Hi all. I have had my gorgeous 500 (from nearly new) for 6 weeks now. Love driving it, but have noticed a few issues. Firstly the rear fiat badge seal broke and was allowing water into the boot.

Warranty sorted that out.

Secondly, when pulling away from stationary, and hitting 2500 rpm, the twinair engine revs quite badly of its own accord. You can see the Rev counter physically dropping and then hitting 2500, dropping, 2500 etc etc. It lasts about 5/6 seconds before it has 'enough power' to move on.

Also, stop start is continually breaking. Almost every journey I take.

Currently in the dealership, again under warranty, but they keep telling me that several factors impact in the tje stop start.

1) it won't work if the heating / air con is on.

2) it won't work if the rear window heater is on

3) it won't work if you pull away and THEN put seat belt on.

My air con hasn't been on. I'm an avid seat belt wearer and the rear heater has been on once.

Do others have similar issues?

Does this mean I am now destined to have 6 years of warning lights and hazard light flashing up on the dash controls?

It has only started the revving and start stop failure in the past 10 days.

Just looking for some ammo to take with me when I pick 'megatron' up tomorrow. Only done 9000 miles and 2 years old.

Thanks.

Start stop issues are normally due to a defective battery, lots of information about it on here. Needs to have a slow pulse charge to see if it recovers it. If not then it'll need replacing

bplanky500 said:

Also, stop start is continually breaking.

Click to expand...

Posts about issues with malfunctioning S/S systems are very common here.

There are several threads on the subject, this being the main one.

You might also like to read this reply which I posted on the subject just last week.

Your car will probably need a new battery of the correct specification before S/S functions normally. The dealer will quite likely try to fob you off with all manner of excuses, because correct specification batteries are not cheap and they will not want to bear the cost of replacement.

It may or may not be covered under warranty (IIRC it's not covered under the 3rd yr dealer warranty). On a car bought secondhand, it is quite likely to have been sitting on the lot with the battery discharged and this can permanently damage it to the point where S/S will never work properly until it is replaced, even though it may show as serviceable on the typical trade battery tester.

jrkitching said:

Posts about issues with malfunctioning S/S systems are very common here.

There are several threads on the subject, this being the main one.

You might also like to read this reply which I posted on the subject just last week.

Your car will probably need a new battery of the correct specification before S/S functions normally. The dealer will quite likely try to fob you off with all manner of excuses, because correct specification batteries are not cheap and they will not want to bear the cost of replacement.

It may or may not be covered under warranty (IIRC it's not covered under the 3rd yr dealer warranty). On a car bought secondhand, it is quite likely to have been sitting on the lot with the battery discharged and this can permanently damage it to the point where S/S will never work properly until it is replaced, even though it may show as serviceable on the typical trade battery tester.

Click to expand...

It's amazing how such a basic and easy to fix issue such as a low battery charge creates such big problems with modern cars.

ahmett said:

It's amazing how such a basic and easy to fix issue such as a low battery charge creates such big problems with modern cars.

Click to expand...

Many digital electronic systems measure voltage precisely and will automatically shut down once the supply voltage drops below a preset value. As little as 1/100 of a volt can mean the difference between something working perfectly and something not working at all - unlike old analogue systems, there is nothing in between, no 'graceful degradation' to warn us of impending failure.

An everyday example is your mobile phone - to protect the battery, it will automatically switch off before it's completely discharged. The charging indicator may read 0%, but in reality there is still some residual charge sufficient to stop the battery from permanently degrading.

Thanks all,

Have heard from the dealership and the issue (they think) resides with the sensor underneath the clutch (hence the revving)

One on order and will be replaced tomorrow.

They also believe this will fix the stop start issues i am currently having.

bplanky500 said:

Have heard from the dealership and the issue (they think) resides with the sensor underneath the clutch (hence the revving)

One on order and will be replaced tomorrow.

They also believe this will fix the stop start issues i am currently having.

Click to expand...

Thanks for coming back with the update.

Yes, this makes sense - but why couldn't the dealership just fix it instead of giving you a shedload of wrong reasons why it was something you were doing .

i know!

Will update when (or if) fixed!

Got 'megatron' (nickname) back yesterday. Like brand new. Hurrah!!

I personally think that the S/S issues are software related and S/S Version.

It never seemed to work properly on our previous Punto Evo or 500 Lounge 1.2.

Thing is its brilliant on our 500L. It even cuts out when the engine is cold. Its obviously an updated version and it works impeccably.

Shame though that the 500 (a so-called Premium car - according to Fiat) often misses out on simple fixes that the rest of the range gets.

Also the 500L S/S has a clever delay so that if you're creeping, or at a junction waiting to turn right across traffic for example, or the lights change as you stop the S/S system doesn't cut out instantly and then have to restart within a nano second. Funny how that makes it more enjoyable, especially on a dualogic