(G) Coil Pack - Fiat out of Stock

My first thread on this useful site. Purchased a new Stilo in Nov 2002 after having Fords previously and worst thing I've ever done. I've had a MAP sensor replaced twice now and on the second occasion took 4 weeks to get the part as Fiat were out of stock, luckily car just in warranty and had courtesy car, but Fiat Head office were useless. Now I have a Cylinder pack up on the way home from holiday and ended up being towed home by the RAC. My local garage (non-fiat dealership) advises that a new coil pack is required £35 which doesn't seem bad, however their local supplier is out of stock and upon contacting Fiat Parts this item is out of stock until end of April. So they are on the hunt for a secondhand part or from somewhere else in the UK.

The questions I have is that has anyone else come up against this extremely poor service from Fiat for parts? I find it unbelievable that a car manufacturer like Fiat cannot supply an essential part of an engine within a few days, I've never had this problem with Ford.

2 local Fiat dealerships have closed in Essex leaving just the one in Chelmsford, if a secondhand part cannot been found I'm going to see if I can insist on them moving the car from the local garage to them and supplying a courtesy car UFN. I doubt they will agree to this, so I'm tempted to seek if I can take any legal action or see if BBC Watchdog are interested to take this further. Has anyone done this or considered this?

If anyone has any comments or suggestions please let me know.

Cheers
Darren

Sorry but if this was me I would not be wanting a second hand part this kind of service is the norm judging by a lot of the comments on here from members you dont say what size engine is in your Stilo but there are some new ones for sale on Ebay for 1.6 ATM

I had all four replaced by Fiat about a month ago with no problem

As they have them at www.shop4parts (click the link above) on 48 hour delivery then I'd ask what's wrong with their purchasing dept.

In the meantime I'd have them swop the coils off another Stilo in their garage onto yours until the new coils came in

Well im currently waiting for the air pressure sensor to replaced on mine, they're out of stock and apparently its on backorder.........at the end of the day they're only a shop, every shop has stock problems once in a while so im not overly bothered

Starting to get a bit concerened with all of this going wrong, just out of curiosity (going to sound really thick) how do i know if my coil packs are playing up or even the air pressure sensor?
cheers
sam

Oh, I think you will know if a coil pack goes - I had one of mine go a good few months back, and I wasn't able to even get out of the village, the car just felt so lumpy....

well if your air pressure sensor packs up you get a dodgy idle and the engine warning light comes on, and you have to be careful at lights incase the car stalls..........bit annoying to say the least

Fiat themselves (well the dealer) have never had a problem getting me parts. I think they use the theory of over promise, under deliver (as in before the deadline)

They got all the gear box bits in time for my car going in, same with electric window.

My insurers blamed fiat and getting parts for taking 4 months to make my car roadworthy again, and another 3 months to get it the way it should be. I even pointed out i didnt seem to have trouble.

Dont know who to believe

D Salmon in Colchester are still going, they are about 30 miles from Chelmsford so there is at least one other dealer you could try. No idea if they are any good or not, doing a search on here there is one post saying dont go near them but it doesnt say why!

D Salmon in Colchester parts guys are ok, its the place that dealers get the bits from that are a pain, too much stuff seems to be on back order, dunno what that is but it means bits take weeks instead of days to arrive

Last time one of my coils packed up, I bought 2... One to replace the dead one and one as a spare.

Might be worth updating this post with how many coil packs are in each model? If i remember correctly the 1.2 only has 2, so if 1 goes you should know about it, running on 2 cylinders? But how many does the 1.6, 1.8 and 2.4 have?

The 2.4 has 5, once for each cylinder.

The 1.6 has 6
4 under the bonnet and 2 in the boot

-just in case