just lost a long reply to this:-(

almost at the point where one of the £500 engines from a write-off from ebay could save you hundreds in "lets try this" type parts..,
Charlie - Oxford

Hi again guys, for anyone interested in my current situation and an update of where I stand at the minute!

So after a lot of to ing and fro ing I finally managed to go out for a drive with the master technician and convinced her that there is in fact an issue, I assume all their test drives around the block wouldn't of taken them past 3k revs where the power is non existent so in all honesty I can't blame them for assuming it is driving as they would expect!

Anyway it went back into the garage yesterday to work out what is the issue and it has been found the turbo is the problem! The part alone costing £1500 or something obscene! However I am still in warranty but it seems there could be an issue with this because of a missing service? It's only hit 6k and has one service stamp although I'm not sure of the frequency of services!

They have a warranty assessor coming in today to review the warranty claim and work out whether I am entitled? Anyone had any dealings with this? Have any tips for how I can handle this?

Any help would be much obliged!

Thank you

Aleck.

Aleck002 said:

Hi again guys, for anyone interested in my current situation and an update of where I stand at the minute!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the update Aleck. Sorry to hear the issue is more serious than you hoped.

Morally you certainly should get this fixed under warranty - the turbo isn't routinely serviced and hasn't failed due to lack of servicing. If Fiat wriggle out on this one, they're wriggling out on a technicality.

IIRC quite a few TA's had early turbo replacements & I think some of these were done at Fiat's instigation, either by recall or when the cars came through for servicing; if yours had been serviced earlier, this might have been picked up but the cost to Fiat would have been the same as they'd have fixed it by replacing the turbo anyway.

If they say the turbo needs replacing, ask if they're going to replace it with the same part as turbo's shouldn't fail after so short a mileage and you're concerned it might fail again. You then have two possible outcomes and can use these arguments:

1. They replace it with the same part - you argue that a turbo should last much longer than 5k miles, the failure can't be down to lack of servicing as the turbo isn't routinely serviced & it should therefore be covered by the warranty.

2. They replace it with a different part - you argue that the original turbo was inherently defective (as it's now been superseded), and would have to be replaced irrespective of how the car was serviced.

Fingers crossed for you - let us know how you get on.

jrkitching said:

the turbo isn't routinely serviced and hasn't failed due to lack of servicing. If Fiat wriggle out on this one, they're wriggling out on a technicality.

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FIAT could well argue that the missing of an oil change could be a contributing factor to turbo failure- as a (very) low mileage 2012 model would I be right in thinking the service schedule calls for yearly changes?

As an aside, there's an interesting thread running in the Panda (2012+) section re. shortened service intervals for certain twin air pandas.

As I wondered previously, I'd be intrigued to know if this vehicle is "in the system" for this already.

Still, it might not be the end of the world if FIAT will not warranty it- complete twinair engines on fleabay would still leave you "quids in" over a realistically priced example, so a turbo should be "within budget"

Example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-500-...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item5d546ac6b3

Though, of course, you need to be careful: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35d8d37778

[/QUOTE]Though, of course, you need to be careful: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35d8d37778[/QUOTE]

When you say be careful? Is there something I am missing here? would that turbo not be ideal? I remember someone saying there is an 'old' twinair turbo and a 'new' twinair turbo? presumably I would need the latter? If the warranty doesnt cover it and my kicking up a fuss doesnt resolve anything then I will be buying the turbo and doing it myself!

Presumably a car of this age wouldnt need the piping changed as well?

Thank you

Aleck.

Aleck002 said:

Though, of course, you need to be careful: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item35d8d37778

Click to expand...

When you say be careful? Is there something I am missing here? would that turbo not be ideal? I remember someone saying there is an 'old' twinair turbo and a 'new' twinair turbo? presumably I would need the latter? If the warranty doesnt cover it and my kicking up a fuss doesnt resolve anything then I will be buying the turbo and doing it myself!

Presumably a car of this age wouldnt need the piping changed as well?

Thank you

Aleck.

Click to expand...

Hmm. Thought I'd added a bit extra after the link but must have deleted it when screwing around with the post.

Yep, it's listed as up to 2011 cars only so presumably wouldn't be any good for yours. I was also wondering why it's so cheap-is it an "old stock" part of the early turbos that were replaced?

