Ive just got off the phone to Fiat in Italy. Decided that since this has the potential to develop into abit of a saga, i'd phone them on everyones behalf. The lady in Customer Care that i spoke to didn't know about it, but i gave her the details of the affected vehicles (3 Grande Puntos & 1 Punto Evo) & she has passed this to the Vehicle Conception Team, who keep tally of problems on their cars & send out Service Bulletins to the dealer network if necessary.

She urged me to tell you all that if you are experiencing this problem, even if it has now be resolved, please phone Fiat Customer Care on 00800 3428 0000 (goes straight through to Italy), notify them that youve had a problem with the alternator freezing in cold weather, and they will log this with Vehicle Conception.

She said that if your Fiat Dealer doesn't know about the fault, suggest they contact Fiat Technical who should be able to help.

I will keep an eye on these cases & will contact Fiat's Customer Relations Manager for the UK if need be.

In the meantime, keep posting with any queries.

Liam

Re: Alternator belt snapped

Moved this to its own thread Liam and stickied it for now

they must know about it though as apparently some of the newer evos have a moddified drain fitted

Re: Alternator belt snapped

Fiat do know about it; the drain on the 2010 Grande Punto Sound points away from the alternator to the r/h side of the car. The drain hose has a new part number.

Re: Alternator belt snapped

There was a Service Bulletin released over a year ago, with the resolution being to fit the drainage pipe.

Re: Alternator belt snapped

D4nny8oy said:

There was a Service Bulletin released over a year ago, with the resolution being to fit the drainage pipe.

Click to expand...

Excellent. Anyone have the Service Bulletin details? It would help the frozen pursue claims.

Re: Alternator belt snapped

Andy Monty said:

Moved this to its own thread Liam and stickied it for now

they must know about it though as apparently some of the newer evos have a moddified drain fitted

Click to expand...

Thanks Andy, i was dead confused when i just looked at the thread i originally posted in, but this is great

There's definately some communication problem with Fiat over this, as danny says a service bulletin was issued, but a Grande owner who went to Chorley Fiat in Blackpool this week was told they were unaware. Even the lady in Italy i spoke to yesterday didn't seem to know. The dealer not knowing in Blackpool was what kinda prompted me to phone Italy.

Its also worrying that the 2010 Grande Punto Sound has the modification, yet someone with a Punto Evo (newer design) has also suffered the belt problem

Im watching this carefully and will contact the Customer Relations Manager in Slough to make them aware if i think it's necessary, as he was spot on when i recently contacted Fiat with a spring snappage problem on my Stilo.

Liam.

Re: Alternator belt snapped

Hmm, would this apply to owners that have bought directly from Fiat?

Re: Alternator belt snapped

Magic Johnson said:

Hmm, would this apply to owners that have bought directly from Fiat?

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I guess you mean Fiat Direct near London? If so, i would personally check any Grande Punto or Punto Evo by pouring a small jug of water on the windscreen and see where it drains to under the bonnet. If the water drips onto the alternator, the car needs the modified drain tubes.

Re: Alternator belt snapped

I meant if you're the only owner of the car and you've bought from Fiat. I'm the 2nd owner of this GP, for example, I bought from an independant, would they still be inclined to take it and apply the modification 'under warranty' or 'recall' or whatever they want to brand it as?

Re: Alternator belt snapped

D4nny8oy said:

There was a Service Bulletin released over a year ago, with the resolution being to fit the drainage pipe.

Click to expand...

do we know the part no of the drainage pipe?

Just called at my local fiat garage,The part number for the modifacation is 51810013 and its just called a flexible sleeve.
He said as a temp solution he could take the one from the other side drain and put it in the side over the alternator.
Problem was there is none on the other side either and that empties over what looks like a servo(i know nothing bout cars so it could be something else lol).
Anyway the part costs £7 plus vat and it just pushes into the existing hole so its a 2 minute job.None in stock though because he has done loads these last couple of weeks.
As a tempory measure i have fitted a 8 inch length of plastic tube over the drain hole and held it in place with tie wraps. both on the pipe and against the bulk head.
Tubeing off a old vacumn cleaner extension hose is perfect.
Try this at your risk though cause you need to secure it very tightly.

