Hi all
Firstly, being an infrequent user and essentially a newbie, sorry if I've broken the guidelines! But I wanted to start a new thread for this sad news, even though there are some others mentioning issues they have had with 'young' Twinair-engined 500s.
My shiny 62-plate Lounge Twinair came from Fiat Marylebone on 1st September. Sadly the honeymoon only lasted three months! Driving home from the supermarket in Monday evening, in urban traffic, I lost power without warning. The yellow generic warning and yellow malfunction indicator lights came on and the revs were limited to 3000rpm. I limped home and rang Fiat right away.
This gave them the prompt to tell me about the brake servo recall notice. Nice of them to let me know...
So they gave me the number for Marylebone's servicing department (in Battersea) and I took it in on Tuesday morning. Reassuringly (and unsurprisingly in London), about 90% of cars they service are 500s. They did the recall job, and then fixed the loss of problem - a busted coil in one of the spark plugs, apparently (I am of a scientific background so not phased by talk of engines, but never ask me to fix one!). They also told me that the oil level was halfway between min and max, and would need topping up. Should the Twinair have used that much oil in its 3200-mile lifetime? I know oil needs checking reasonably regularly, but they advised me TOPPING UP every 1000 miles!! With the Selenia brand of course, and I'm sure many of you are already aware that stuff isn't cheap (I already knew thanks to an ex's Stilo Abarth :yum My Toyota Aygo went 50,000 without me touching an oil can I told them I'd buy it myself (for £9.60) instead of their £21-odd so took the car away, believing (as they had told me so) that it was fixed. It wasn't. I had barely got to the main crossroads by Battersea Park station and the problem returned - lights n all.
So turned it around and took it straight back. They popped it straight back into the workshop and poked around for a bit. Then came out and insisted I bought the oil for them to top it up and see if that helped :bang:
It didn't, so I was duly given an auto Twinair to take away. They suggested they'd need to order a part (possibly from Italy). So off I went, feeling a little bit patronised (the blonde hair never helps).
Anyway, I had a little gentle whinge on the Fiat UK Facebook page, which prompted a call later Tuesday afternoon from Pam Kaur "in the director's office". She assured me that she would personally look after the progress of the job and keep me updated.
Since I had heard nothing by 4pm this afternoon I called Battersea myself. The chap on the other end of the phone said that they were awaiting guidance from head office on how to proceed. Or something like that, he didn't explain himself entirely clearly. What could head office know that the mechanics don't? I'm now suspicious about what might be going on, especially in light of some of the other worrying mechanical issues that others here have reported.
The worst thing is that it is so new, with only average miles on the clock! I knew what I was taking on with Fiat (again, thanks to the Stilo Abarth), but didn't expect anything to go wrong quite so soon
I will take any sympathetic ears, but if there are more knowledgeable types out there with any thoughts I'll be very grateful. And yes, I do know where the dipstick is
My car was giving me so much joy; I don't want to entertain the thought of swapping it for something dull but reliable!!
Firstly, being an infrequent user and essentially a newbie, sorry if I've broken the guidelines! But I wanted to start a new thread for this sad news, even though there are some others mentioning issues they have had with 'young' Twinair-engined 500s.
My shiny 62-plate Lounge Twinair came from Fiat Marylebone on 1st September. Sadly the honeymoon only lasted three months! Driving home from the supermarket in Monday evening, in urban traffic, I lost power without warning. The yellow generic warning and yellow malfunction indicator lights came on and the revs were limited to 3000rpm. I limped home and rang Fiat right away.
This gave them the prompt to tell me about the brake servo recall notice. Nice of them to let me know...
So they gave me the number for Marylebone's servicing department (in Battersea) and I took it in on Tuesday morning. Reassuringly (and unsurprisingly in London), about 90% of cars they service are 500s. They did the recall job, and then fixed the loss of problem - a busted coil in one of the spark plugs, apparently (I am of a scientific background so not phased by talk of engines, but never ask me to fix one!). They also told me that the oil level was halfway between min and max, and would need topping up. Should the Twinair have used that much oil in its 3200-mile lifetime? I know oil needs checking reasonably regularly, but they advised me TOPPING UP every 1000 miles!! With the Selenia brand of course, and I'm sure many of you are already aware that stuff isn't cheap (I already knew thanks to an ex's Stilo Abarth :yum My Toyota Aygo went 50,000 without me touching an oil can I told them I'd buy it myself (for £9.60) instead of their £21-odd so took the car away, believing (as they had told me so) that it was fixed. It wasn't. I had barely got to the main crossroads by Battersea Park station and the problem returned - lights n all.
So turned it around and took it straight back. They popped it straight back into the workshop and poked around for a bit. Then came out and insisted I bought the oil for them to top it up and see if that helped :bang:
It didn't, so I was duly given an auto Twinair to take away. They suggested they'd need to order a part (possibly from Italy). So off I went, feeling a little bit patronised (the blonde hair never helps).
Anyway, I had a little gentle whinge on the Fiat UK Facebook page, which prompted a call later Tuesday afternoon from Pam Kaur "in the director's office". She assured me that she would personally look after the progress of the job and keep me updated.
Since I had heard nothing by 4pm this afternoon I called Battersea myself. The chap on the other end of the phone said that they were awaiting guidance from head office on how to proceed. Or something like that, he didn't explain himself entirely clearly. What could head office know that the mechanics don't? I'm now suspicious about what might be going on, especially in light of some of the other worrying mechanical issues that others here have reported.
The worst thing is that it is so new, with only average miles on the clock! I knew what I was taking on with Fiat (again, thanks to the Stilo Abarth), but didn't expect anything to go wrong quite so soon
I will take any sympathetic ears, but if there are more knowledgeable types out there with any thoughts I'll be very grateful. And yes, I do know where the dipstick is
My car was giving me so much joy; I don't want to entertain the thought of swapping it for something dull but reliable!!
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