500 Newbie and struggling :/

[jonesyy]

Hi, im new to this but i am having a few problems with my fiat 500 lounge 1.2 petrol.

my car is a pre-owned car and i bought it from the dealership just under a year and i am having a few problems with it and wondering if anyone could help.

Firstly the car is a start stop but this is not working, i took it to the dealership who said they had charged the battery and i should be working. It worked for 2 weeks then cut out. I could not be bothered taking it back as it was more hassle than its worth. Recently i had a sign on my dash board saying 'airbag failure' so i immediately took it back to the dealership, i also mentioned by start stop was not working. After them having my car for 6 hours they gave me a ring to tell me they had sorted the airbag failure out but this is not covered on my dealership warranty but did it as a good will gesture, they then explained my battery was not powering up enough and that is why my start stop was not working and to buy a new batter which they quoted me £168. I told them to leave it.

Secondly about a week ago the hinge out the outside drivers door has snapped which is a pain to keep opening as i dont want the whole door handle to come off. I again rang the dealership up and said it would cost around £80 - £120 to fix. Which again i said i would not bother getting them to fix.

I am posting this to see if any one could help me find
1. a good battery for the start stop in my car which is not too pricey
2. is there a way i could fix my door hinge myself

Thanks in advanced.

 

[jrkitching]

Probably the two commonest issues affecting used 500's.

The door handle can be cheaply and easily repaired, following this guide.

S/S batteries will never be cheap; expect to pay around £100 for a suitable replacement from any of the usual factors.

 

[typecastboy]

I bought a non start stop battery for less than £50 online, the bigger ones are not that much more expensive. I have it bookmarked on my computer. On iPad now do I'll post a link tomorrow.

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi, im new to this but i am having a few problems with my fiat 500 lounge 1.2 petrol.

my car is a pre-owned car and i bought it from the dealership just under a year and i am having a few problems with it and wondering if anyone could help.

Firstly the car is a start stop but this is not working, i took it to the dealership who - then explained my battery was not powering up enough and that is why my start stop was not working and to buy a new batter which they quoted me £168. I told them to leave it.

Secondly about a week ago the hinge out the outside drivers door has snapped which is a pain to keep opening as i dont want the whole door handle to come off. I again rang the dealership up and said it would cost around £80 - £120 to fix. Which again i said i would not bother getting them to fix.

I am posting this to see if any one could help me find
1. a good battery for the start stop in my car which is not too pricey
2. is there a way i could fix my door hinge myself

Thanks in advanced.

Hi, and welcome to FF,
glad you found the guides secton,
the S/S batteries ARE expensive..but sure you could do better than £160

use SEARCH in "advanced" to find the threads related to 500 battery swaps,
the non-SS is @£40 ..BUT MAY not work well with a SS equipped car.. this info should be in a thread,

Charlie - Oxford

 

[jrkitching]

Hi, and welcome to FF,
glad you found the guides secton,
the S/S batteries ARE expensive..but sure you could do better than £160

use SEARCH in "advanced" to find the threads related to 500 battery swaps,
the non-SS is @£40 ..BUT MAY not work well with a SS equipped car.. this info should be in a thread,

I bought a non start stop battery for less than £50 online, the bigger ones are not that much more expensive.

Fitting a non-S/S battery to a S/S 500 is a very bad idea :nono:.

Tempting though it may be to save £50ish, it's a foolhardy, short-sighted choice and a sure recipe for a shedload of issues - we often hear tales of woe here from folks who've bought secondand 500's that have been fitted with cheap batteries by dodgy car dealers prior to selling the car. The full price OEM batteries are only just up to coping with the duty cycle of a S/S car and will likely fail after 3-4 years, even if the car is regularly driven.

If Fiat could have got away with a cheaper battery technology, I'm sure they'd have specified it in the first place .

The links in previous threads are now out of date regarding pricing, but this is a good value battery of the correct specification:

 

[typecastboy]

Nothing cheap about the battery I bought, it's a Bosch.

Here's a good quality Exide battery where I bought mine from, £86 free delivery.

http://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4l...c69a62bbe6132ba913fe93dbda1acbeedacc76&000020

 

[varesecrazy]

two good priced Start / Stop batteries there,

thanks,
Charlie

 

[jrkitching]

Nothing cheap about the battery I bought, it's a Bosch.

It doesn't matter how expensive it is, or who made it, if you fit a non-S/S battery to a S/S equipped 500, you're setting yourself up for problems. The battery technologies are different and a standard lead-acid battery will be quickly ruined if subjected to a S/S duty cycle.

Prospective purchasers of S/S 500's (basically any car from 2010 onwards plus a small number of earlier ones where this was specified as an option) would do well to check that the correct specification of battery is fitted before buying.

