I have just been advised by an independent garage tht my 2 1/2 year Bravo (1.4 90 bhp Active) has an oil weep at the NSF of the engine and they have suggested that it is probably a cylinder head gasket problem. As the car is less that 3 years old I am hoping that this will be covered under warranty. The fiat dealer whom i bought the car from wants to inspect the vehicle themselves and want to charge me £72 per hour to look at it. The fault was reported when the car went in for its 18000 mile service. It had an interim 9000 mile oil change - both done by independant garage. The independant garage are not looking to fix it for me and have advised methat it should be fixd undr warranty so i have no reason to doubt what they are telling me

Is this a Warranty problem or will the dealer hand me a huge bill for the inspection and refuse to fix it ?

They shouldn't be charging you to check it. The dealers I use haven't done in past when I've had themcheck suspected problems which would then be covered by warranty

Thanks Rothy. I actually approached a different branch (the one I actually bought the car from as opposed to my local one) of the same dealership and they have said that there will be no charge for them to look at it.

i am assuming that this is a warranty problem.

Hi

I worked for FIAT and now for Volkswagen, when a vehicle comes in for certain 'warranty' repairs, a diagnostics charge should be mentioned depending on the nature of the complaint, i.e 'my clutch is slipping' or 'my engine runs rough'.

In your case where there is a possible oil leak, there shouldnt be a charge to checks this, however, a FULL service history must be present (it doesnt have to be from a dealer, as long as GENUINE/APPROVED parts have been used and they are VAT registered. If the independant garage you have used have not carried out the relevant checks and used the correct parts like OILS, SPARK PLUGS, etc then any warranty claims could be rejected. For example, a vehicle came in for a misfire, the cause - a non genuine spark plugs - for this reason the customer was faced with a £1500 bill to replaced the cylinder head.

I think you will be ok, if your car is 2 1/2 years old its in 3rd year off warranty which is limited subject to full service history, but as a rule if they say the diagnostics will be chargeable provisonally, then they have the right to say this.

Dont worry to much - oil leaks 'should' be covered.
Let me know how you get along

P.S - I personally would use dealers for the first 3 years so avoid any future hassles on warranty claims