Good to hear you're happy to do it yourself- in your position I'd be finding a part from a scrapper (checking part numbers to be safe) and swapping it. Not entirely sure what pipes you mean, but as ever I'd make the decision on a cost vs. convenience of doing them "while you're in there".

GOOD NEWS!!!

Just heard back from the garage and they have elected to have it covered under warranty, although the assessor has decided that due to the missing service, I will have to pay to replace the oil, oil filter and coolant plus the labour included with that! Which works out to be around £120.

All in all I am happy with that especially considering if they refused the warranty claim, I would have to pay the £90 for the diagnostics if I refused to have work carried out at that garage, so £30 to get it all done is a pretty good deal to me!

I will let you all know if this does actually fix the problem, hopefully helping out anyone else who should come unstuck in the future!

But regardless thank you all for your help thus far

Aleck002 said:

GOOD NEWS!!!

Just heard back from the garage and they have elected to have it covered under warranty, although the assessor has decided that due to the missing service, I will have to pay to replace the oil, oil filter and coolant plus the labour included with that! Which works out to be around £120.

All in all I am happy with that especially considering if they refused the warranty claim, I would have to pay the £90 for the diagnostics if I refused to have work carried out at that garage, so £30 to get it all done is a pretty good deal to me!

Click to expand...

That's great news Aleck.

Sometimes Fiat will do the right thing when it comes to warranty repairs .

This certainly is good news for the OP and I'm extremely pleased for him.

I'm assuming here that that the turbo is being replaced under the 3rd dealer warranty? seeing as a Fiat assessor had to be called. As I found out with our old POP, this appears to be standard practise for warranty work in the 3rd year.

Two things definitely worth thinking about for second owners of 500's under two years old who haven't bothered to pay the £27 for the transfer of the 3rd year warranty, it's an absolute must, as my own previous case and seemingly this one has proved.

Secondly, just because a car is doing low miles, missing out a service on a car under warranty just to save a few quid, is clearly not wise.

Great news. Glad it is resolved. I'm guessing your going to notice a HUGE difference in the way it drives!!!!!

oops!

Hats off to Fiat on this one. They have done the right thing and credit should be given.
That is how to keep a customer.

Well said dexydog. Let's see if everyone is as quick to join you in praising fiat as some seem to be at knocking them!

babyferrari said:

Well said dexydog. Let's see if everyone is as quick to join you in praising fiat as some seem to be at knocking them!

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That's the problem with this forum, you get an unbalanced view of things. 99% of the time people post because they're unhappy and the 1% of time people post positive experiences is drowned out by the negatives. Luckily this forum isn't indicative of real life or else Fiat would be out of business.

Honestly I do have good things to say about fiat and the dealer I've been going to but, I do wonder if they had listened to my concerns about the turbo and the engine management light when I first went, whether I would of still had to have paid out £90 to replace the intake pipe and clip on the airbox, which really was a waste of money, and have saved myself the 5 journeys to the dealer!

I shouldn't complain really as it is getting fixed and hopefully that should be a fairly trouble free car for the foreseeable future!

Aleck

Any update on how the new turbo replacement went?

Maurice70 said:

Any update on how the new turbo replacement went?

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Maurice70, Hello and welcome. :wave:

This is an old thread, and the OP hasn't logged onto the forum since last March, so I doubt we'll be getting an update.

Generally on internet forums there's not much point in ressurecting threads if you have nothing new to add to the subject.

quite annoying really! Just read thro 6 1/2 pages of someones troubles, and others' helpful, bolstering advice..... only to find the guy couldn't be bothered to let folks know the outcome, and say thanks and bon voyage.........people!

Whilst it would be nice to have a formal closure to the thread, I think a dealer diagnosis and a formal offer to replace under warranty, coupled with the lack of "I paid £120 and the damn thing is still buggered" follow up makes the outcome pretty obvious.

In fairness to the OP, at least he actually was active on the thread (and grateful and thankful for the advice he got) after his first post, rather than the "one post wonders" where people post "my car is broken", get half a dozen replies and then never even post a "thanks for the advice guys", whether it solved the issue or not.

The latter will get a lot more common as the 500 ages.

zanes said:

post - "my car is broken", get half a dozen replies and then never even post a "thanks for the advice guys", whether it solved the issue or not.

This will get a lot more common as the 500 ages.

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to be fair- the 500 IS already old..and gets more "1-offs" than the similar age Grande's seem to,

it's also a pretty basic car ( in 1242 petrol form)