I understand what you're saying, and if I knew my way around cars and had enough time (ffs its Saturday night and here I am working from home), I would do my own checks/maintenance etc. Unfortunately I have neither of them, so I'm going to have to rely on my dealer to do the dirty work. Besides its under warranty so to a certain extent its up to them to sort out problems.

There has been a few suggested solutions to this creaking problems, and I'm sure at least one of them would help. I was just surprised how it seems to have healed itself without any work done on it, that's all.

Rest assured noone didn't start with a head full of knowledge about cars, me either. All of us need to start from somewhere, start would be to take a 10 to 20 min to study a manual a day, and that'll clear some things up. Next you can try a few simple maintenance items when you feel confident enough. Surely 10 to 20 mins a day is not that much?

About creaking - it could be new components settling in, in which case it will stop creaking after some miles, or it could be something loose, in which case it might or might not stop by itself, depending what is loose. In my case I had luck in that that subframe was loose where it mounts on a rubber stop, so more loose it got, the more it creaked - thus getting my attention somethings wrong.


I would also like that we can trust dealers to do what they say, would save us a lot of headache and problems, but to be fair, I know only of a handful Fiat tech here that I would trust my car to. Most others have proved to be outright monkeys with a wrench, and from other's expiriences it seems it doesn't differ too much from country to country. A sad state of affairs, but.. we got to take it for what it is.

Green said:

Rest assured noone didn't start with a head full of knowledge about cars, me either. All of us need to start from somewhere, start would be to take a 10 to 20 min to study a manual a day, and that'll clear some things up. Next you can try a few simple maintenance items when you feel confident enough. Surely 10 to 20 mins a day is not that much?

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Fair point, and being on FF definitely helps!

Green said:

I would also like that we can trust dealers to do what they say, would save us a lot of headache and problems, but to be fair, I know only of a handful Fiat tech here that I would trust my car to. Most others have proved to be outright monkeys with a wrench, and from other's expiriences it seems it doesn't differ too much from country to country. A sad state of affairs, but.. we got to take it for what it is.

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Only use approved IMI/ATA fiat technicians then

That's right! However, even some ppl here who are approved know little much. Don't know how it's the case, but some of them...oh dear. Do not want to go into details. The tech I have most trust in is my friend, and as I was watching him a few years back learning the EFI systems and Fiats in general, I can sure tell he thinks well and knows how to do almost everything short of bodywork repairs to a much higher standard then most of them here. Even if he doesn't know something, taking a logical approach always ends up doing the right thing. Everyone can make mistakes, but if you take a cool headed and logical approach to most things, then mistakes are driven to a minimum.

I would like that everyone is competent, as I could leave car to anyone and be sure it's gona be fixed allright, but life is different.....rant over

The Street End said:

Well the cars gone back in again today (4th time!)

I took a senior tech out for a run in it when I dropped it off because previously theyve been unable to make it squeek (how I dont know, because its really apparent) so at least they know what they should be fixing although he said hed never heard anything like it before, however he did say hed had a few back with odd noises, one being 20 ciggies left behind a panel...

with a bit of luck they might even fix my wonky glove box too

if anyone has any trouble with Fiat or dealerships I found writing a letter quoting The Consumer Goods Act 1994 makes them get their arses into gear.

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Can I ask where you wrote in to? - I want to contact Fiat head office but not sure where to write to. Is it the office in Slough?

Cheers