Nice little story here about warranty and dealer service... 
I bought my 500 at the end of April, which is after our hot summer has gone. I tend to use air conditioning only occasionally, and I've found in my other cars that if it is turned on and then off, the windows will mist up for hours (more than if the air conditioning isn't turned on in the first place).
Anyway during the very damp part of winter I did leave the air conditioning on, to keep the windows clear, and I noticed a hissing noise that would come and go, then come back again.
I have a friend who's an air conditioning specialist, so I got him to come around and put the gauges on all three of my cars. I knew my Spider's air conditioning was ineffective and sure enough, its refrigerant was a bit low (as might be expected at 12 years old). My six-year-old 166 was working perfectly. The real surprise was my 500, which had only about a third of the correct refrigerant charge!
A quick look around with a UV light showed leaks at all four crimp fittings of two hoses - one that runs to the condensor (front-right corner) and one that runs to the evaporator (behind the engine) and also a leak at the valve beside the inlet manifold.
I decided I wanted this fixed under warranty as it was clearly caused by a problem at the factory (perhaps the crimp tool had worn out). Since the FIAT agent in Hamilton has closed down, this meant a 260km round trip to Auckland. I called the service manager and discussed the problem, suggesting that I would like new hoses to be fitted based on the diagnosis so far. Craig advised that such items would have to come from Italy, so I must take the car there to be inspected, then bring it home, and take it back up there for the job to be done when the parts were available. Craig was also surprised that a dye had been put in the system (apparently they don't come from the factory like that) - it seems this problem might have surfaced before.
So I delivered my 500 to them, about an hour late as it turns out, due to a misunderstanding, and the agent (Andrew Simms) kindly lent me a silver Punto MultiJet 1.9 as a courtesy car. I used this for a quick motorway blast to a shopping mall.
About four hours later I hadn't heard anything, so I drove back, to be told that "your 500's just in the wash bay now... it's all fixed."
Turns out that FIAT NZ made the decision to have new hoses made up by an air conditioning specialist (rather than obtaining original new parts), so they were made up with new fittings and the system properly recharged. The quality of the workmanship was top-notch and all leaky areas were addressed. The bill would have been just under $500 (pretty reasonable), but I didn't have to pay a cent, AND my 500 was cleaned inside and out!
So that was a happy experience and a good example of why to have a warranty on a fairly-new car - to sort out manufacturing faults that take a while to appear.
-Alex
I bought my 500 at the end of April, which is after our hot summer has gone. I tend to use air conditioning only occasionally, and I've found in my other cars that if it is turned on and then off, the windows will mist up for hours (more than if the air conditioning isn't turned on in the first place).
Anyway during the very damp part of winter I did leave the air conditioning on, to keep the windows clear, and I noticed a hissing noise that would come and go, then come back again.
I have a friend who's an air conditioning specialist, so I got him to come around and put the gauges on all three of my cars. I knew my Spider's air conditioning was ineffective and sure enough, its refrigerant was a bit low (as might be expected at 12 years old). My six-year-old 166 was working perfectly. The real surprise was my 500, which had only about a third of the correct refrigerant charge!
A quick look around with a UV light showed leaks at all four crimp fittings of two hoses - one that runs to the condensor (front-right corner) and one that runs to the evaporator (behind the engine) and also a leak at the valve beside the inlet manifold.
I decided I wanted this fixed under warranty as it was clearly caused by a problem at the factory (perhaps the crimp tool had worn out). Since the FIAT agent in Hamilton has closed down, this meant a 260km round trip to Auckland. I called the service manager and discussed the problem, suggesting that I would like new hoses to be fitted based on the diagnosis so far. Craig advised that such items would have to come from Italy, so I must take the car there to be inspected, then bring it home, and take it back up there for the job to be done when the parts were available. Craig was also surprised that a dye had been put in the system (apparently they don't come from the factory like that) - it seems this problem might have surfaced before.
So I delivered my 500 to them, about an hour late as it turns out, due to a misunderstanding, and the agent (Andrew Simms) kindly lent me a silver Punto MultiJet 1.9 as a courtesy car. I used this for a quick motorway blast to a shopping mall.
About four hours later I hadn't heard anything, so I drove back, to be told that "your 500's just in the wash bay now... it's all fixed."
Turns out that FIAT NZ made the decision to have new hoses made up by an air conditioning specialist (rather than obtaining original new parts), so they were made up with new fittings and the system properly recharged. The quality of the workmanship was top-notch and all leaky areas were addressed. The bill would have been just under $500 (pretty reasonable), but I didn't have to pay a cent, AND my 500 was cleaned inside and out!
So that was a happy experience and a good example of why to have a warranty on a fairly-new car - to sort out manufacturing faults that take a while to appear.
-Alex
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