My beloved fiat 500 1.3 multijet diesel, we believe 1st to be brought into Scotland,bought new, serviced by fiat dealer religiously, has died from broken timing chain. Fiat have offered to help by selling us new engine at discount, but still £5000, car worth £2500, so not sensible. But am heartbroken. Think people need to know that this can happen. She should have lasted at least twice as long as did, someone could buy similar with finance & be left with nothing but still paying for.

Maureencharlote said:

My beloved fiat 500 1.3 multijet diesel, we believe 1st to be brought into Scotland,bought new, serviced by fiat dealer religiously, has died from broken timing chain. Fiat have offered to help by selling us new engine at discount, but still £5000, car worth £2500, so not sensible. But am heartbroken. Think people need to know that this can happen. She should have lasted at least twice as long as did, someone could buy similar with finance & be left with nothing but still paying for.

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Hi, and welcome,

so how many miles on the car..?? 70k upwards is "normal" for chain failure

some will last for 140K+ ..

the parts are normally @£350 to repair.. but it's a fair bit of labour,

:idea:find yourself a garage that's used to servicing the FIAT, and Vauxhall vans with this little engine,

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/355160-multijet-timing-chain-failure.html

https://www.fiatforum.com/panda/338518-07-fiat-panda-1-3-multijet-died-2.html

for a better informed opinion,
Charlie

there must be many breakers with a 1.3 multijet engine for sale a lot cheaper than a new engine so why not consider a second hand engine then replace the timing chain before you install the engine and you know you will get many more miles in your car

rick500 said:

there must be many breakers with a 1.3 multijet engine for sale a lot cheaper than a new engine so why not consider a second hand engine then replace the timing chain before you install the engine and you know you will get many more miles in your car

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it's an OLD car apparently.. so the labour involved MAY be too much, against the cars working resale value.

personally if I've had the car for @8 years,
I'd know it inside-out, and could make an informed choice on it's fate.

plenty of others on here ( panda and little vans are the same engine)
who've done the job them selves ( repair the original fitted engine) for @£400

You certainly don't need a whole new engine.

The chain isn't too difficult or costly to replace and the rockets are designed to break and save the valves from damage a good little back street garage would soon have it back on its wheels for a lot less than a new engine.

Incidentally 70k is very low for any chain to go and there are plenty of these multijet engines still trundling about on huge milages still on the original chain.

My punto was a smidge under 120k and running sweetly when I sold it, sadly there are some bad chains about and I've seen cars on here with a broken chain as low as 40k miles