Almost sounds like a joke- I had daily recalls for a month, some days even two a day, until I called the dealer to schedule the car to be looked at. Now it's behaving as if everything is perfect. I wonder if they have remote telematics or is it just the weather getting much colder is "helping". It did go from 70s to 30-s, so I am sure the battery behaves differently when cold. So here is my dilemma - how do I reproduce the problem or persuade the dealer that it is indeed a problem? I wasn't smart enough to record videos of the recall, just a large collection of cell phone snapshots of the battery dropping to two bars. No IMA light or codes either..

"Gee, Doc... I was having these severe chest pains, but now they're gone. How can I get them back???"

Steve > 2012 Fiat Abarth

Mine would only "recal" after it sat for 8 hours or more. See if it will do it reliably after a cold start and take it back in emphasizing that it has to sit overnight before they will be able to reproduce the issue. Take a video of what it is doing and show it to them so they know what to look for.

Have them do a load test on the 12v battery, you may need a new 12v battery (about $100)...it helped but did not eliminate my recals. Insist on LOAD not COLD CRANKING my Cold Cranking test came up fine, Load found a dead cell.

That crossed my mind as well, although wouldn't a weak 12V battery behave worse as temps drop? The propulsion battery would see more problems as it gets warmer, so that would fit the pattern. On the other hand, I just did some measurements on the current from the battery with the car off and ScanGauge plugged in and removed. It appears that the car draws under 9mA by itself, but gets as high as 25mA with scanGauge plugged in. Of course at 16mAH/hour it'll take a loong time with a car sitting to actually produce s measurable discharge on the 12V one

but that would basically be a cold cranking test...you need a load test.

Well, finally dragged myself to the dealer to do A1 service. While at it, asked them to do 12V load test and also complained about recals and low mileage- in the mid 30s lately. Battery test was done and produced "replace battery" message, so that's what we did. In the process they also "discovered" I had a missing battery firmware update. Which is odd, considering it's been up to date last time I was in 6 months ago. Anybody knows of yet another release?! I asked for release notes but got funny looks from the dealer. On the way back the car behaved well (42-44mpg vs 32 going there, with temps below 30F and on snow tires), but it's too soon to see if this is all it needed.

Sounds like a potentially good outcome, Igor. Thanks for the update.

Steve > 2012 Fiat Abarth

Well, today just happened to be 15F when I am trying things. The car sat unused for several days during holidays. Mileage so far is in the 35-38mpg, but one big difference is 12V battery voltage. The old one used to report 12.5-13.5 on Scangauge, the new one started at 13.8V and got all the way to 14V at the end of the trip. We'll see how things go with milder temps.

Those are the #'s I get on my Scanguage as well13.8 and my 12v is the original! Hal