Intermittently not starting, warning light says 'gearbox failure'

Hello Joe,
Thank you so much for getting back to me. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you; I was waiting to hear back from my friend - the car owner for the latest update.

She confirmed that the diagnostic test showed a fault with the ECU (engine control unit - which is probably the equivalent of your engine control module), she has now been told that the ECU needs to be sent away to be fixed at a cost of approximately  250 ($300.00 USD?). She has been advised however that if she sends it off and gets it fixed it might not be the cause of the problem.

My friend would like a second opinion on what she has been told, especially seeing as she will have to pay out the  250 to have the ECU looked at (and fixed if necessary) even if it does not solve the problem of the car intermittently not starting. So we would be very grateful if you could offer any further advice in the light of this new information.

Many thanks,

Carol

Many thanks for your detailed and very informative reply Joe.

I agree that it sounds a bit unusual that the ECU needs to be fixed. I will pass on your information to my friend and it could be that your advice and insight may save her from spending out a couple of hundred pounds unnecessarily and still be left with the fault.

I, and my friend (Margaret) are very grateful for all your time and effort and advice, Joe.

Thank you so much, and have a blessed day.

Carol

Hello Joe,

My friend Margaret and I are' very grateful for your continued offer of help.

Margaret's mechanic sent off the ECU/ECM to the Fiat manufactures to be looked at and they sent it back because there is nothing wrong with it - so you were right Joe! Fortunately they did not charge anything for looking at it.

I have just noticed on your website (great site by the way - you guys are so helpful giving all this information out for free!) There is a video about vehicles not starting, so having watched that I am wondering whether it is one of the things mentioned there - such as 'the frequency chip' inside the key; or perhaps it is the engine compression readings, or maybe the starter motor; or the fuel delivery system (by the way, she had the fuel pump replaced a couple of weeks before the problem occurred), or then again it could be a fault with the battery cable connection (she had a new battery fitted just at the same time as she had the fuel pump replaced). I probably should mention that the car had been sitting unused for several years before she recently got it back on the road again - hence the need for a new battery and a new fuel pump.

I have just told Margaret to ask her mechanic to check each fuel injector and the fuel pump (as per your video) and also to check the battery cable for tightness and for any corrosion to the battery cable ends (I am becoming quite the armchair mechanic! :) So hopefully that will eliminate these two possibilities. By the way, can you clarify for me what you mean by 'crank shaft', is it what we here in the UK call the 'gear-box'? I ask this because 'gearbox failure' was the warning message that appeared on the dashboard before the fault occurred and there is something mentioned in your video about a crank shaft which might be relevant, if it is the same as gear box.

Something that might help with your diagnosis is that Margaret said when it intermittently will not start there is no engine noise whatsoever - i.E. The engine does not try and fire or turn over, there is just silence. Does that narrow it down to certain possible faults?

Many thanks in advance for any further advice you can offer.

Kind regards, and have a good day.
Carol

Hi again Joe, and many thanks for yet another detailed and informative reply, which I have passed on to Margaret for her mechanic.

I should also mention that the car is currently at the home of the mechanic (who is a friend of Margaret's) so she cannot test any of the things you mentioned. She is having to just pass on the information to him and hope that he will take it on board (he did not listen the last time when you said it probably was not a fault with the ECU/ECM, so maybe he will now! :)

Another friend of Margaret suggested it could be the immobilizer - because she has been using the spare key (into the door and for the ignition) since she got the car back on the road again a few months ago, because the the main key (which operates the central locking system) has been mislaid. Could this have had any effect on the immobilizer do you think? Sorry, more questions.

It is very funny that you mention about wanting to come to the UK, because last week Margaret said to me that as you have been so kind and helpful I should ask you to let us know if you ever come to visit the UK as we would love to meet you and treat you to a nice meal. We could also show you around London as we do not live too far from there. So anytime Joe - just let us know!

Thanks again Joe, and have a blessed day.

Carol (and Margaret)
P.S. Please congratulate Ken on the website - it is exceptional in terms of the content, ease of use and navigation. I get very frustrated with websites that are not user-friendly and waste a lot of my time trying to navigate to find what I am looking for. I speak from experience as my job (until I retired a few years ago) was website designer and developer for a large multi-national company. By the way I visited the US several times during the course of my job (Houston, Tulsa, Chicago, New York, Denver) plus I have been to San Francisco on holiday!

Hi Joe and thanks for your reply re the immobilizer/car keys, I will pass it on to Margaret.

Re Shakespeare, I hope you will not mind me correcting you but his birthplace is Stratford-upon-Avon (or Stratford for short. I would not want you going to the wrong place if you ever were to visit the UK!) For information, there is a holiday company in the UK called 'HF Holidays' they have large Country Houses dotted around the UK. One of the houses (called Harrington House) is based in the Cotswolds, which is not far from Stratford, and they run holidays which are centered around the love of Shakespeare. So the format tends to be that you stay at the Country House for three days, and get taken to Stratford by coach after breakfast each day, then you have the morning to look around Stratford, and after lunch go and watch one of Shakespere's plays in the afternoon. Then you get taken by coach back to the Country House in the evening where everyone joins together at large communal tables to chat about the days events over lovely home-made food. So single people feel very comfortable as well as couples. If you stay choose to stay on for the whole week you can then have some free time to look around the area where the country house is located (Bourton-on-the-Water) which is a beautiful part of the Cotswolds. You could include this as part of your trip to the UK. I have stayed there on a couple of occasions myself and they are great fun, and good value for money as everything (apart from drinks from the bar) is included. There are usually one or two Americans staying there plus people from all over Europe, and they seem to love it!

Check out the details on their website: https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/just-shakespeare/

Or this one is a guided walking tour of places of interest relating to William Shakespeare (if you are into walking): https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/shakespeare-way/

Have a great weekend Joe, and I will keep you posted about Margaret's car.

Carol

LOL :)

Re Margaret's car; the mechanic is taking it back to another mechanic in the next day or two to see if it was anything he did when he worked on it before it went in for its MOT a few weeks before the fault developed. I will let you know what the outcome is.

Have a good day Joe.

Carol