Personally I would recommend just walking away from any used 500 with the wrong specification of battery, because it suggests a penny-pinching approach to maintenance which does not bode well for the car as a whole.

All that said, your link to that Exide battery is possibly the cheapest in-spec battery I've seen thus far - thanks for putting it up.

Interestingly the price of AGM batteries has now fallen to the point where it might be worth considering an upgrade, given that many folks with OEM batteries are having problems with S/S functionality after 3-4 yrs. Something like this, for example, is not much more expensive and might both last longer and have better charge retention -it also comes with a 4yr warranty.

 

[typecastboy]

It doesn't matter how expensive it is, or who made it, if you fit a non-S/S battery to a S/S equipped 500, you're setting yourself up for problems. The battery technologies are different and a standard lead-acid battery will be quickly ruined if subjected to a S/S duty cycle.

Prospective purchasers of S/S 500's (basically any car from 2010 onwards plus a small number of earlier ones where this was specified as an option) would do well to check that the correct specification of battery is fitted before buying.

Personally I would recommend just walking away from any used 500 with the wrong specification of battery, because it suggests a penny-pinching approach to maintenance which does not bode well for the car as a whole.

All that said, your link to that Exide battery is possibly the cheapest in-spec battery I've seen thus far - thanks for putting it up.

Interestingly the price of AGM batteries has now fallen to the point where it might be worth considering an upgrade, given that many folks with OEM batteries are having problems with S/S functionality after 3-4 yrs. Something like this, for example, is not much more expensive and might both last longer and have better charge retention -it also comes with a 4yr warranty.

I think you misunderstood what I said, the first post was saying I got a Non S/S battery for my non S/S car, but then posted a link to a quality battery for stop start cars for £80

 

[jrkitching]

I think you misunderstood what I said, the first post was saying I got a Non S/S battery for my non S/S car, but then posted a link to a quality battery for stop start cars for £80

Sorry typecastboy, thought your 500 was a 2012 model.

That said, the OP's car is fitted with S/S, so they won't be able to take advantage of a £40 battery. That Exide link you posted looks like a good'un - thanks.

And the number of folks posting here with electrical problems on S/S cars that have been retrofitted with below-spec batteries by unscrupulous dealers is growing as the fleet ages, so I thought this was also a good opportunity to give a more general warning.

 

[typecastboy]

I had a 2011 one with Stop/Start, now I've got a 2010 one without Stop Start, it was my current one that I bought the £40 battery for which got rid of the power steering fault message

 

[Aussie500nut]

Hoping not to get flamed here
We have a 2012 TwinAir Plus with S/S fitted as standard
Car gets driven daily and about 30,000 kms in 18 months

As mentioned in previous posts we leave it turned "off" permanently as we live in a rural area don't drive in traffic.
We have 2 stop signs on the way back to "civilisation" where for 99% of the time it is just a matter of stopping then immediately moving off again.
But NO, the dammed S/S does just that - stops the engine.
a totally unnecessary restart and it is very annoying as it is NOT required :bang:
so we switched it off on the second day we owned the car

When it comes time to replace the battery, my thoughts are to get a non S/S battery because that is essentially what we now have

The question is are there any other problems likely to be caused by having a non S/S battery in a non operational S/S car ? :shrug:

 

[varesecrazy]

thoughts are that the electronic systems on a S/S car are designed for a "different" type of battery,
not even sure charging is QUITE the same.., Maybe more akin to a "leisure battery"?

Charlie

 

[Aussie500nut]

Perhaps this should have been in a new thread ???
Seems like I jinked myself with previous post about the non start/stop battery

Wife went shopping this morning and on the way back stopped at a park for the grand kids
When she went to start (TwinAir) no go
I went down and it seemed like the battery was flat
We had used the car yesterday and again last night and was OK with no sign like you usually get with an ailing battery

Worked alright going to the shops and then when leaving - go figure

Called the Roadside Assist number and 1/2 hour later the guy turns up
Gives us the 20 questions bit and then tested the battery with some hand held tester that prints out the result.
Took the odometer reading and says that the battery is dead.
I'm thinking this is going to be expensive - but no

Seems Fiat covers the batteries for 3 years unlike most manufacturers who only give 12 months
and he just happened to have the right one on board
Apparently the same battery used in a lot of cars now
Anyway - we got a new one FREE

This is the first time we have ever used Roadside Assist with all the new cars that we have had over the past 40 or so years.
Any problems that we had I had always managed to get going and then to the dealer if still under warranty or fixed myself
But then there have been very few problems of any sort and with many different makes of cars.

In 30 years with 2 Landcruisers, 10 on the first and then 20 on a '94 turbo diesel not once was a spanner put on either for a problem.
Even battery problems were push started or jumpered -

In passing, according to the service guy, Fiat Oz do not recommend jump starting

Anyway I not complaining