Motor Control System Failure - Check your Battery

Sounds like my MCSFs could be down to sticking turbo vanes making the car trip out on overboost. The Alfa main dealer has changed the EGR valve, turbo boost sensor and accelerator body but a local specialist is saying sticking vanes, can't be much left in there affecting the turbo presure surely?

It's off to the garage tonight and staying until the end of the week so fingers crossed. A shiny new turbo wouldn't go a miss!

Joining the club in more ways then one.

I have had my 2003 156 JTS 2,0 for about 2 months now, I purchased it from my local Evans Halshaw Motorhouse, who are NOT Alfa Dealers.

Before I purchased it, I had a look around it and the sales person said they would get the keys and start it up so I could hear it running. Well he got the keys, put them in the ignition and nothing, dead battery.
I think that this was mainly due to them having all their cars on display with the Doors & Boot open all day. They jumped it of and away it went instantly, I liked it but said I would be looking at others before I made a decision on buying one. I did like it though, so I decided to go back a couple of days later and take it for a test run and when it came to starting it up, it would not Start Flat Battery. Again they jumped it of and away it went. But in all this time it did not show any warning and the MCSF was not illuminating.

Anyway I had had to take the car back today due to it knocking on the front O/S and it was booked in for the MOT, it turned out the knocking was the Antiroll Bar. Sorted.

Well when I came to collecting my car they told me they had sorted it out and it no longer knocked, they were correct. But I got 500 yards down the road and Beep, Beep, Beep, Motor Control System Failure, report to the dealer, ARGHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh.

It was perfectly fine until they got their hand on it, why has it started now, do you think it could just be my battery with the history or is it potentially something worse?

You views would be appreciated, Oh and by the time I got back to the garage 5 mins later the service manager had gone home.

This definitely could be down to battery according to the issues you've had with the battery. Get them to change it or you can buy a heavy duty one.
Please let us know if you resolve this.

At what point does the light come on? Do you get it when you accelerate sharply?

BTW, the car looks nice.

Originally Posted by topalfauser

This definitely could be down to battery according to the issues you've had with the battery. Get them to change it or you can buy a heavy duty one.
Please let us know if you resolve this.

At what point does the light come on? Do you get it when you accelerate sharply?

BTW, the car looks nice.

Yes the warning did come on when I accelerated quickly, but then it just stayed on permanently. It did go of for half a day but it is continuously back on now.

Hi, first post,
I've been following this thread. My question (to anyone who wants to listen) is how do I get the failure warning off the dash? My car is an '02 156 1.8TS with the newer dash; the interactive one! Do I have to go to a garage to get it turned off or will disconnectin g the battery get rid of it? The car runs as well as it did before, that is nothing like my Fiat Coupe 20V. God I miss the torque and power. My son is getting bigger so I needed a back door.
On batterys causing trouble, when I went to london to buy my Coupe two years ago it started first time but then started doing strange things, cutting out while driving, alarm going off at random. I was crossing somet raffic when it died with oncoming traffic and had to jump out and push it out of the way. Really stressful for a Kerryman from Eire in the middle of London. Anyway, I put a new battery in that day, drove it home and never had a problem since.
I'd appreciate any help with the falt on the screen.
Regards, Dave..

Thank you so much. I have been worried as to what may have caused this. I also got this 1st thing in the morning and when driving at night with full lights on and I accelerate, the car would jerk for a second and be ok again. I also found that it was worse in cold weather also confirming that the battery was on the way out. New battery fitted now and all is good.

just a quick question....

Can I run my Alfa 147 Selespeed with a MOTOR CONTOL SYSTEM FAILURE light on.. without problems???....

I know it's obvious that the light indicates the motor requires my attention... but do you think I endanger my engine by running it with the light on?

Fireryfella,
This could be one of a number of things from MAF, pedal potentiometer, throttle pot, ECU...
Firstly, get the diagnostic done to narrow down the problem cause.
ALso get the battery checked out. If possible get the battery replaced if it's still the battery that came with the car.

R.

Diamond Dave,

You need to get the diagnostic tool on the car to reset the fault.

R.

thealfarockstar,

For peace of mind, it's best to run the diagnostics on the car to understand what the light relates to. Then you can safely decide to simply clear the fault code or to investigate further.

R.

Thanks topalfauser,
You are correct, disconnecting the battery (and shorting +ve & -ve on the car) didn't work. Neither did my homemade code keeper!!! So now the only noise I have is the whine of the front wheel bearing to keep me company.
D.

I 'm also an Alfa Newbie ( 20 Years with V DuB) and I have also been having a similar experience with my 147. Today on the drive into work I got the dreaded message Motor überwachungs system fehler ( Which translates to the same thing) So I#m going to have fun talking to the dealer later today . On the other hand being a man of little patience I may go and purchase a battery as I haven't the inclination to try and explain it again in Pigeon German to my local dealer and I due back in the UK next week. Another thing is , since last week I have had Number plate light failure , low oil pressure , ice on road (Even when its been 10degrees) over the last week since I took the car back( Thankfully its under guarentee) and now the motor control system failure light as pushed me to thinking bringing the Gti out of retirement may not be such a bad thing. Hopefully the battery may improve the situation. But right now the Alfa experience is one other hassle I don't need right now

Hi All,

This be my first post... and this tale is about a beloved Sportswagon 156, a MSCF and a potential conspiracy. Read on!

When I first got my 3 year old (barely within warranty), all was blissful. We'd hug corners together, tear down the highways and ... well you know the rest.

