Hi, I have a Fiat 500C S 64 reg (2014).
Over the past few months there’s been a small leak every time it’s been parked up after driving. I thought it was something to do with the AC as the car is driving fine.
There’s a sloshing sound from the passenger footwell when I start it. Recently the cooling fan has been kicking in during journies to work (20 min journey, some start stop traffic) but seems to be kicking in a LOT. The temp gauge went red when I was idling and I checked the coolant level later and it was just under the min line. I topped it up but it has still been kicking in a lot.
I’ve had a few warning lights on the dashboard- start/stop disabled and check transmission. They flash up then go off straight away and hasn’t come back on. The check transmission message came on when I took a sharp corner. The fuel gauge also once went up a bar so that was weird.
Heater seems to take a while to heat up or will go cool if it’s been on a while!
I took it to a garage and they said it could be a sensor but were vague and just told me to take it back to Fiat but it’s out of warranty... any ideas would be great!!! Thanks

Check water level in radiator!!!
Sloshing noise is often air in water system IE low water, poor heater performance is also a clear indicator, don't drive until re filled, and work out where its leaking out.

Yes, definitely air in the system. I’ve had that whenever I renew a radiator. Start the engine, loosen the bleed screw in the pipe to the right of the airbox near the back of the engine. Take off the fill cap and top up. When the coolant starts to come out of the hole where the bleed screw was, put the bleed screw back in, replace the cap and give it a bit of welly on the accelerator. You may have to repeat to purge any air out.

If your radiator has the filler on the left side of the rad it can be hard to see the level, use a thin strip of card slide in until finger touches the neck, then hold against the outside to see the level with your finger at the neck point, note only check when cold or have a friend assist?

Where on the ground was the water patch under the "heater" area on the car or near the front/engine?

Also great care needs to be used on the bleed screw personally only open when cold or only just warm, mine snapped off when hot that required far more work to fix.

The thermostat was a known weak/failure point too, a simple cheap fix if you/friend can DIY

Hi John202020 and typecastboy,

Thanks for your advice. I have checked the coolant level and it is between the min and max line. The water patch on the ground seems to be further back towards the heater area rather than at the front, the patch always dries after a bit if that helps. I can't get under it to look..

Has the thermostat always been a problem with the 500's? The car definitely seems to be running okay, just the fan issue. The heater was also warm this morning, so seems to be intermittently working!
Thanks again.

If it's a 1.2, I think the plastic thermostat housing can crack and leak. Worth checking.

Kat1988 said:

Has the thermostat always been a problem with the 500's? The car definitely seems to be running okay, just the fan issue. The heater was also warm this morning, so seems to be intermittently working!
Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Yes thermostat has been an issue from the start, might have been redesigned later.
The cooling fan will click on and off with the ac on and on really hot days stay on when stood still.
Water under car "sounds" normal ac drain run off.
The heater, does your car have "full climate control " rather than manual controls with ac? Was the air warm when it should have been cold? There's a known issue with climate control cars where a small parts breaks and the heater looses the ability to control the temp which is a "huge/game changer job" to fix so hopefully not that.
Try purging the air from the heater hose the valve is the small turn screw just above the x to the left of the battery