Autotrail Apache700 Dim Warning Light Problem

[trail66]

Can anyone offer any advice on the following? I have notice that 2 warning lights on my 2014 Fiat Ducato 150 base motorhome are dimly lit after turning the engine off and also remain dimly lit when the engine is running. They eventually turn off after a long period of time after the engine is turned off .The warning lights appear to function ok when you turn the ignition on i.e. brightly lit and extinguish (not fully) when they should.The warning lights in question are seat belt and ABS. They are only lit very dimly i.e. in bright day light they are barely visible. I have been told after ringing around that a new instrument cluster is required or possibly the instrument earth needs attention and this is a common fault on Fiat Ducato's

Do you think this fault would be covered by the MG 3rd year warranty? Does anyone know where the instrument earthing point is on a Fiat Ducato.

Has anyone else experienced this problem and what is the right course of action.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

[AlanS]

It is a known problem and you need a new instrument fascia - many of us have had it replaced. Fiat don't argue about it and usually instruct their service partners to undertake within the warranty period. I think officially you are supposed to go through your dealer as you are now in the extender warranty period but I would call the Fiat Camper line on their Freephone number and chat it through with their customer care ladies who are very helpful and explain to them. .

We had ours replaced when it was less than a year old and it took only about and hour to carry out the work.

Alan

[Charles]

Had a new instrument panel in our Peugeot boxer at 2 years old. Similar problem with dim warning lights with cruise control on.

[Derek Uzzell]

trail66

 

As has already been advised, a replacement instrument-cluster is required to cure the fault. (It’s not an earthing-related problem.) Replacement takes, literally, about 10 minutes.

 

Personally, I’d begin by contacting the nearest Fiat Professional agency as they’ll be well aware of the fault and the fix. I would anticipate that they’ll want to see the fault demonstrated (ie. the vehicle will need to be taken to the garage) before they will order a new instrument-cluster and, if the vehicle is outside Fiat’s warranty period, they may need to obtain authorisation from Fiat to carry out the work.

 

My 2015 Ducato-based Rapido had the same symptoms to begin with as your Auto-Trail (dim warning lights slow to extinguish) developing into the cruise-control light illuminating with cruise-control off. The cluster was replaced without argument.

 

(I understand that an instrument-cluster’s list-price is about £800, so get your skates on...)

[lennyhb]

Fiat refused to do mine under warranty, got it repaired by a company in Waterlooville for £150.

[david lloyd]

And for those who had the new cluster fitted - has it cured the problem entirely as I believe early in there were cases of the new cluster showing the same fault?

 

David

[Charles]

Ours is fixed. So far so good.

[Derek Uzzell]

david lloyd - 2016-11-20 11:09 AM

 

And for those who had the new cluster fitted - has it cured the problem entirely as I believe early in there were cases of the new cluster showing the same fault?

 

David

 

This July 2016 forum discussion may be of interest

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fiat-X250-Dash-Lights-Again/41136/

[spospe]

trail66 - 2016-11-19 8:23 PM

 

Can anyone offer any advice on the following? I have notice that 2 warning lights on my 2014 Fiat Ducato 150 base motorhome are dimly lit after turning the engine off and also remain dimly lit when the engine is running. They eventually turn off after a long period of time after the engine is turned off .The warning lights appear to function ok when you turn the ignition on i.e. brightly lit and extinguish (not fully) when they should.The warning lights in question are seat belt and ABS. They are only lit very dimly i.e. in bright day light they are barely visible. I have been told after ringing around that a new instrument cluster is required or possibly the instrument earth needs attention and this is a common fault on Fiat Ducato's

Do you think this fault would be covered by the MG 3rd year warranty? Does anyone know where the instrument earthing point is on a Fiat Ducato.

Has anyone else experienced this problem and what is the right course of action.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

 

It's a small point, but the above fault also appears on the Peugeot version of the X250, I have been experiencing this issue off and on with my Boxer based 'van and have had two panels changed under warranty. It seems strange that FIAT / Peugeot (and presumably Citroen) still are experiencing this fault as I would have thought that they would have produced a revised design of immune panel by now.

