I was the proud owner of Zippy (a 2013 Fiat 500 twin air ) however as of this morning I have gone off him somewhat! Has anyone else had this problem. I have to have a new uniair actuator according to my Fiat garage. Costing £1127.46? He’s been chugging and spluttering every time I start him and he usually practically looses all power. I had to switch off and restart, Rev the engine and he was then ok. I have found that my mechanic and others dislike fiats. They havent heard of this part as apparently it’s special to a 2 stroke engine! so I’m having to go with the garage. Their computer finally confirmed it this morning as I left the car with them overnight to test after a long rest. They’ve assured me that Zippy will then be fine!!! My pocket will not. He is a little character, white with a red convertible roof and a fiat zip around his body. I love character cars! So the garage say this is an unusual fault. Anyone else had this replaced?

You car being a twin air doesn’t have valves like a normal engine it has valve controlled electronically, this uses oil compressed by a cam and an electronic actuator to open and close the valves, this gives a very high level of precision in the timing of the engine, and when combined with a small turbo, allows 100+ horse power from a 900cc engine, however, as you have found out is ridiculously expensive when it goes wrong....

The car isn’t a two stroke, your mechanic clearly doesn’t have any experiance of this type of engine.

Sadly repair bills like this have the potential to bite fiat in the back side, in terms of their reputation. 5 year old cars could end up scrapped as people are unable to afford to fix them, finding it easier to finance a new car instead.

Mazfloyd said:

Anyone else had this replaced?

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It's a reasonably common issue with the TA; if you search the 500 section for 'uniair' you'll find quite a few relevant posts.

Oil-related servicing issues are thought to be the root cause of many of these failures; it's absolutely essential with these engines to change the oil regularly, keep it at the proper level, use the correct specification of oil for the specific year of your car, and to clean the secret hidden filter. Even franchised dealers have been known to use the wrong grade &/or quantity of oil.

£1127.46 is a bit steep, even for a main dealer. You can buy the part here for much less than this (though it's still not exactly cheap); a competent (yours doesn't sound like one for the reason Andy mentioned in the previous post) independent mechanic ought to be able to change it if you aren't up to doing it yourself. Even better, find an independent Fiat specialist; they'll have seen it all before.

If you make a donation to this forum, we'll give you a discount code to get a further 10% off that price.