I made the mistake of lending the Alfa to my wife. She called me half an hour later with the MSCF message. After many phone calls, we got the girl fixed and life was grand.

Then it happened again. And Again. Lambda Sensors replaced twice, all was good. Problem reoccurred.

The strange thing is that it only EVER happens when my wife drives the car. I could understand if it was 50-50 driving, but she drives the car once in every 100 of mine??!!!

Needless to say MSCF is still on (and has been on consistently for about 5 months now). No performance anxiety, no cruise control issues, still outguns many cars on the road - all with that glowing light of frustration.

So - any ideas as to why/how my wife driving the car could be affecting it?? She swears it's not her... I don't believe it for a second.

Da Ry Guy

Very quickly, my error went away before I got a chance to bring it to a garage. I had replaced the battery with a known good one but this made no difference. Just to say that I thought that once the error was detected it would stay on until cleared by a garage even if it was not detected again. It seems that the error was being detected again each time I started, until the problem went away, obviously. The only change I can think of is that the weather had gotten a bit warmer.
D..

The error will stay in the car's memory until a garage clears it. If the error is intermittent and heals itself the light will go out and the car will go back to normal.

You can still take it to a garage and get the error code read out of the memory. That should give you some pointers to the cause of the problem and hopefully help you stop it happening again.

Literally just had the same problem with our 147 selespeed. Motor Control System Failure light came on and the car would not start. Got a friend to jump start it and it worked - light did not come on. Took it to a local car part dealer and got it replaced and it all seems fine now.

Was really worried this was going to cost a bomb, but luckily it was just the cost of the battery. I did have the VDC system failure a few times which dissapeared after restarting - hopefully that will be resolved now.

Why do these things always happen at a weekend!!

Literally just had the same problem with our 147 selespeed. Motor Control System Failure light came on and the car would not start. Got a friend to jump start it and it worked - light did not come on. Took it to a local car part dealer and got the battery replaced and it all seems fine now.

Was really worried this was going to cost a bomb, but luckily it was just the cost of the battery. I did have the VDC system failure a few times which dissapeared after restarting - hopefully that will be resolved now.

Why do these things always happen at a weekend!!

Blimey,as the originator of this thread (my first), what a lot of responses.

Since I've posted this thread I have had another 10,000 miles of fun that only driving an Alfa can give you, lokking at the posts I thought I would add a couple more thoughts.

1. If you have a problem with your car , NOTHING beats having a good knowledgable Alfa garage have a look at it, sure replacing a battery may solve some problems, and it certainly won't do any harm, but if their is another underlying fault, then you need to get it seen by someone who know's what they are doing, with the proper diagnostic software.

2. If you have a Laptop, consider getting the appropriate software and link cable , so at least you can see yourself what fault codes are being produced, You can find it on Ebay, it's fairly simple to get teh software, and it only costs about £60 in all - Arnold Clark would charge me that much for resetting the MCSF light anyway. It's quite fun to see what's happening to youe engine when you plug it all in!

3.If anyone in Aberdeen area, wants to try before they buy - drop me a message & I can show them how it works

Originally Posted by ianmbird

1. If you have a problem with your car , NOTHING beats having a good knowledgable Alfa garage have a look at it

Very true!!


A garage that knows what to look for in the diagnostics and live data is a must. Anyone can read fault codes out but understanding what caused it isn't always simple.



My main dealer went through endless hardware changes under warranty chasing errors and not solving a lot. The local indie specialist pulled the live data up and diagnosed it instantly as overboost, as the turbo winds up, there's a pressure spike that trips the sensor over its max pressure and send the car into safe mode. Simple solution is to trim back the boost on the remap. Going to the indie garage could have saved me 8 months of battling with warranties and needlessly replacing parts

Hello everybody!

Today I had to go out and do some shoppings for my wife! Jumped in the car, put the key in the ignition, rotate it, wait for the lights to go off, switch to start, the head unit display goes blank, the time resets but no engine start!
I tried again! ABS failure, ESP failure, ASR faiulre!
I pushed the ASR Button, ASR off, pushed it again, ASR on, it works, I think.
Tried a couple of more times, the head unit display goes blank for good, same errors on display (still no lights on HU display), no engine start!
Brought a power metter, plugged it on the battery, 9V
Brought an digital power metter, plugged it on, it shows 11.68V
Come to think of it, yesterday the car didn't start at a quarter of a key, it took a little to start but I didn't thought it's unusual!
Don't remember leaving any power consumer on for the night.
Yesterday it worked flawless, today...
I intend to bring a second battery, connect the two of them together (in parallel of course) and see if it shows any improvement!
Needless to say, I don't have the engine start code, neether the CD code. The AR dealer requests £60 for the codes, the problem is that the closest AR dealer is at 100 miles away. It better not forget the codes, or I'm doomed!
It also didn't unlock the doors when I wanted to open it from distance, I had to come closer, right near the window!
If it doesn't work with the second battery, maybe I'll take it to a local workshop, it's only a mile away...
Any ideeas? Please help! My bella is ill and frankly, so am I

Is it really the battery's fault? Can it be something else? It worke fine before, it has to be the battery (cheapest way to fix, I suppose)!

Wonder if anyone can help me! I have just been driving back to work at lunchtime and my car suddenly lost power and the MCSF light came on. Luckily I managed to pull over but the car will not start - starter motor is turning but engine is not firing. Does anyone have any ideas? I read the posts about checking the battery but how can a battery go when I'm driving?! Any help would be gratefully received!