[Colin Leake]

I've had the panel replaced under warranty on our Peugeot . Had to take it in twice because there are two different panels. Manager told me they've replaced loads mainly on vans. They've not had to replace any twice.

[Charles]

Colin Leake - 2016-11-20 10:30 PM

 

I've had the panel replaced under warranty on our Peugeot . Had to take it in twice because there are two different panels. Manager told me they've replaced loads mainly on vans. They've not had to replace any twice.

 

That's good to know, thanks.

[david lloyd]

Derek Uzzell - 2016-11-20 5:28 PM

 

david lloyd - 2016-11-20 11:09 AM

 

And for those who had the new cluster fitted - has it cured the problem entirely as I believe early in there were cases of the new cluster showing the same fault?

 

David

 

This July 2016 forum discussion may be of interest

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fiat-X250-Dash-Lights-Again/41136/

 

Thank you Derek. I haven't bothered with trying to get the speedo cluster changed on the basis that there was a likelihood the fault would just reoccur - it must have been the thread you posted the link to that put that in my mind. Neither have I had the software change to backlight the panel although it does suffer from the difficult to read syndrome.

 

Later in the post you mention that Fiat issued a new part number which may indicate that the 'problem' on the original supply of these instrument clusters was not rectified and a completely new cluster replaced it that seems to have completely cured the issue.

 

If this is the case I should now consider contacting Fiat Camper customer assist and registering the fault(s) but we are due to set off for Spain in the next few weeks so it may have to wait until next spring,

 

David

[Derek Uzzell]

David

 

As long as the warning-light situation is as trail66 describes - the lights continue to glow faintly even after the vehicle’s ignition is switched off - the problem can be lived with. As I said earlier this was what happened with my Rapido initially.

 

When I took the vehicle to a Fiat Professional agency to have the ignition-switch safety-recall change made, the service manager mentioned the warning-light issue. I said that my instrument lights did the faint-glowing thing, but they eventually turned off so I didn’t much care. He said that there was every chance that things could worsen and, sure enough, when I turned the ignition on a few weeks later the cruise-control light illuminated spontaneously.

 

There’s no certainty which warning-lights will start to illuminate wrongly so (for example) if an important light - say the ABS fault-light - switches itself on when there is actually no fault, if a fault does develop the light won’t be any use as a fault-indicator. The other potential difficulty is further down the line when the vehicle comes up for its MOT-test and is likely to be out of warranty. If a critical warning-light is illuminating wrongly, the vehicle will fail the test and there may be a big bill if Citroen/Fiat/Peugeot won’t play ball.

 

You should definitely advise Fiat Camper or a Fiat Professional agency that your Ducato exhibits this fault. The ‘fix’ is very quick and there should not be a long delay in obtaining the replacement cluster. I’ve not read of any instances where the warning-light problem has affected the vehicle’s on-road behaviour, but if you aren’t going abroad for a few weeks you could probably have the swap made before you go.

 

I think you may have to go through Fiat Camper to have the backlighting modification made as this is not considered by Fiat to address a ‘fault’ and is only done if a Ducato owner requests it. (I also think it only applies to X290 models.) Not sure how long it takes to make the software revision as I chose to go my own way and front-light the instruments. If you want the cluster replacement and the backlighting mod to be carried out at the same time, you might need to wait until you return from abroad. A Fiat Professional agent should be able to advise.

[trail66]

Hi Thanks to everyone who posted helpful comments. Contacted the agent on the Monday who in turn made a request to Fiat and a new Panel /instrument cluster was fitted the following Friday (yesterday) free of charge. Fault cleared.

Thanks again for the advice. Trail 66

[Solarhomer]

I have a Bailey on a Peugeot and I am on my 4th Instrument panel. My problem was related to the cruise control causing warning lights to glow. New panels are approx £800 fitted.

