My 2011 Qubo 1.3 75bhp diesel with 30K on the clock started to run very noisily, with a smell of hot diesel coming through to the cabin. Managed to get it to our local Fiat garage and was told that no 1 & 3 cylinder had split their injector seals.

Fortunately the car is covered by a third year of warranty and they've authorised the repair costs apart from two pipes at £61 each.

The car has been with the garage for the last couple of days as they are struggling with the repair, so I've got a courtesy car until it's fixed.

I've only been able to talk to the receptionist who is as clueless as to what is wrong, why it's happened, why the garage is finding it difficult and what are the long term reliability prospects.

Can anyone explain what happened and why - my warranty ends in August, suspect if this happens again wonder if I'll be facing expensive bills.

Any help or comments appreciated.

Hi henryrym,
Not 100% sure, but as I understand it, its a 'pig' of a job to extract the injectors from the head without causing damage to the head itself, which no one wants.

Hope they get it sorted for you..........I have heard of a couple of cases like this, fairly rare though. Seems Fiat may have used a couple of different types of injector, and one type can be prone if your unlucky to seal failure............

Cheers Qube O.

The same thing happened on my wife's 1.4 diesel Ford Fusion (peugeot engine) when it was still under warranty. I had the same worries but when it was fixed it ran fine for another 7 years until we traded it in for our Qubo. If the car is relatively new then removing the injectors should be less of a challenge. Sometimes they have to use a special tool to ream the injector seat; to ensure a perfect seal. You will know straight away if they haven't done it correctly as the symptoms will remain! Things like this do shake your confidence in a vehicle but try not to worry about it too much. Stephen

Quick update on this.

Following maggers suggestion in my duplicate post in the tech forum section to get my garage to replace ALL four seals, I've been in touch this morning and they will do all the seals under warranty all at the same time, what a relief!

Very glad that the leaking seals are hopefully nothing to do with a bad DPF, at least I've now been made aware of DPF potential problems - especially as now that we are retired we only do a couple of miles a day at no more than 2K revs before changing up.

Will boy race everywhere now at 5K revs as suspect it's cheaper to run the car at 20mpg than repair failed DPF damage!!!

Thanks for your help.

Hi Henry
We had to have ours done on a 09 qubo with 46000 on the clock, as you say a pig of a job cost us £1700.00 to get done, did post on here so have a read, our car was out of warranty you are lucky, car has been running ok for over a year now torch wood.
Best of luck

Robert

maisie the ugly bug said:

Hi Henry
We had to have ours done on a 09 qubo with 46000 on the clock, as you say a pig of a job cost us £1700.00 to get done, did post on here so have a read, our car was out of warranty you are lucky, car has been running ok for over a year now torch wood.
Best of luck

Robert

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Oh dear, just read your post re leaking seals, you've had exactly same problem as we're experiencing. really feel for you!

Well our car is still with our local Fiat garage now shut for Easter until Tuesday, totally in their hands as to how this progresses. Only good thing is that the majority of the cost will be met by the third year warranty.

My very big worry is that we will have DPF problems after the warranty has run out this August - could make your £1700 bill seem trifling!

The more I read about potential DPF problems the more inclined I'm to sell the Qubo and get something petrol driven. Impression I'm getting is that ALL diesels fitted with DPFs WILL become unreliable and very expensive to maintain & keep running in the long term. As retirees we bought the Qubo as it was great car with lots of space for camping gear, cheap to run, insure, licence, reliable and a great long term prospect.

We now drive only a few miles a day and from what I read that to avoid DPF problems I need to drive the car around aimlessly on the motorway to regenerate the DPF, which increases costs and totally defeats the point of owning a frugal car. What is really scary is that even doing that doesn't stop problems. Hate to think of us in limp home mode or broken down towing our little trailer tent in some remote beauty spot.

My confidence is shaken, am I worrying needlessly?

Happen its a valid worry....................perhaps the petrol version ??

Cheers Qube O

I loved my qubo and still miss it, but being retired and not doing much mileage I sold it, it was to much to keep worrying about top mount problems and the dpf filter, now I own a petrol Honda jazz, still miss the qubo, loved to drive it, now I don't have a constant worry with reliability.

henryrym said:

Oh dear, just read your post re leaking seals, you've had exactly same problem as we're experiencing. really feel for you!

Well our car is still with our local Fiat garage now shut for Easter until Tuesday, totally in their hands as to how this progresses. Only good thing is that the majority of the cost will be met by the third year warranty.

My very big worry is that we will have DPF problems after the warranty has run out this August - could make your £1700 bill seem trifling!

