Fiat Motorhome battery

[Roy Burton]

My wife and I bought a Jayco Optimum, Fiat Ducato based motorhome two years ago but had not had the opportunity to use it a great deal, so it has only been driven 3,200 kilometers. Over Christmas we went to the south of Western Australia and spent a few days at three different places, the last one being Hamlyn Bay, where we stayed for five days. We left Hamlyn Bay to start driving home and within five minutes a sign came up on the dashboard saying "gear not available". The engine was running but there was no traction. We rolled to a stop at the side of the road. I looked under the bonnet and checked the oil and other things and all seemed OK. After about five minutes I tried again. I started the engine and away we went, but again, five minutes later, the same sign came up and we rolled to a halt again.

 

The motorhome was towed to Bunbury Fiat and my wife and I drove home to Perth in our Daihatsu Terrios, which we tow behind the motorhome. Yesterday we drove down to Bunbury to pick up the motorhome. The service manager explained that there was no problem with the vehicle but that the battery was not storing enough power. The battery was replaced and all was fine. Apparently there is a large amount of electronics controlling the automatic transmission and if the battery is not at full capacity the automatic transmission is likely to fail. This is something that I think all Fiat motorhome owners should be aware of. I was always under the impression that all the battery did was start the engine. Apparently not.

 

While we were at Bunbury Fiet there was another Fiat van there, the same model but almost new, and it had the same problem. It is apparently not uncommon.

 

 

[Guest Peter James]

Welcome to the Forum Roy, and Thanks for an Informative Post :-)