Glad this has helped some of you

I know its only a temp fix but at least we can all open our boots now.

Lets see if this does get a re design on the next repalcement part i get.:bang:

pilgrim42 said:

Yep, mine has failed again after a few weeks of replacement. Worse, the hillholder element of the ESC system is no longer working. Since I paid £300 quid extra for the privilege, I will need that sorting soon, as the rest of the system must be suspect.
Mike

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In fairness, I have to retract what I said yesterday: in fact, the hillholder IS working, it's just a bit more sluggish than the version on my previous Panda MJ which was very effective. And no, I wouldn't dream of relying on it but regard it as a "belt and braces" solution to the odd tricky situation. I was more concerned that it may have been a pointer to the rest of the ESC being dodgy, but it seems I was wrong (I hope!)
Mike

The replacement boot mechanism failed this afternoon so need to book another session at the Dealer, and will ask the fitters if the new part is redesigned as the problem is, it seems, widespread. If not, I'll book a further appointment for 6 weeks time when I'm there :devil:

This could start to get annoying... a trip to the nearest Fiat Shop is a 70 mile round trip!

I see nothing wrong with hill holders, they often a lot more convenient for brief hill stops (and you still could use handbrake).

However, Fiat's hill holder had one major flaw - it did not engage if start/stop system stopped the engine - which could've been a nasty surprise.

Does anybody know, did Fiat finally fixed it? I know that it still had this issue in fairly recent Puntos...

Just had a call the parts in and will be done tomorrow morning.
Lets hope this time its ok but i have a funny feeling i will be back again! :bang:

I had the hill-holder on the 500 a few years back. My problem was that after owning old/cheap Italian cars for 30 years I'd gotten used to the handbrake being rubbish so have developed the swift switch from foot brake to accelerator and biting point. I'm sure am not alone there.

The effect of that was that you'd feel the clunk as the hill-holder released and you sat there thinking"doh!".

Never got used to it. Even now I always leave the car in gear when parked.

AB100 said:

Even now I always leave the car in gear when parked.

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As your supposed to anyways

Boot mech fixed again.

Fiat kindly gave the car a free once over as well checking brakes, tyres etc... Just a sweetner me thinks as this is the second time its been back since Sept and hopefully the last time!

Good to hear!

Since I cleaned out the boot switch as described earlier, it has been behaving itself on the whole. But really I'd have to put that down to the lack of rain, it's no coincidence IMO.

It's good that it is still working though, if on a slightly tinpot basis!

Super Uwe said:

Good to hear!

Since I cleaned out the boot switch as described earlier, it has been behaving itself on the whole. But really I'd have to put that down to the lack of rain, it's no coincidence IMO.

It's good that it is still working though, if on a slightly tinpot basis!

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Glad the temp fix is still working for you!

The guy did check to see if anything was on FIAT's system re a recall but nothing yet. I suppose the more complaints they get the quicker a re design will happen. So everyone out there get moaning!!

SCORCHIO12 said:

Glad the temp fix is still working for you!

The guy did check to see if anything was on FIAT's system re a recall but nothing yet. I suppose the more complaints they get the quicker a re design will happen. So everyone out there get moaning!!

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The boot mechanism on my Panda was replaced on 24th November and the new part failed yesterday I've asked the dealer whether they could contact Fiat to see whether anything is in the puipeline with regard to re-designing the part before I book it in to be fixed again. It's a 60 mile round trip for me, which I know isn't huge but can be challenging when I'm trying to juggle the needs of kids, elderly parents and work. I'm tempted to let it go and just rely on unlocking it with the bottom button on the key fob, but when you've paid out a substantial amount of money on a new car it would be nice if it all worked as it should.

Caroline62 said:

The boot mechanism on my Panda was replaced on 24th November and the new part failed yesterday I've asked the dealer whether they could contact Fiat to see whether anything is in the puipeline with regard to re-designing the part before I book it in to be fixed again. It's a 60 mile round trip for me, which I know isn't huge but can be challenging when I'm trying to juggle the needs of kids, elderly parents and work. I'm tempted to let it go and just rely on unlocking it with the bottom button on the key fob, but when you've paid out a substantial amount of money on a new car it would be nice if it all worked as it should.

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I believe if you purchased it new and is of course still under warranty you can ask for the garage to pick up your car and provide a courtesy car free of charge.

I would make the call and have a good old moan about it saying youve already had to get it changed. Worth a try...

My experiences and thoughts exactly Caroline. I am waiting to hear from Desira for the second replacement - no news yet!

Well, we are a good few weeks on and the WD40/kitchen paper trick (as stated in post 100) still seems to be working well!

Each time I press the button in and open up the boot, you can hear the button "clicking" back to its original position ready to be pressed again in order to open the boot. Doesn't appear to be any grime getting stuck in between which is good.

Am surprised it is still going to be honest, the weather has not been good these past few weeks. I did douse it with WD40 and spent a good 15 minutes using several sheets of kitchen paper to really give the gap in between the button and boot handle a really thorough clean.

Defo worth a try for those of you who are waiting for replacements?

So glad that my find is still working!

As for the new mech its still working well even with all this snow. Fingers crossed it stays working but i get a funny feeling until a 'revamped' version of this lock is made this will be an on going issue.

well this is not good news, just got my one year old panda Easy on Friday, and yesterday (in the pooring rain of course) the boot mechanism failed. I've already had problems in that the dealers (I bought it from Preston Motorparks) brought it down to Exeter for me (at my expense) and brought with it the wrong key - subsequently found they had lent it to a customer who still has the remote locking key... so that was the first annoyance. Then discovered they had not stamped the handbook with the service so its had to be sent back to Preston... this morning, got a flat tyre, but could not access the pump up air thingy as guess what, its stuck in the boot! Had words with the manager at Preston Motorparks this morning, and am awaiting his call as to the whereabouts of the remote key, but in the meantime have booked it into a local fiat dealer to fix the boot, but now i'm thinking Scorchio's fix may be the answer.... sigh - bring back my old ford focus

nu blu pandy said:

just got my one year old panda Easy on Friday

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Hows that? They've not been out a year yet.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Hows that? They've not been out a year yet.

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12 plate? Dealers often use plates to very roughly refer to age, not exact date from manufacturing.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Hows that? They've not been out a year yet.

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mine is a 61 plate, but it was registered in Feb 2012. It was the dealers first demonstrator (they've managed to clock up 9,000 miles on it.....) its not handling the transition from 'up north' to 'down south' too well... booked into Fiat garage tomorrow for them to look at boot mechanism.

Well, the latest update on the boot mechanism saga is that today when I had mine fixed, the fiat dealer told me that Fiat have now replaced the dodgy mechanism because of the problems everyone has had with the catch. That's funny as nobody else on here seems to think that they have, but hey ho - he also told me about the now FAMOUS FINGERNAIL TRICK! (tho I shouldn't need to use it) fingers crossed!
ha ha!