Fiat X290 ABS/Comformatic problems (1 Viewer)

[Lenny HB]

In Spain at the moment and the van through a bit of a wobbly today.

A bit of background first, a few ago months at 14000 miles ago I swapped the spare onto RHS front, the other side had about 4mm tread depth. On a few a occasions I have had the LHS front wheel tramping and the traction control cutting in. I had put it down to the more worn tyre on that side. So before this trip as the LHS front had done 19000 now I swapped one of the rears to the front which had a bit more tread. With this arrangement it did it again just the once a few days ago.

Now today's problem I had just pulled out of a parking area started up a hill the van virtually stops, both front wheels tramping engine running traction control comes on, front wheels burning rubber. Engine almost stalls a few times, we are stationary burning rubber it appears like the traction control is putting the brakes on and the engine is fighting it. No sign of clutch slipping but loverly smell of burning rubber and big black marks on the road.

I reversed back down to a fairly flat bit, tried again the same problem on the flat. Turned ignition off restarted and all was fine.

Half a mile later come to a steep hill starts off fine part the way up van slows down but revs try to stay up, it the changes to 2nd and is all OK. A bit weird as Comformatic is only a robotised manual and there was no sign of a slipping clutch. I'm thinking the brakes may have been coming on.

Next we come to a really big hill so I flipped it into manual and had no problems at all getting up it.

These hills were in quick succession as we were going around a mountainous wildlife park.

My thoughts are it could be an ABS sensor or ABS ECU problem.

Just hoping someone has had similar problems and give me some guidance.

 

[Minxy]

Oh hell ... maybe we should have stuck with the manual version for our new MH! I ain't gonna tell hubby about this thread. ?

Hope you get it sorted Lenny ...

 

[Taran_Las]

Good luck Lenny. Fingers crossed it doesn't let you down.

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[Rob Turner]

Trip to a dealer is in order as it’s still under warranty.

 

[Lenny HB]

Trip to a dealer is in order as it’s still under warranty.

Unfortunately not under warranty it's 2½ years old.

 

[Just smiffy]

If you’ve got the tools, get it up and wire brush the abs sensors and check all the wiring, a wire may have got caught when wheel was changed..?

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[DavidG58]

Interesting it hasn’t brought up a management light of some kind to generate a fault code

Best of luck finding the fault and for a cheap repair ?

 

[Macca1954]

Quick one check you haven’t broken a front coil spring. Had this happen on a car causing the front wheel on one side to tramp/ bounce and threw the abs into meltdown. Took a bit of sorting but that was the cause

 

[tonyidle]

The traction control operates by detecting a difference in wheel revolutions one side to the other. It seems hardly likely that it would be sensitive to the very small tyre size variation caused by your swaps but might be worth a check. I agree that it's worth checking the toothed rings as well. I don't believe it has anything to do with the clutch or gearbox.

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[Rob Turner]

Unfortunately not under warranty it's 2½ years old.

Sorry Lenny, I didn’t realise you’d had it that long.
Time flies and all that.

I wouldn’t think your problem is too much to worry about, probably something really simple.

 

[Stealaway]

Quick one check you haven’t broken a front coil spring. Had this happen on a car causing the front wheel on one side to tramp/ bounce and threw the abs into meltdown. Took a bit of sorting but that was the cause

I've just had a spate of broken springs on the whole families cars, including both my rears. Springs don't seem to be made of spring steel any more.

 

[Macca1954]

I've just had a spate of broken springs on the whole families cars, including both my rears. Springs don't seem to be made of spring steel any more.

Chinese steel,ex bean cans and potholes?

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[Lenny HB]

If you’ve got the tools, get it up and wire brush the abs sensors and check all the wiring, a wire may have got caught when wheel was changed..?

Not getting under there with a Fiat sissor jack proping it up.
Don't think it's a sensor as ABS light not coming on.

Quick one check you haven’t broken a front coil spring. Had this happen on a car causing the front wheel on one side to tramp/ bounce and threw the abs into meltdown. Took a bit of sorting but that was the cause

No springs, Goldschmitt full air suspension I would soon know if anything was wrong

The traction control operates by detecting a difference in wheel revolutions one side to the other. It seems hardly likely that it would be sensitive to the very small tyre size variation caused by your swaps but might be worth a check. I agree that it's worth checking the toothed rings as well. I don't believe it has anything to do with the clutch or gearbox.

I was thinking about grip levels on the tyres but on the hill traction control was effecting both wheels. So I'm thinking more likely to be the ABS ECU. Strange that it performed perfectly in manual mode but the fault is probably intermittent.

 

[pappajohn]

TC will only apply the brake to the spinning wheel which will put all the load, and some, on the opposite wheel momentarily.
Because you're going uphill that may be enough to start that wheel spinning and TC has braked it so the other, which now won't be braked, has taken the strain and lost traction.
And repeat.... Repeatedly.
By reversing and getting another run you probably got a better run at the hill and missed any possible fuel or oil spill which caused it in the first place.... A bit of old diesel spill would be hard to notice if you weren't looking for it.
If it was an ABS reluctor ring I would expect it to be permenant with a code and dash light

 

[Vipar]

Last time I had that sensation I had left the diff lock on. Disengaged it all was fine, but my pooper was going thinking about the cost.

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[Sasbo]

Interesting, I had a very similar symptoms two motorhomes ago with 150bhp and comfortmatic with traction+ option when in the French Alps.

Happened twice, stopped both times and had to restart twice, leaving a few minutes between and the fault cleared. Checked with OBD reader I always carry and no fault recorded. Never happened again in the year after while I had the motorhome.

Maybe this is not much help but it may be the same and not occur again.