Another frozen alternator and snapped belt here. I own a 2 year old grande punto eleganza. I went to start the car on the 21/12/10 when i noticed smoke bellowing from my dashboard. I turned off the ignition and exited the car as the smoke was overwhelming and the smell was horrendous. I popped the hood and found the snapped belt just lying there and lots of black soot over parts of the engine.

I called the fiat dealer where I bought the car. They told me they actually had a car do that in their forecourt that morning. I asked if this was covered by my warranty and was told "no, alternator belts are not covered in the third year of warranty". I pointed out that this seems to be a known problem and was a fault in manufacturing but was still told it wasnt covered. I now have to have the car towed to a garage and have it fixed there and it should cost around £150.

Not the best experience I have ever had with a car so I feel for all those who have fallen fowl to this problem.

Macca56 said:

Just called at my local fiat garage,The part number for the modifacation is 51810013 and its just called a flexible sleeve.
He said as a temp solution he could take the one from the other side drain and put it in the side over the alternator.

Click to expand...

Part number 51810013 has been available since 2003 when it was fitted to the Idea so it's not a modifed pipe.

It's the current part number for the left hand side drain pipe for a GP. It would appear that by fitting a left side pipe to the right side. Fiat have found a cheap solution to the problem. (If it's done before the alternator freezes)
.

so if i order this part itll overcome the problem?

alex

Here's a pic, taken today, of the 'correct' drainage away from the alternator. The car is a Grande Punto Sound, 2010, reg no GY60 DJV. It's my car. I put this picture in the public domain, in the hope it will help some of you get a fix. As you can see, the drain points water away from the alternator.

It's an 8mb download, 10 megapixel shot.

http://www.filedropper.com/grandepuntodrain


For those being fobbed off by dealers, the fault is not that the alternator belt has snapped, but water has drained into the alternator and frozen, wrecking it. The belt snaps when the engine tries to turn it. One suggestion if you're fobbed off is to offer to pay for the belt, but insist on claiming for any wrecked alternators. I don't know what is covered under the third year of warranty, but if the car is up to two years old, and your car drain soaks the alternator, it's worth a visit to your dealer with a print out of this thread to get it fixed or at least log the fault.

If you think you have the fault, and you can park the car facing uphill (I know, I know) in freezing weather, it may help until you get a fix. A couple of litres of water poured over the screen with the wipers in the vertical position will show up the problem if your car has it.

In some cases the alternator will not be damaged once thawed. If it is damaged, there are a number of small businesses who will exchange or rebuild it for about £100 or less.

Does anyone know the correct part number then for this mod,The only other main Fiat dealer near me is 20 miles away.

Macca56 said:

Does anyone know the correct part number then for this mod,The only other main Fiat dealer near me is 20 miles away.

Click to expand...

See post #11 above.

Mozzarella: Thanks for the picture (huge file by the way),. Any chance of pointing out the mod because I cant see what Im looking at . Thanks

Re: Alternator belt snapped

I can see that many people are having different information from their dealerships, so i decided to phone the Customer Relations Manager for the UK. I've just got off the phone to him. He was aware of the problem affecting the MiTo but i couldn't tell if he knew about the Grande Punto.

I told him that i'm concerned about different dealerships having different information, particularly with customers being told that they could have to pay anything upto £160 for the repair. He said if the car was under warranty & a manufacturing defect is found, it should be repaired free of charge. However, he is going to speak to his technical team to find out what Service News was sent out to dealers & give me a call back.

He said if one dealer got the Service News about it from Fiat, they should all get it as the same correspondence is sent to all dealers.

Bear with me & i will update you as soon as he phones back. I would say that if you have to get the work done (Ie the belt's already snapped) then get it done at a Fiat Dealer so you stand more chance of reimbursement.

Mozarella said:

Here's a pic
It's an 8mb download, 10 megapixel shot.

Click to expand...

can you please host pictures in the forum gallery and not offsite and make it smaller some of us use dial up