Lebowski

Well, it's not the case but there's no need to subvert the law of physics: it could have rechargeable batteries recharged inductively. In fact an RFID card doesn't need any battery, it just takes power from the reader, and most probably the keyless entry system is just a kind of RFID (according to the manual it should work even with low/no battery if you put the key close to the start button).

I think that I had this update (or the equivalent one for europe) applied, though I cannot be sure (not even the dealer knows what the update was supposed to fix). Not only it didn't solve any of the problems I have been reporting for the last year or so (well, maybe the radio not starting but it's too soon to tell), but this one (continuous chime) still happens from time to time. Conversely, it doesn't sound when it should (which already caused me a minor accident, I rely on the sensors since they worked reliably on my previous car).

Here in Spain Fiat dealers cannot, well, maybe they can, but my dealer said they have such a mess on their hand with the software that they won't risk trying anything that's not in their instructions. He told me they have no access to dealerconnect.

Well, all other players I tried show the duration correctly. Edit: and the fact that even in your Mercedes/BMW/etc. this feature doesn't work correctly doesn't mean that the uconnect is right, it only means that they probably contracted the player to the same (or similar) lousy supplier.

The dealership called me for a new update (or maybe it's the same, Fiat wouldn't even tell them what it is supposed to fix), and I can confirm that, not unexpectedly, all the defects in message #17 and #18 are still there.

Where's the air intake and the fan for the 2nd/3rd row? I'm trying to control the recirculation servo bypassing the climate control, but, if is there a separate air circuit for the rear places, there should also be an additional recirculation servo (which I didn't think of). Edit: I found it, everything is under the side panel in the trunk, right side, the air intake is the grille it never gets air from the outside, so I should only worry about the front fan. BTW, it may be due to the Fiat engine, but in winter, with temperatures well above zero, my freemont takes forever to start heating (at least 10 minutes). And that's for the front row, didn't check the rear. The dealer, as always, says it's normal.

Well, my previous cars had simpler radios with less features, but at least they worked as advertised. And releasing a radio in 2011 that's not able to show the full station name (8 characters, for Pete's sake!) should be a criminal offense, European car radios have been able to do that for at least the past 20 years. I won't start here my usual litany of the other features that don't work

Only because the 4.3 is a POS of the worst kind....

No, I'm not going to change it, I'm just curious, since the connector on the 4.3 that I highlighted (which is the same as in your photo) doesn't seem to match any connector on the 8.4, and I thought that maybe could be the cause why Mcgusto82's radio cannot set the temperature.

Are you sure? The grey connector seems different. Edit: I'm referring to these ones

You forgot to take/post a photo of the back of the 8.4 radio (so that Mcgusto82 can compare it with his). BTW, finally you didn't have to buy the lower stack, did you?

Strange that they issue this TSB now: I had the park assist languages swapped (Italian <-> Spanish) at the beginning, but that was fixed 10 months or so ago.

If you look carefully at this video: [media=] [/media]you'll see that where in your new radio there's what seems to be an usb connector, in that replacement radio there's a connector just like the one near the video cable on the 4.3. Maybe the radio in the replacement kit is different than a factory mounted 8.4 radio?

I'm not going to buy one but I'm a sucker for documentation, so, please, post them somewhere.

I thought that was the compass. Strange that the lower panel doesn't work, I guess they're more morons than I thought.

Yes, I found it, before the probes didn't make good contact, now I see that there's a fixed 12V (or -12V in the reverse direction) and the voltage is no longer applied as soon as the current raises. Thank you.

OK, since the recirculation in this car doesn't work, and dodge/chrysler/fiat won't fix it (it's not a bug, it's a feature!), I want to bypass the car and control directly the servo that engages the recirculation. It's located behind the glove box, on the right side of the fan. Unfortunately I don't have an oscilloscope, so I hooked up a digital multimeter to the connector of the servo. What I can see is just a short positive pulse to move the servo in one direction and a negative pulse to move it in the other one, but I couldn't see neither the amplitude (most probably 12V) nor the duration of it. It could also be a canbus connector, but I doubt it (due to clearly seeing a positive/negative pulse). I will see if I can borrow an oscilloscope at work, but does anyone know the characteristics of this signal (i.e, amplitude, timing, etc.) ?

Oh, and not unexpectedly, search by song/by artist still doesn't work (it just shows a very limited selection of what's available).

I'm sorry to say that it doesn't solve all the problems. As I already said in this thread

Update done. They also flashed the hands-free and the abs modules. It's too early to say if it solved the problem of the radio not starting, the clock going too fast or the mp3 skipping, but at first sight everything else hasn't improved: When playing an mp3 from the CD it doesn't show the artist name (this feature was broken with the first update, it worked when the car was new). Some mp3s display a bogus duration (either too long or too short, the duration shown changes randomly when switching sources). Only the first 3-4 character of station names are shown. I'm not impressed.

The technician that should do the update is on sick leave, so I'll have to wait until Tuesday.

No idea, I can do it but I have a manual gearbox, with an automatic you have to put it in P or wait 30 minutes and it will turn off by itself.

And now it seems they have an update available.

Yesterday they called me from the dealership: they wanted the car to check software versions (according to their previous answer that they're up to date they knew them already, maybe they didn't), and one day later they call me telling they have an update. On Monday I'll have it applied. Crossing fingers.

I didn't check if it works but the manual says that you have to press the button for 2 seconds if you want to stop the engine when the speed is higher than 8km/h.