Our Twin Air Sport, which we picked up in January, spent the first 10 weeks of its life with poor performance and drinking fuel - until it was discovered that the knock sensor had failed!
We got our car back last week from our dealer and it was like a diiferent car - 48mpg and at long last driveable on motorways - until today when the turbo failed.
Back to the dealer again and to be fair the manager was very helpful / sorry and has promised to sort it out - but wants the car back for 1 week!

Dont get me wrong, I think the Twin Air is great (Based on 5 days experience earlier this week!) and we never had any problems with our 1.4 Sport over 3 years, but has anybody else had similar failings

I'm sorry to hear about your tale of woe but, touch wood, all is fine and dandy after seven weeks and 2,500 miles.

TwinAir Newbie said:

I'm sorry to hear about your tale of woe but, touch wood, all is fine and dandy after seven weeks and 2,500 miles.

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haha i wouldnt be so smug - with the kind of mileage you're putting on the car you'll soon be joining him. haha.

gib1970 said:

haha i wouldnt be so smug - with the kind of mileage you're putting on the car you'll soon be joining him. haha.

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https://www.fiatforum.com/500/265384-what-engine-go-8.html

In the 'overall scheme of things' there has been very few turbo failures given the number sold to-date.

gib1970 said:

haha i wouldnt be so smug - with the kind of mileage you're putting on the car you'll soon be joining him. haha.

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I wasn't being smug, merely factual.

Nice comments.

TwinAir Newbie said:

I'm sorry to hear about your tale of woe but, touch wood, all is fine and dandy after seven weeks and 2,500 miles.

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lol 2,500 miles seven weeks thats alot, my 500's 3 months old now and its still only done 1128 miles :slayer:

blitz7287 said:

lol 2,500 miles seven weeks thats alot, my 500's 3 months old now and its still only done 1128 miles :slayer:

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It's far more than we would normally do.

That's down to a few factors- it's new and fun, my wife has had to do a couple of longish trips, and our daughter is doing some cramming on it for her driving test which is coming up.

Once things have settled down it should be doing about 1,000 miles a month tops.

Just bought a 4month old TA from a local dealer who'd used it as a demo. It's done 4,500 miles (probably been thrashed around by keen beans wanting to see what it ould do) and as yet has no issues or probs. Sorry you've had a bad time. Think you've just been unlucky.
Dave

Fiat test their engines more then any other manufacturer to overcome their unreliable image shaped up last decade or two. I know that as a fact from the factory in Turkey where most of Multijet II engines are built. everybody expected Multiair to fail since it's one of the most stressed part of the engine, but so far it's proven otherwise, Germans can suck it. :devil:

Daveyboydanger said:

Just bought a 4month old TA from a local dealer who'd used it as a demo. It's done 4,500 miles (probably been thrashed around by keen beans wanting to see what it ould do) and as yet has no issues or probs. Sorry you've had a bad time. Think you've just been unlucky.
Dave

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Congratulations Dave on the new TA and the best of luck with it. I'd suggest that you change the oil on it to proper synthetic one asap. If you read any of the test drives done quite a few have been bouncing off the rev limiter . Some esseesse owners are changing their oil at 1K when the car is bought from new. Frequent oil changes particularily given the nature of the TA will prolong its life . I am unsure as to what the service interval for oil changes for the TA is (it might be 18K miles) but personally I would change at least one a year (regardless of it being just city miles) and on a any boosted car - every 6 months.

durukan said:

Fiat test their engines more then any other manufacturer to overcome their unreliable image shaped up last decade or two. I know that as a fact from the factory in Turkey where most of Multijet II engines are built. everybody expected Multiair to fail since it's one of the most stressed part of the engine, but so far it's proven otherwise, Germans can suck it. :devil:

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Are you referring to Multijet ?

multispoke said:

Frequent oil changes particularily given the nature of the TA will prolong its life . I am unsure as to what the service interval for oil changes for the TA is (it might be 18K miles) but personally I would change at least one a year (regardless of it being just city miles) and on a any boosted car - every 6 months.

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I'll second that, changing the oil more frequently than the 18k recommended by FIAT is cheap insurance against future engine problems. If you do it yourself (it's not hard), you can change the oil & filter for about the cost of a tank of fuel.

Thanks multispoke. Any recommendations of what kinda synthetic oil?
Jrkitching - is it really simple? Never changed oil myself before (ashamed that I have had to write that!).

Oh and sorry to bug you multispoke but I've had a gander at your beautiful 500 (funk White looks amazing!) and notice you've got the A-bar and bonnet strip and flags. I'm considering all three or at least a couple. Dd you fit them yourself? Any tips? Still happy you had them put on?
My TA is pas red (didnt get to choose colour as demo, shame but saved over two grand on new!) do you think it'd work well?
Bidding on some red ringed centre caps for the multi's to add a little something.
That's a lot of q's. Sorry!

Daveyboydanger said:

Thanks multispoke. Any recommendations of what kinda synthetic oil?
Jrkitching - is it really simple? Never changed oil myself before (ashamed that I have had to write that!).