The more I read about potential DPF problems the more inclined I'm to sell the Qubo and get something petrol driven. Impression I'm getting is that ALL diesels fitted with DPFs WILL become unreliable and very expensive to maintain & keep running in the long term. As retirees we bought the Qubo as it was great car with lots of space for camping gear, cheap to run, insure, licence, reliable and a great long term prospect.

We now drive only a few miles a day and from what I read that to avoid DPF problems I need to drive the car around aimlessly on the motorway to regenerate the DPF, which increases costs and totally defeats the point of owning a frugal car. What is really scary is that even doing that doesn't stop problems. Hate to think of us in limp home mode or broken down towing our little trailer tent in some remote beauty spot.

My confidence is shaken, am I worrying needlessly?

Click to expand...

Hi Henry

Our 09 Qubo does not have a dpf fitted, think it was a optional extra when they came out, all I can say is, run it down the motorway every fortnight for about 20 miles, should keep the dpf clean.
We had same problem, our petrol ulysse we had to scrap, I had wife qubo for work, we have brought a Chevrolet Orlando 1.8 petrol auto, wife does lots of short runs so modern diesel out of the question, would have liked to have stuck with fiat, but there cars don't tow enough for our caravan.
Best of luck

Robert

maisie the ugly bug said:

Hi Henry

Our 09 Qubo does not have a dpf fitted, think it was a optional extra when they came out, all I can say is, run it down the motorway every fortnight for about 20 miles, should keep the dpf clean.
We had same problem, our petrol ulysse we had to scrap, I had wife qubo for work, we have brought a Chevrolet Orlando 1.8 petrol auto, wife does lots of short runs so modern diesel out of the question, would have liked to have stuck with fiat, but there cars don't tow enough for our caravan.
Best of luck

Robert

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Can't you have the DPF removed and the car computer reset to say this?

R-V-M

Would be a automatic failure at M.O.T I expect, same as removing the EGR valve. Answer is buy a older diesel without the dpf installed, like my 2009 Qubo.

Cheers Qube O.

UPDATE

Have had a miserable time with botched under warranty repairs from our local Fiat garage.

Have been back and forth with unrepaired leaks leaking diesel all over engine and exhaust. Diesel all over our drive and horrible stench in the cabin, with smoke coming off the exhaust and coming out at the back of the bonnet, very scary for my wife. After the last repair where the air filter was left not screwed down, with pipework disconnected and diesel still leaking I drove it back into the dealer and waited 4 hours whilst they attempted to remedy it. They steam cleaned but there was still a diesl odour coming from it.

After this woeful experience our confidence in the car and also in the ability of the Fiat garage to repair this and any other future problems totally evaporated. With great reluctance we drove to the nearest Ford main dealer where they looked at the bodywork, kicked the tyres without starting the engine and offered us a derisory pex. Very sadly we accepted and are now driving a petrol Ford Fiesta - it's a nice little car but just characterless compared to the Qubo. Very, very sad to have parted with it, but as retirees with health problems we just can't do with the hassle of potential repeat breakdowns and poor repair work, let alone expensive DPF issues that would rear their ugly heads when we least wanted them.

So leaving this forum now, but will be posting Qubo items for sale in the classifieds very shortly. If anyone wants 'first dibs' then please message me.

I'll be selling a genuine unfitted Fiat towbar and electrics, a pair of genuine Fiat roofbars used once, a genuine Fiat alarm unused and some front and back seat covers, tailored to fit front with driver's arm rest and split rear seat. These are so new I've only fitted the fronts, from eBay at £175 so great quality.

Forgot to add also selling a used Blue and Me TomTom which was bought to specifically fit the Qubo via a holder that plugs in on the top of the dashboard.

Message if interested.

Oh dear what a sorry tale! Some main dealers do let themselves down; I have to say it's not just Fiat dealers I have had similar experiences with Ford (perhaps I shouldn't be telling you that!) Good luck with your Fiesta.

Hi henryrym,
So sad to hear of yet another case of 'rubbish dealers'........causes more problems than the cars themselves. Fiat should really address their dealer network and sort out the bad ones, either training them up to a better standard or removing their dealership.

Best of luck with the Ford................

Cheers Qube O.

henryrym said:

Forgot to add also selling a used Blue and Me TomTom which was bought to specifically fit the Qubo via a holder that plugs in on the top of the dashboard.

Message if interested.

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Hi Henry, have pm'd you over this Tom Tom .....

Mad one said:

Hi Henry, have pm'd you over this Tom Tom .....

Click to expand...

Have replied to your PM, please let me know if it hasn't got through.

H

Contact made....and message replied to. ( turned on inbox notification ) !