Bit Worried. Since the weather temps have dropped, my 500 hasn't started on the first turn of the key. Always on the 2nd attempt. Bit odd for a new car me thinks. It's been faultless so far.

Anyway, just went to get the car out of the garage for the wife to use this morning. And I could not get it started; it took no less than 10 attempts for each to eventually jump in to life but sounded really lumpy for the first few seconds! It eventually started, but not happy.

I guess a phone call to the dealer tomorrow and get it booked in. Not acceptable. It is due it's first service next month, so I guess I might get that done as well.

Pete

Are you doing a lot of short journeys?

Cheers

SPD

rallycinq said:

Are you doing a lot of short journeys?

Cheers

SPD

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No, my journey is about 20 miles each way.

Pete

I would look towards air temp sensor and monitor that, also there is a possibility a software update might be available as its a 1.2.

FragglePete said:

. Not acceptable.

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You should have bought a Mini! They never break down or have mechanical problems

306maxi said:

You should have bought a Mini! They never break down or have mechanical problems

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No, just explode when they feel like it and make horrible whining noises whenever you turn the steering wheel!

Pete

FragglePete said:

No, just explode when they feel like it and make horrible whining noises whenever you turn the steering wheel!

Pete

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Exactly my point

I know it's not nice to have something which is faulty or a big temperamental but it's the nature of the beast and bits can and do fail even on brand new cars The cold start problem with the 500 isn't something being broken though and does appear to be dealt with in the software update

306maxi said:

Exactly my point

I know it's not nice to have something which is faulty or a big temperamental but it's the nature of the beast and bits can and do fail even on brand new cars The cold start problem with the 500 isn't something being broken though and does appear to be dealt with in the software update

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I'm not too worried, annoyed a little but not stranded (yet!). It's due it's first service in a few weeks, so I'll get it booked in.

Still love it.

Pete

your prob best letting the dealers have a look at it its not that cold yet so could get worse.

It's not good for the catalytic converter, having unburnt fuel in the exhaust!

Had the starting issue in the first couple of weeks of owning our 500, struggled to start then cloud of smoke when it kicked over (first thought s**t unburnt fuel into cat!!) asked dealers about software update when it went in for handbrake recall and they said didnt know about the update??

strange thing is it came out with the throtle response issue resolved as well which is apparently in the update and has had no more starting issues since even now as the temp has dropped starts first time every time

I recently started a thread when my 500 had the same issue. Some very bad starts. Car went to the dealer for three days, they couldn't find anything wrong and said it started fine. They did 'the software update'. Car still doesn't start well first time in damp weather. Took two goes this morning and a bit of farty smoke. However the random selection on the media player does seem a little better so it's not all bad.

My first thoughts were, hold on this is a new car? And it's not the 1970's so wtf is going on here. It's certainly better than it was though. The second time it happened it took seven or so goes to get it started and it made quite a lot of noise. I was ill at the time and my wife was trying to get to work so that was fun.

Steed said:

However the random selection on the media player does seem a little better so it's not all bad.

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Our's had the "download for hard start" applied at its first service but it had no effect on the Media Player, the first track it plays is ALWAYS "Dancing Queen" - maybe the car just likes ABBA?

trphil said:

Our's had the "download for hard start" applied at its first service but it had no effect on the Media Player, the first track it plays is ALWAYS "Dancing Queen" - maybe the car just likes ABBA?

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That's odd. Do you have it on Play anything at the root folder level?

Ours just wasn't that random, it was in terms of albums but it used to play the same song from an album. Now it seems a lot more random in choices of songs.

It does go through fazes though, it was playing David Bowie a lot and there is only one album by him on the memory stick (out of 9 gigs of tracks), then it did the same thing with James Brown, concidering there may be seven albums by another artist and it hardly played one track from those.

It does seem to like 70's dub / reggae quite a bit.

In the 4 years I have had my Puma it has started first time, every time.

Even now with 112500 miles it still always starts first time even in -5 conditions.

Makes me think new cars are not what they are all cracked up to be.

Puma Boy said:

In the 4 years I have had my Puma it has started first time, every time.

Even now with 112500 miles it still always starts first time even in -5 conditions.

Makes me think new cars are not what they are all cracked up to be.

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Hmm, I used to have Blue and me start with the same song everytime the car started when I was using my iPod with it. Now I don't get it so much with a USB memory stick with foldered music.

OT Alert: Pumaboy, without being rude, why are you still here? I thought you'd decided against a 500?

zanes said:

Hmm, I used to have Blue and me start with the same song everytime the car started when I was using my iPod with it. Now I don't get it so much with a USB memory stick with foldered music.

OT Alert: Pumaboy, without being rude, why are you still here? I thought you'd decided against a 500?

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People who don't own Fiats are welcome on this forum. For quite a lot of my time on this forum I didn't own a Fiat myself.

Wow. I didn`t expect to be defended by 306maxi of all people.

Puma Boy said:

Wow. I didn`t expect to be defended by 306maxi of all people.

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Some people don't realise that I'm actually a perfectly reasonable person

Some people seem to treat this forum as a sort of exclusive club that they're in because they've bought a 500 and sometimes when people who aren't 500 owners come in here and offer an opinion they're often poo-pooed by 500 owning members.

At the end of the day it's just a car and anyone can walk into a dealer and give them ~10k and get one so people should stop acting all superior about it.

It`s not that I didn`t think that you were a reasonable person, it`s just that I know you were pee`d off at me for getting loads of info and advice from you about the 500 and then opting to keep the Puma.