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http://www.flitalia.it/en/fl/index.php?option=com_dspcatprod&Itemid=254&incName=scheda&typeCompany=FL&idLingua=2&ethLingua=ENG&idLivello=1&idCanale=1&idCatego

At the moment the selenia site is not showing the oil for the TA but it will. Make sure that ONLY a 5w40w fully synthectic oil is used and it should be Fiat's own brand. Don't forget to change the filter. Keep the proof of having bought the oil & the filter.

https://www.fiatforum.com/500/269353-changing-oil-1-2-petrol-500-a.html
Easy enough to do - complements to jrkitching.

Given that you have just bought the car - go back to the dealer you have bought the car off and ask them to do it as a goodwill gesture. If they're not open to it negotiate on either free labour or parts. Reputation of the TA is at stake here .

Daveyboydanger said:

Oh and sorry to bug you multispoke but I've had a gander at your beautiful 500 (funk White looks amazing!) and notice you've got the A-bar and bonnet strip and flags. I'm considering all three or at least a couple. Dd you fit them yourself? Any tips? Still happy you had them put on?
My TA is pas red (didnt get to choose colour as demo, shame but saved over two grand on new!) do you think it'd work well?
Bidding on some red ringed centre caps for the multi's to add a little something.
That's a lot of q's. Sorry!

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Many thanks for the complement Daveyboydanger.

I went from a manly 08 1.4 sport with Italian strips 'everywhere' and even though I loved it I struggled to sell it - it was a limited market.
Hankering for an Abarth (but still out of my reach) I opted for an easier to re-sell 500 (despite having the bigger harder to sell 1.4 engine) with a plan to move it on in 12-18 months or give it to the missus. Hence the handbag spec. Now - don't get me wrong - I love the car and like basking in the glass roof and the pearlesant paint miss the leather but this car was speced already for me. It was a special edition model but it ticked all the boxs when I saw it. The A bar and chrome strip complements the set up and without going mad I liked the side being kept simple with just the italian badge.
I was going to buy a new one and if I was going for a red I would opt for keeping it retro that is with no chrome. There was a thread a few weeks ago when arorat was specing a red with red leather (a little hustle followed from that) and the chrome mirrors got the chop. There are carbon look mirror backs (covered on another recent thread) but the red does look good.
Really the 500 is down to personal taste and the customisations make it unique. If you have bought the car on Finance and you're going to keep it for 3 years, spec it up the way that you would like it and enjoy it. If on the other hand you are looking to upgrade or shift it on in a year or 2 don't go mad.
I like the A bar and the chrome bit on the bonnet but it would not have suited the black sport. If you buy them I would suggest that you have Fiat professionally fit them and give them the hour's labour. They may price the parts at cost and not at retail which might 'make up' for the labour charge.
Re the red ringed hubs - go for it. I bought the paint yesterday to do my calipers !

Good advice multi. I'm hoping (although this maybe be honeymoon naivety) to keep my TA for a long time (and the very soonest a change would occur would be in 3 years). I suppose I need to just work out what I want to do then do it. Would be great to see a red 500 with the front chrome extras to compare mine to. Think the Italian flag wing badges will look sweet on the red and they are pretty cheap to pick up.
On an aside i'm loving the community these amazing little cars have created. There's something special about the cinq's isn't there? It's satisfied my desire to have a classic car without the stress of the unreliability.

multispoke said:

Are you referring to Multijet ?

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no i'm referring to multiair, the electro-hydraulic valve system which replaces camshaft. i gave it as another example of success besides multijet.

durukan said:

Fiat test their engines more then any other manufacturer to overcome their unreliable image shaped up last decade or two. I know that as a fact from the factory in Turkey where most of Multijet II engines are built. everybody expected Multiair to fail since it's one of the most stressed part of the engine, but so far it's proven otherwise, Germans can suck it. :devil:

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durukan said:

no i'm referring to multiair, the electro-hydraulic valve system which replaces camshaft. i gave it as another example of success besides multijet.

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Thanks for clarifying that durukan and do I agree with you. I did see that the Tofas factory was increasing its production units for the current year and for next year for Doblo vans which is good for Fiat and for the multijet II engine . Quite a number of current TA owners are former multijet 500 drivers and have switched to the TA either due to it being more tax efficient or/and they were experiencing PDF regen problems. In Ireland the mutlijet 500 has been dropped for a number of reasons - cost being one. Of the 2 500 MJ that I drove the PDF light was on. Doblo vans being commercial are going most of the time and burn off whatever is needed so it doesn't appear to be an issue. I for one have always been 'lucky' with Fiat engines but my dad's Ritmo diesel had a problem starting so he would never buy one again . My former car before the 500 was a beamer had a blown gasket at only 79k miles, I discovered later that quite a few cars of that year had their engines 'quietly' replaced. Fiat's low ranking on dealing with warranty claims does not help them (although I've had no issues to-date) but getting the balance on pricing a car right verus providing a reliable product is tricky. Even Mercedes got that wrong and that's with their premium pricing. In setting the bar with innovative technology -there's always the risk of setbacks. The multijet II should address the issues of the original and the Multi-air engine is proving to be a success .