Just got back from my local dealership - the rear calipers are basically stuffed. The N/S one was rescuable but the O/S needs replacing (at 14300 miles). The rear pads have near enough worn through and all this in the last month.

Last night the rear calipers stuck and I was left crawling along the motorway with the car sounding like a screaming kettle.

I took it in for a service and raised questions about the rear brakes 4 weeks ago and they replied that there was nothing wrong with them. Now they expect the pads to last no more than 2 weeks.

I am more than a little suspicious that they didn't even look at the calipers last time or inspect the pads as there is no way they have degraded that much inside of 300 miles.

I'm now waiting to hear if this will be covered under warranty

Have you been following the topic on the Abarth forum too? It's a mess, almost everyone is experiencing this, new cars, old cars, low miles and high miles. Those with high miles are expected to pay for all new parts (silly me) however some are getting the parts changed under warranty.

I'm almost finished with Abarth now, can't take much more

I was following that thread some weeks ago but hadn't contributed - which I have now done.

DraigFlag87 said:

Have you been following the topic on the Abarth forum too? It's a mess, almost everyone is experiencing this, new cars, old cars, low miles and high miles. Those with high miles are expected to pay for all new parts (silly me) however some are getting the parts changed under warranty.

I'm almost finished with Abarth now, can't take much more

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As Ive been banned from their for being too honest any chance of a brief breakdown of the facts on here, with 18K service intervals (we do oil & filter at 9) I can see many getting caught out, just intrigued to know the facts.

You should still be able to read it as a guest though? Anyone who is not a member can still read 90% of what's on there i think.

DraigFlag87 said:

You should still be able to read it as a guest though? Anyone who is not a member can still read 90% of what's on there i think.

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It recognises my isp & wont let me view anything, I get this message every time which makes me chuckle "Sorry Stuart_J, you are banned from using this forum! "
Not really a great loss, a bit like being excluded from comunism, pointless to anyone only reading the views of the people in power & their paymasters, anything else being excluded. Perhaps we need protests in a public square to bring down the rulers

Note to anyone on Abarthforum.con Dont comment publicly on this as you may be banned by the "naughty police" as well, they are a bit touchy about any threat to their reigm (read sponsors)

DraigFlag87 said:

I'm almost finished with Abarth now, can't take much more

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What the .....???

Are you really thinking of selling ??? I find that very hard to believe - Goodness your enthusiasm has contributed to my strong desire for an Abarth. Hopefully you are just going thro' one of those "down" moments that most go thro' with car ownership

from this side of the world it seems a bit strange with this sudden spate of brake issues - issues that appear to be confined to the UK. The Italian forum has not really reported such issues. Could it be the very cold winter in the UK ?? Just a thought

We've had 3 cold winters in a row with lots of salt being used especially in the last two.

It is still no excuse as these cars are sold in countries where cold weather and heavy salting of the roads is common.

Joseph500 said:

What the .....???

Are you really thinking of selling ??? I find that very hard to believe - Goodness your enthusiasm has contributed to my strong desire for an Abarth. Hopefully you are just going thro' one of those "down" moments that most go thro' with car ownership

from this side of the world it seems a bit strange with this sudden spate of brake issues - issues that appear to be confined to the UK. The Italian forum has not really reported such issues. Could it be the very cold winter in the UK ?? Just a thought

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Don't get me wrong, i love the car, it's the best car in the World as far as i'm concerned. But when it goes wrong, which it does often, the dealer service is enough to make you want to puke. On 3 occasions at 3 different dealers, the car's not been fixed properly, and on 3 occasions the car has been damaged etc it's bad enough the car going wrong, but when people don't do their job properly and damage your car, it's a step too far really.

Even now, my car still needs both it's side skirts replacing as the dealers jacked the car up with the ramp arm touching the skirts so they have crushed them!

Thanx DF about your affirmation about the Abarth – restored my faith (currently “in discussions” with the importer about getting my preferred non Oz standard spec)

Sorry to hear about your trials and tribulations with those niggling issues, especially the apparently shabby treatment from the dealers BUT surely there must an Italian Sport Car independent mechanic somewhere nearby you could use. Here in Oz nearly all my Italian car mates take their cars to independents that can generally do warranty work (subject to authorisation). Yes, it can be a hassle at times but ultimately you get better service and a better car

Well that would be nice, but i'm sort of in the middle of nowhere here. My nearest dealer is a 140 mile round trip, it used to be 200+ mile trip until a new one opened up slightly closer!

It's annoying because it's the car i want, and yet i feel i'm slowly being denied the right to own this car because of the poor service. Since having the car, i have learnt to be very tolerant, i keep giving the car last chances. If things don't improve then it's bye bye Abarth.

I'm sure things are much different in OZ though The UK is famous for having poor service in almost every aspect!

Sounds familiar, piccadilly at knaresborough have been awful. Every time i have to go they manage to cock something up or make it a pain in the arse.

I've been in today, booked my car in a month ago for various things. One of which was the front drivers side washer jet not firing at all.

So i get there, they have the car all day then when i get there to pick it up they couldn't do anything with that problem because they didn't have the part, even though they knew what the problem was over a month ago. So i spent 3 hours driving backwards and forwards for pretty much sod all.

All the problems i've had with my alfa have been minor but when you get ****ty service like this it just makes you want to get rid

DraigFlag87 said:

I'm sure things are much different in OZ though The UK is famous for having poor service in almost every aspect!

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Our Dealers !!! HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA, HA !!!!! Unfortunately our dealers appear to be just as hopeless as yours – however there are some exceptions.

Our problems tend to stem from the fact that all our Fiat and Alfa dealers are always part a multi brand franchise so their service technicians could be working on a Honda, then your car, then a SAAB straight after – little experience, no consistency AND the service division is charged with maxing out the hours and selling the parts with a high mark-up. Fortunately we do have some excellent independents BUT only in the major cities – outside of those cities you are stuffed.

So basically from what I can tell little different from the UK

Just got word - the replacement caliper was delivered this morning, the car is going back in to the workshop tomorrow so we will see how this plays out very soon! So far there has been no question at all that the caliper is not covered under warranty.

Got the car back again last night with a lovely shiny new caliper on the back and a fresh set of pads. Handling is different again, the lift off oversteer has strangely diminished (if anything I expected the reverse of this) but this could just be a change in weather, temperature and a slightly overdue check on tyre pressures.

The car no longer sounds like a screaming kettle whistle but it still chirps every now and again - more like a demented budgie...

I'll give it a couple of days to settle in but I suspect another trip back to the dealers will be needed.

jimbro1000 said:

Got the car back again last night with a lovely shiny new caliper on the back and a fresh set of pads. Handling is different again, the lift off oversteer has strangely diminished (if anything I expected the reverse of this) but this could just be a change in weather, temperature and a slightly overdue check on tyre pressures.

The car no longer sounds like a screaming kettle whistle but it still chirps every now and again - more like a demented budgie...

I'll give it a couple of days to settle in but I suspect another trip back to the dealers will be needed.

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Ah well progress at least