[Derek Uzzell]

The critical issue seems to be which replacement instrument-cluster is fitted.

 

My understanding is that Fiat and Peugeot had initially replaced instrument-clusters on an exact like-for-like basis and (unsurprisingly) the replacement would then also fail. This could happen repeatedly.

 

I’ve been told that a different instrument-cluster (with a revised part number) is now been fitted when replacement is carried out and (supposedly) this new cluster has addressed (and cured) whatever was causing the problem.

[artheytrate]

I went on to our 2014 Peugeot based motorhome yesterday to check all ok and I noticed 3 warning lights dimly lit, I contacted Peugeot today and it's booked in for next week for check over and if needed dash panel will be fitted.our van has done 20,500 miles and this as only just shown up.

 

John.

[Charles]

artheytrate - 2016-12-06 6:08 PM

 

I went on to our 2014 Peugeot based motorhome yesterday to check all ok and I noticed 3 warning lights dimly lit, I contacted Peugeot today and it's booked in for next week for check over and if needed dash panel will be fitted.our van has done 20,500 miles and this as only just shown up.

 

John.

 

That's a similar age and mileage to when ours went faulty, 2 years and 18,000 miles. Had a new panel fitted in Chesterfield a few months ago and it's still OK... last time I checked.

[Derek Uzzell]

My 2015 Ducato X290 began to exhibit ‘dim light’ symptoms within 6 months of manufacture, worsening before a year was out into spurious instrument warning lights illuminating.

 

It would be wise to check carefully for the dim warning lights fault, as it’s not always that evident unless it’s dark and you are actually looking for it. The Fiat Professional service manager I spoke to told me that some Ducato owners had been unaware of the fault being present on their vehicle until it was demonstrated to them.

[mike13]

Can anyone advise please, if they have had a dash replaced out of warranty period, mine's has gone again only i am now nearly a year out of warranty!

 

Thanks

[artheytrate]

Try this company they repair your panel and give warranty for a total of £150.

 

fiat ducato 3 dash clocks

FIAT DUCATO MK3 VAN AND MOTOR HOME INSTRUMENT CLUSTER DASH REPAIR 2007 - 2016

 

Fiat Ducato MK3 Van and Motorhome Instrument Cluster or Speedometer problems ? Digital Dashboard repair and LCD replacement for Fiat. Cartronix are specialists for Fiat Cluster repairs.

 

More Info >

Fiat

Price: £150.00 INCLUDING VAT

 

 

John.

 

http://www.cartronix.co.uk/

[mike13]

Thanks John

 

I'm ready to send off to them, when i take the cluster out that is, just curious if anyone had a replacement done outside of warranty, previously read the owner of that company and his own failing Ducato dash!

[Derek Uzzell]

mike13

 

There’s been a good deal of on-line discussion about this problem and some of the comments suggest that instrument-clusters have been replaced free-of-charge despite the vehicle’s warranty having expired.

 

Suggest you complain to Peugeot, point out that the problem is well known (which Peugeot will undoubtedly be aware of) and (politely) demand a replacement. The worst thing that can happen is that Peugeot says no.

[mike13]

Derek Uzzell - 2017-01-18 2:12 PM

 

mike13

 

There’s been a good deal of on-line discussion about this problem and some of the comments suggest that instrument-clusters have been replaced free-of-charge despite the vehicle’s warranty having expired.

 

Suggest you complain to Peugeot, point out that the problem is well known (which Peugeot will undoubtedly be aware of) and (politely) demand a replacement. The worst thing that can happen is that Peugeot says no.

 

I think i will look into this, i've had other issues with Peugeot that have not been resolved so initially they will refuse this, i've got legal cover with my union so will give them a initial phone call to see how they view it.

 

Thanks, Mike

[monique.hubrechtsgm]

I had a recall on my 2015 fiat contact switch who can go in off mode during running. When replacing this he saw some lights keep burning in the cluster softly. He said a new cluster should be placed. Still can not read the cluster during day light running as the speed Odo. How is this solved by fiat in the Uk?