what the problem is, someone is coming to look at it on Saturday, hope they can find the problem. It's also due a MOT next week. Things never go to plan...............Sorry for moaning

Linda + Tony

 

[busby]

You should not keep starting van up and running it. Battery does not recover for a long time and it causes excessive engine wear as engine is cold and oil thick..You are much better taking it for a ten mile drive every few weeks,,,,,,BUSBY.

 

[Mikey RV]

Good luck, hope it's something simple which I am sure it will be.

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[jockaneezer]

You're having a run of bad luck there, hopefully things will start to pick up for you both.
Is the engine turning over when you try and start it and have you got fuel in it ?
Mine hasn't been too happy starting this last week or so but there could only have been about 4 litres of fuel in the tank and everytime I turned the ignition on, you could hear the electric lift pump running, you hardly hear it once the tank is filled.

 

[Emmit]

Just a thought.
When you turn the key to show all the warning lights etc.
Do you go 'straight through' that sequence and try to get it to start.
I ask that because, as readers here will know, I tried to get ours to start last summer and the beast totally refused.
It transpired that I had the keys to our car in my pocket and the keys from the Audi "Fell out" with the anti theft device on the Ducato.
If that is the case with you, then make sure you don't have any other transponder type keys in the vicinity of the key to the 'van.'

The other thought is that, after you have put the key in the ignition of the 'van and turned it to show the warning lights, leave it in that position for a few secs. It may be that you have either,A, beaten the 'Anti Theft device' (little light in the bottom left hand corner of the speedo display showing the profile of a car with a padlock through it), or B, you haven't given the glow plugs sufficient time to do their stuff.

Sorry if I'm teaching Granny etc but we don't know how much you know or don't know, (other than the fact that I can hear the swear words coming from Chesterfield to Cornwall.!!!)

 

[Emmit]

Oh!!!

And welcome to the Forum

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[davidbaldam]

Hi and welcome to FUN, now you can see why people join the best motorhome forum on the net the advise is second to none, hope you get your van sorted, lets know what the problem is so others can benefit.

 

[maison]

As stated above

Turn on ignition
Do the icons etc on the dashboard light up?
If not, the battery is either completely flat, u/s, or a connection on the battery is loose. ( We had the last one on one of our M/H).

If the board lights up wait a few seconds and try to start.
Does the engine turn over but not start?
Possibly a fuel problem or the tank is empty.

This is a cheat - if not already a member of a recovery agency, AA, RAC etc. join and pay for home start. Leave 24 hours then ring them. They have a 24 hour moratorium on attending breakdowns.

We bought a new M/H a few years ago and kept having problems starting. The dashboard was dead when we had troubles. A Puegeot main agent changed the starter motor and then the alternator. When we called the AA the mechanic tightened a loose connection on the battery and all was OK.

Good luck.

 

[CWH]

Having no technical or mechanical knowledge I can offer no advice at all, but I can offer you both oodles of sympathy & hugs.

You're having a rough time; hope it improves soon & you get your Scotland trip (we did 3 months last year - it was fantastic) - you have a fabulous summer to look forward to! Broken Link Removed

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[MitchandJenny]

Good luck Ithoel2 and welcome to the best motorhome site on the net !!
Can you not connect your van to the house ?? Or is it too far away ??
You can make an adapter cable !!
I know this doesn't rectify your problem now, but it may help in future..
Don't you even get a click when you try and start ??
Can you get your car up in front of the van ?? Then you can connect it with Heavy duty cables called "jump leads".. If you are not SURE of how to connect, then get some one who is to do it for you....
Once again, good luck.. I'm sure it will all"end well".
Mitch..

 

[Carol]

Hi Linda and Tony, welcome to fun so sorry it's not the best of starts, our van would not start a couple off weeks ago, thought it was the battery, got a new one, still would not start so Eddie took the starter motor off got all the terminals nuts and wires cleaned put it back and it starts first time again, so could be worth checking it up.
Hope everything works out make use of the forum for help and support that's what it's all about.

 

[Greyfox]

Hope things sort them sort them selves out soon , I agree with the above, as ours had a wee sulk" and noticed that the lights on the dash were out' charged the battery and she soon was back to her normal self , enjoy your time in Bonnie Scotland.

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[tonka]

I can only add something that happened to me recently..
Car, used every day.. Failed to start, just kept turning over..

Suggestion was made (on here i think). try spare key., BINGO.
Up and running.. Seem's something had gone amiss with the transponder to immobiliser....
Worth a shot if the engine is turning....

 

[lthoel2]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. Firstly the motorhome had a full tank of fuel. We tried both the keys we had and the master key but no luck with any of them. It has also been connected to the mains electric over the winter so we assumed it couldn't be the battery that had run out.
The good news is that the repairer came today instead of Saturday and we are once again mobile. He got it going and it looks as though everything is on track again.
Apparantly it was something to do with the imobiliser and he said he had by passed it, so it now starts again. Thanks once again.

Linda + Tony

 

[MitchandJenny]

Hmmmm !! Velly intellesting !!

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[busby]

Good, glad your mobile again. Had my alarm and immobiliser removed from my van,,,it was immobilising it whilst i was driving...much happier without it. BUSBY.

 

[B-well]

Nice to hear you have sorted this problem out. Well done and Happy travels.