Having being offered a cracking quote on my daughter's 500 (2016 Pop Star) insurance, we went with Direct Line's DrivePlus policy. This includes a small black box to monitor the driver's performance.

We received the box which plugs into to diagnostic port of the car. Easy peasy we thought.

However, to get to the port one has to remove the coin holder part of the trim to the bottom right of the steering wheel. Once that's done, uncover the port and plug the box in.

Unfortunately the box is of such a size that one cannot now replace the trim with the coin holder

Tried calling the black box helpline but they are only open weekdays.

Wondered if anyone on here had experience of this and any solution and/or workarounds?

Worst case scenario is that we just put the trim cover somewhere safe until we change policy or don't have a black box requirement. A tad annoying though.

I have bought an OBD tracker and although I haven’t fitted it yet, I’m expecting the same problem. The only thing I can think of is to remove the plug from the bracket so it just hangs down. You should be able to put the cover back then.

Could get a second hand trim pieces for this area and cut a hole in it to route the cable through
Only other alternative is to contact the insurer and see if they can get you a hardwired type device

You could try an OBD extension cable. Might be a simple solution...

This has come up before, and more than once; here is a link back to the past.

This post might be worth a read.

Thanks all.

I think I will call Direct Line. It can’t be right having a piece of trim off all the time or having to mess with it. It’s advertised as a 5 minute job.

A right angle plug?

You need to get back in touch with Direct Line and they will prob give you the number for DrivePlus direct.
My daughter has a 500 Lounge and when we were shopping around for her insurance ( Provisional license holder) other companies were a lot cheaper but and a big but is when/if she passes her test then with other companies you have to pay more ( a lot higher risk as newly passed driver is out on their own) but with Direct line that is the premium for the year full stop.
So when we decided to take up the DrivePlus option putting in her car make/model on the website it said we had to arrange an appointment for an auto electrician to come and fit the DrivePlus Box because the Self Install option is not available on that make/model.
The appointment was arranged online and all went fine, with Emails at every stage.
Something has gone wrong with your DrivePlus as you should have been told that the self install option is not available when you told them your make/model.
When the auto electrician came to install ( Jan 2018) he spent more time doing a pre install check to make sure everything was working on the car before he done anything to do with the DrivePlus install. He did the same afterwards with me present and When I asked him after wards he said that it was to make sure the car was in the same condition that it was in before as on occasion customers had said that a bulb no longer worked after the DrivePlus had been fitted!!! I also asked him why the DrivePlus on a 500 had to be installed by an auto electrician when the one on my sons VW Polo was a self install job?, he said it was because the plug-in box would foul the trim not allowing it to go back properly!!
So you don't need to forgo the policy as there is a work around albeit on Monday ( but IIRC DrivePlus don't open until 10:00) Direct Line knew it was a Fiat 500 so they should not have given you the self install option.


Paul m.

Ok its was some time ago but when my wife was a provisional driver, Direct Line was half the price of others for her own car.

I had a similar problem with my Twin Air.
I found the ODB socket was fixed in place by two screws. I removed the screws fitted the black box, & cable tied the assembly to the underside of the dash further back. That meant I could replace the coin tray.

I recommend you just unscrew the obd socket as they will hack about the main power cable into the fusebox. Not really an issue but I’d rather have no permanent damage to my car. Unfortunately I didn’t have any choice with mine.

Spoke to Direct Line today. Very helpful.

Different tracker being sent to us, the original is sent back, someone will come out to hard wire the new tracker.

Daughter can still drive in the interim and is covered.

Glad it will be sorted as we have a bargain for the insurance policy and I don’t see why I should start messing with the car.

I think in the future we will be seeing much more of this technology. I don't think it will be very long before it becomes mandatory for manufacturers to install some kind of data logging device into all new cars. As well as its use by the insurance industry, I can see a time when this data will be routinely accessed by the police and used as evidence following any serious accident.

Big brother is not very far away.

Adambsmith said:

Spoke to Direct Line today. Very helpful.

Different tracker being sent to us, the original is sent back, someone will come out to hard wire the new tracker.

Daughter can still drive in the interim and is covered.

Glad it will be sorted as we have a bargain for the insurance policy and I don’t see why I should start messing with the car.

Click to expand...

I'm sure that they (Direct Line) made a mistake by sending you the Self install option when they knew you had a 500!
I have not actually looked at the install that the auto electrician done on my daughters 500 but the box they sent me to give him only had wires coming from it so it does not actually fit into the OBD socket but I guess is spliced into the loom somehow.

Glad you got (getting) a result.

jrkitching said:

I think in the future we will be seeing much more of this technology. I don't think it will be very long before it becomes mandatory for manufacturers to install some kind of data logging device into all new cars. As well as its use by the insurance industry, I can see a time when this data will be routinely accessed by the police and used as evidence following any serious accident.

Big brother is not very far away.

Click to expand...

Having worked for the emergency service for 28+ years and having dealings with road traffic collision investigations this is already in place. Most vehicle ECU's monitor and store a massive amount of data concerning the historical use and settings of the vehicle. But and it's a big but these ECU's can only be interrogated and deciphered by the associated manufacturer. So can you imagine any manufacturer reporting back that the cause of multiple deaths was due to a malfunction of said vehicle, normally comes back as 'no suitable data found due to collision/impact damage'

Paul

Hard wiring is a really poor option IMO.

The trim panel is designed for diagnostics only and not intended for people to drive around with even the slimmest plug plugged in.

I simply fabricated a new aluminium bracket that holds the plug co-planar with the mounting screws, rather than the long offset as per the OEM bracket.

UFI said:

Hard wiring is a really poor option IMO.

Click to expand...

What happens when you sell the vehicle, or change insurers? Who's going to pay to have the car put back to standard? And if you have an electrical problem in the future (it has happened), are Fiat still going to honour the warranty? What if they claim it was the device (or the fitting) that caused the problem and DL deny responsibility?

I can also see this resulting in extra costs for an owner choosing to return a car at the end of a pcp agreement.

jrkitching said:

Big brother is not very far away.

Click to expand...

You are not wrong!

Checking the driving log
Apparently, I (The owner of the vehicle) have “Accelerated Agressively” for 2 seconds!



?

Only 2 seconds?

"Could try harder"

Apparently I've now cornered " aggressively" for 2 seconds!������

Not bad for a 50+ year old!

Bring on the Abarth........