Just remembered, stopped, turned off ignition and locked doors with key remote, waited a couple of minutes and restarted.

 

[HandyAndy]

when you say you "think" the brakes are coming on... is that just by feel (either a pulsing brake pedal or the van slowing down) or are you actually hearing a BRRRRRRR from the traction pump?
You SHOULD be able to HEAR the traction working (if it is) if you are not Mutton Jeff.

Bed time now though so post will have to wait

 

[Lenny HB]

TC will only apply the brake to the spinning wheel which will put all the load, and some, on the opposite wheel momentarily.
Because you're going uphill that may be enough to start that wheel spinning and TC has braked it so the other, which now won't be braked, has taken the strain and lost traction.
And repeat.... Repeatedly.
By reversing and getting another run you probably got a better run at the hill and missed any possible fuel or oil spill which caused it in the first place.... A bit of old diesel spill would be hard to notice if you weren't looking for it.
If it was an ABS reluctor ring I would expect it to be permenant with a code and dash light

That was exactly one of my thoughts but then on the next hill it did the strange slowing down but recovered when it changed into second.

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[Lenny HB]

when you say you "think" the brakes are coming on... is that just by feel (either a pulsing brake pedal or the van slowing down) or are you actually hearing a BRRRRRRR from the traction pump?
You SHOULD be able to HEAR the traction working (if it is) if you are not Mutton Jeff.

Bed time now though so post will have to wait

Had my foot on the gas do wouldn't feel the brakes. Traction light comes on and you get a loud thumping noise and the wheels are trying to spin but getting stopped, then released do they spin up and burn rubber.

 

[Lenny HB]

Interesting, I had a very similar symptoms two motorhomes ago with 150bhp and comfortmatic with traction+ option when in the French Alps.

Happened twice, stopped both times and had to restart twice, leaving a few minutes between and the fault cleared. Checked with OBD reader I always carry and no fault recorded. Never happened again in the year after while I had the motorhome.

Maybe this is not much help but it may be the same and not occur again.

Just remembered, stopped, turned off ignition and locked doors with key remote, waited a couple of minutes and restarted.

Now that sounds very interesting, problem when you get this sort of fault it gets very worrying. We love mountains but worried about taking it into the mountains now, 1st week of a 6 week trip.
Another problem is with the traction plus the traction control is on all the time and you can't turn it off.

 

[Sasbo]

Are you not able to engage/disengage traction+ with the switch on the lower dashboard? Might be getting this wrong but isn't there a message displayed in the instrument panel led screen when you press the switch with the traction+ symbol?

Can't check on my current motorhome as whilst I prefer automatic, I went for manual and no traction+ option due to niggling issues experienced on previous ones.

Hope this resolves itself and doesn't spoil what seems to have been a great trip.

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[Just smiffy]

Empty out all that over weight wine you’ve got in the garage, the front is too light...??

 

[Sasbo]

This video shows you can engage/disengage traction +.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...BMAF6BAgIEAQ&usg=AOvVaw34nIHnr5Hx1GMkpRCsabHl

[/URL]
Hope this is if some help.

 

[Sasbo]

Link appears corrupted. Will try again.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...Vaw34nIHnr5Hx1GMkpRCsabHl&cshid=1569482611148

[/URL]

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[Lenny HB]

X290 with traction plus the traction is on all the time the switch just turns on traction plus

 

[joka250]

Just read my Fiat manual for 2015 X290 with Comfortmatic. Traction + is switched off automatically when starting up and activated by pressing extreme right button of 7 centre dash.
SORRY, bit slow there. Still reading manuals and workshop bumf.

 

[StephDeLux]

The traction control operates by detecting a difference in wheel revolutions one side to the other. It seems hardly likely that it would be sensitive to the very small tyre size variation caused by your swaps but might be worth a check. I agree that it's worth checking the toothed rings as well. I don't believe it has anything to do with the clutch or gearbox.

I don't have experience with Fiat traction control, but I do with different 4x4 vehicles. On a 4x4 it is mandatory to swap front and rear tyres every 10,000 km, it is recommended every 5,000. The difference in thread is enough to cause early wearing out of a central differential or even worse for those with a multi-disc clutch instead of a differential.

Given that, I wouldn't be surprised the difference in thread caused some problem in the traction control behaviour.

What I'do: try to get 2 tyres with the same thread depth on the front axle and see if there is a way to reset the electronics (I have no idea on how to do that). If no improvement I'd head to Fiat.

On any vehicle, it is never recommended to change only one tyre on an axle, it will always cause unbalances in behaviour, mostly for breaking.

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[Lenny HB]

Just read my Fiat manual for 2015 X290 with Comfortmatic. Traction + is switched off automatically when starting up and activated by pressing extreme right button of 7 centre dash.
SORRY, bit slow there. Still reading manuals and workshop bumf.

That is right the switch only effects traction plus, not the basic traction control.

 

[pandas]

Now that sounds very interesting, problem when you get this sort of fault it gets very worrying. We love mountains but worried about taking it into the mountains now, 1st week of a 6 week trip.
Another problem is with the traction plus the traction control is on all the time and you can't turn it off.

I have some time this morning - if you want me to do a bit of research like finding the nearest 'professional' dealer is happy to do so. From what I have read so far from the posts it doesn't sound like something a (very) Competent DIYer type of job to me. I also would not want to be stuck on a mountain pass either! So take the medicine and get it looked at. Let me know if you need any help and your rough location.
Actually what 'StephanBosman' mentioned sounds a really good call.

 

[jezport]

As mentioned earlier check ABS sensors and leads also check the ABS rings are not damaged, dirty or rusty and clean with wire brush.

Im not a fan of the comfortmatic, too many horror stories. At least they now make a Ducato with a proper auto

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