Found elswhere
I've posted this in the hope that it will help others with a similar issue save time and lots of money trying to solve it. Searching round the web for a solution I found plenty of people who'd had this problem, but nobody - except one - appeared to have the answer.
Right - the problem.
Fiat Ducato 2.8 JTD, 2004, Hobby 600. Driving home from our first trip away in the van at New Year, the injector warning light came on. I pulled over, looked up what the warning light meant in the handbook. No misfires, no difference in engine, so as I was 15 miles from home, and it was dark, I set off and got home without issue. As I pulled away, I noticed that the speedometer had failed and that the glowplug light flashed on and off for around 20 seconds after starting.
So, given that several issues arose at once, I suspected electronics. BUT how to track it down. As mentioned above, I found several posts where people had had all or some of the same failures, with a variety of different - and sometimes very expensive - solutions. Answers ranged from short injector leads causing a short to failed fuel pumps.
Some suggested pulling fuse 17 in the engine compartment - but this was OK in my case.
So, eventually I popped it up to my local garage for a diagnostic check. This found the speedo error, a problem with piston three in the fuel pump, an issue with the glowplugs and a plate heater failure (incidentally, I bought a cheap diagnostic detector on eBay which said everything was OK).
The local garage rang a diesel specialist, who thought there might be a major electrical issue. I booked in there two days later.
They called me after a couple of hours, having tracked down the problem - partly. Whatever they did, Fuse 15 kept blowing, but they couldn't find out why. They'd all but given up, pointing me to an expert auto electrician. I searched for Fuse 15 problems with Ducatos and eventually found one post, probably from a mechanic, who said the issue was a fuse/relay in a breather pipe - it's not needed, but when it fails, it knocks out Fuse 15 and around half a dozen unrelated electronics. I rang the garage, back, they tried it, and it worked.
The connector is on the centre right of the engine, about halfway down, on a black pipe about an inch in diameter. It didn't show on the wiring diagram, but I think it's for a cold weather version of the vehicle, where it will power a heater for the air entering the engine (the plate heater, possibly)?
Anyway, problem solved - hopefully this will help solve yours too. I don't think it's that uncommon, but solutions seem to be. The solution could be as cheap as a replacement fuse, but I've seen reports of people spending hundreds with Fiat dealers to get it fixed. Perhaps they really know what it is, but like to keep it quiet...
I've posted this in the hope that it will help others with a similar issue save time and lots of money trying to solve it. Searching round the web for a solution I found plenty of people who'd had this problem, but nobody - except one - appeared to have the answer.
Right - the problem.
Fiat Ducato 2.8 JTD, 2004, Hobby 600. Driving home from our first trip away in the van at New Year, the injector warning light came on. I pulled over, looked up what the warning light meant in the handbook. No misfires, no difference in engine, so as I was 15 miles from home, and it was dark, I set off and got home without issue. As I pulled away, I noticed that the speedometer had failed and that the glowplug light flashed on and off for around 20 seconds after starting.
So, given that several issues arose at once, I suspected electronics. BUT how to track it down. As mentioned above, I found several posts where people had had all or some of the same failures, with a variety of different - and sometimes very expensive - solutions. Answers ranged from short injector leads causing a short to failed fuel pumps.
Some suggested pulling fuse 17 in the engine compartment - but this was OK in my case.
So, eventually I popped it up to my local garage for a diagnostic check. This found the speedo error, a problem with piston three in the fuel pump, an issue with the glowplugs and a plate heater failure (incidentally, I bought a cheap diagnostic detector on eBay which said everything was OK).
The local garage rang a diesel specialist, who thought there might be a major electrical issue. I booked in there two days later.
They called me after a couple of hours, having tracked down the problem - partly. Whatever they did, Fuse 15 kept blowing, but they couldn't find out why. They'd all but given up, pointing me to an expert auto electrician. I searched for Fuse 15 problems with Ducatos and eventually found one post, probably from a mechanic, who said the issue was a fuse/relay in a breather pipe - it's not needed, but when it fails, it knocks out Fuse 15 and around half a dozen unrelated electronics. I rang the garage, back, they tried it, and it worked.
The connector is on the centre right of the engine, about halfway down, on a black pipe about an inch in diameter. It didn't show on the wiring diagram, but I think it's for a cold weather version of the vehicle, where it will power a heater for the air entering the engine (the plate heater, possibly)?
Anyway, problem solved - hopefully this will help solve yours too. I don't think it's that uncommon, but solutions seem to be. The solution could be as cheap as a replacement fuse, but I've seen reports of people spending hundreds with Fiat dealers to get it fixed. Perhaps they really know what it is, but like to keep it quiet...