Picked up my panda 100hp last week and knew that it had a problem with the heater at the time. No problem , as the garage had booked it in to fiat today to source the problem.
Diagnosis back - new heater matrix required,. £1100 + vat for the part alone

needs to go in for a few days as the whole dash has to be removed to replace.....

cant believe just how expensive this part is ........that's 1/4 of the cost i paid for the car!!!!

WOW ,
are you sure that's JUST the part..??,

is it a warranty job?

Charlie

That's scandalous, thing is they know that if people need it then they'll pay it! Bad times!!

Fact is it'll be only a small part which has failed, a few CC units have had this happen. I've changed one on a 2004 Eleganza for a mate, 13 hour job (probably down to 9-10 if you took out the mucking about and lunch etc we had).

Its certainly not for the faint hearted though!

varesecrazy said:

WOW ,
are you sure that's JUST the part..??,

is it a warranty job?

Charlie

Click to expand...

Yes the sale bloke said that was without labour , purely for the part!!

and Yes, the Garage were aware of the fault before sale and are to fix it ( thank goodness)

captpicard said:

Yes the sale bloke said that was without labour , purely for the part!!

and Yes, the Garage were aware of the fault before sale and are to fix it ( thank goodness)

Click to expand...

Main Fiat dealer quoted my friend about £1k all in labour - normally about £90 PH.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Main Fiat dealer quoted my friend about £1k all in labour - normally about £90 PH.

Click to expand...

that sounds like a good price compared to mine then.
thank goodness the garage is to foot the bill

captpicard said:

that sounds like a good price compared to mine then.
thank goodness the garage is to foot the bill

Click to expand...

No, that was £1k for the labour!

Most Easterly Pandas said:

No, that was £1k for the labour!

Click to expand...

OOooooooch!

My heater's playing up, doesn't seem to blow cold unless i have it on Aircon set to LO, otherwise its too hot! Was hoping it was just a re-gas but not so sure now...

Jimwah said:

My heater's playing up, doesn't seem to blow cold unless i have it on Aircon set to LO, otherwise its too hot! Was hoping it was just a re-gas but not so sure now...

Click to expand...

That would be as the internal temp at 16C is higher than the ambient external air temp I suspect, so is perfectly normal

Only if you then hit LO, which is the only option below 16C, will the car turn the air control to Max Cold as thats what you're telling it you want

Completely logical... and strangely this did not occur to me at all, as i mashed buttons on the aircon and worried it was broken thanks MEP

According to Haynes, remove lower centre dash, under gear lever, then remove matrix from inside car, with heater still in car.

Eurocarparts have a matrix for £50.40

You might like to let your garage know.

portland_bill said:

According to Haynes, remove lower centre dash, under gear lever, then remove matrix from inside car, with heater still in car.

Eurocarparts have a matrix for £50.40

You might like to let your garage know.

Click to expand...

Its the control flaps which I suspect have failed though, these are integral within the heater box unit thingy (what ever the technical term is )

Ah, I've heard of this before. I believe it is not the actual flaps themselves, within the heater box, but the control unit, which also contains the buttons, etc.
Like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-PAND...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item45fc2c74f5

Once changed, the flaps need to be set (calibrated) using Fiat Examiner. Don't know if MES will do this.

If this is what is needed, the garage will love you for finding it cheaper, but quick before it is too late to cancel the new one.

portland_bill said:

Ah, I've heard of this before. I believe it is not the actual flaps themselves, within the heater box, but the control unit, which also contains the buttons, etc.
Like this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIAT-PAND...arts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item45fc2c74f5

Once changed, the flaps need to be set (calibrated) using Fiat Examiner. Don't know if MES will do this.

If this is what is needed, the garage will love you for finding it cheaper, but quick before it is too late to cancel the new one.

Click to expand...

On the one I changed the actuator for the air control (heat) has chewed the spline on the rod it sat on.

In addition to this IIRC MES will only let you read and reset fault codes with Climate Control units, no calibrating

ePER suggests that all the actuators are available separately. I'm still thinking a better diagnosis is needed, but perhaps no need to bother as garage is footing the enormous bill.

Might be worth asking to keep all the removed bits, as a source of parts for later.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

On the one I changed the actuator for the air control (heat) has chewed the spline on the rod it sat on.

In addition to this IIRC MES will only let you read and reset fault codes with Climate Control units, no calibrating

Click to expand...

the chewed spline points to something being over-tight / stiff,

seen similar before with old coolant making the hot water valve of heater unit really tight to move.. result = broken plasic linkage.

luckily it was a "manual" heater set-up so didn't need re-setting, :worship:
Charlie

portland_bill said:

ePER suggests that all the actuators are available separately. I'm still thinking a better diagnosis is needed, but perhaps no need to bother as garage is footing the enormous bill.

Might be worth asking to keep all the removed bits, as a source of parts for later.

Click to expand...

Correct, but its not the actuators that fail, more the spline on the internal flap within the whole unit.

I'm just glad im not footing the bill..