Northern Auto Tech - ECU and Blue & Me Repairs

General I feel this is a lousy service plan (and hello!)

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General I feel this is a lousy service plan (and hello!)

ok,

BSM Mazda have redeemed themselves as they have switched off the light!
Yay, GF is happy as car back to 100%
I'm happy as she's not still driving round with the dam light on and ignoring it!
Hopefully we will soon be having the mother of all DPF regens :)

Alex, thanks for all the info, but one point of clarification please!
If I understand you right.......
The oil degradation warning light and oil degradation index are one and the same (essentially the index deteriorates until triggering the alarm),
Both are reset when the oil is changed, by a single procedure.
(ie in order to kill the warning you have to reset the index and vice versa)
Therefore if a garage is offering / advertising servicing of the 500, and it CANNOT reset the oil degradation warning light, then presumably it cannot reset the oil degradation index at all?
If that is the case, then anyone else who has had their 500 serviced there, can't have had the index reset, so the car must believe it is still on the old oil?

How else could the car know it has fresh oil?
 
I'd be surprised if a reasonable garage could not reset the oil condition indicator. I have had oil changes done by a non fiat garage and they have always managed to do it (albeit once I had pointed out it was different to the service indicator).
 
GF Fiat 500 Multijet said:
Alex, thanks for all the info, but one point of clarification please!
If I understand you right.......
The oil degradation warning light and oil degradation index are one and the same (essentially the index deteriorates until triggering the alarm),
Both are reset when the oil is changed, by a single procedure.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is correct.
The procedure is named 'Oil Change' in MES and is easy to run, but you have to remember to connect to the Engine ECU to do it. There is a reminder message when you connect to the Service Reminder ECU - it reminds you to connect to the engine ECU as well, for Diesel engines only.

There are probably many commercial 'scan tools' that can do this as well, so many independent workshops should be able to do the job properly.

Having said that, the AA in NZ didn't bother to reset the service reminder on our 500 when the previous owner had it serviced - so the spanner icon appeared a month later once I'd bought the car. The service cost $342 (£170) and did not include air filter, spark plugs, pollen filter, wiper blades... so that was a "lousy service" in keeping with the topic of this thread!

I replaced all those items myself plus the cambelt, all genuine parts (except water pump which was from an OE supplier), and it cost about the same as that oil change. No wonder these Euro cars have a reputation for expensive servicing.

The moral is; either ask your garage quite clearly whether they can reset the service reminder and the oil degradation index - or do it yourself. :)

Glad the issue is resolved, anyway.

-Alex
 
Last edited:
alexGS said:
Yes, that is correct.
The procedure is named 'Oil Change' in MES and is easy to run, but you have to remember to connect to the Engine ECU to do it. There is a reminder message when you connect to the Service Reminder ECU - it reminds you to connect to the engine ECU as well, for Diesel engines only.

There are probably many commercial 'scan tools' that can do this as well, so many independent workshops should be able to do the job properly.

Having said that, the AA in NZ didn't bother to reset the service reminder on our 500 when the previous owner had it serviced - so the spanner icon appeared a month later once I'd bought the car. The service cost $342 (£170) and did not include air filter, spark plugs, pollen filter, wiper blades... so that was a "lousy service" in keeping with the topic of this thread!

I replaced all those items myself plus the cambelt, all genuine parts (except water pump which was from an OE supplier), and it cost about the same as that oil change. No wonder these Euro cars have a reputation for expensive servicing.

The moral is; either ask your garage quite clearly whether they can reset the service reminder and the oil degradation index - or do it yourself. :)

Glad the issue is resolved, anyway.

-Alex
Click to expand...
interesting you say that but i noticed in the last fiat 500 manual (2015), that fiat now recommend you change the cambelt every 60,000 kms or 4 years if you drive mainly in the town, instead of telling you just to check it like they used to.
 
ahmett said:
interesting you say that but i noticed in the last fiat 500 manual (2015), that fiat now recommend you change the cambelt every 60,000 kms or 4 years if you drive mainly in the town, instead of telling you just to check it like they used to.
Click to expand...

Yes - six years or 100,000km would be the usual advice for a car used in typical New Zealand conditions - we wouldn't risk the 120,000km it says in some schedules - mine was at six years and 75,000km and to be honest, the cambelt looked in fine condition. The auxiliary belt (as you said) was bad, cracked right across in places. I can't believe a "professional service" would leave a cracked six-year-old belt in place - just asking for trouble. Very easy to change this belt on a 1.4 (spring-loaded tensioner). Don't want to scare anyone, but it is a nice feeling to go through these things yourself and make sure that everything is just right :)

-Alex
 
Alex, thanks for clarifying that,
and to everyone who's chipped in!
Glad it's sorted so can confirm BSM Mazda in Bristol CAN switch of the oil degradation light.
However, found (on here) a recommended indy up the road so next mission is to convince OH to go there instead!
Wish me luck!
 
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