Has anybody had a problem with their GP (1.2 Active 56 plate) - mine has been back to the dealer 3 times for a problem where the idle speed drops of the gauge and causes the car to stall at junctions etc. This seems to occur when I've been caught in heavy stop-start traffic (rush hour etc) - the idle speed drops to approx. 400rpm and it stalls.But each time I've phoned the dealer and reported the fault, it has cleared up by the time I've taken the car back to them - it lasts for a couple of days. It's just been for it's yearly service (I do low milage 8k per year) and they couldn't find anything wrong.

Two day's after the service, it did it again!! and it lasted for about 36 hours - everything is now fine......
Has anybody experienced similar with their Grande Punto ?? Can anybody shed any light on this for me ??

fine for me i havnt heard of it doing this before though :chin: fuel starvation?

i did have a clang on start up though. HID ballast rattling my bad!

Hi. It could be a problem with the throttle body and associated wiring. I had a stilo which did that, luckily the car stored a fault code in the ECU and the garage knew what the problem was. It happened three times in a year! It wasn't a long repair job but the first time it happened the part had to come from italy via a slow donkey ride. My current Ford Focus had the same problem and the car ran really badly sometimes. No fault code this time but after a word with a guy from Ford technical it was fixed. Apparently some of the wires inside the insulation material can break causing intermittent breaks in the circuit. hope this is a help.

PS. mine hated stop start traffic and quick stops where the revs drop off quickly.

my eyesight aint that bad!

grandeJ said:

fine for me i havnt heard of it doing this before though :chin: fuel starvation?

i did have a clang on start up though. HID ballast rattling my bad!

Click to expand...

Thanks for that - I also get a clang/rattle sometimes when starting the engine, only from cold start.

stiloactive said:

Hi. It could be a problem with the throttle body and associated wiring. I had a stilo which did that, luckily the car stored a fault code in the ECU and the garage knew what the problem was. It happened three times in a year! It wasn't a long repair job but the first time it happened the part had to come from italy via a slow donkey ride. My current Ford Focus had the same problem and the car ran really badly sometimes. No fault code this time but after a word with a guy from Ford technical it was fixed. Apparently some of the wires inside the insulation material can break causing intermittent breaks in the circuit. hope this is a help.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that - any info is greatly appreciated.

It didn't show any error codes in the ECU, that's what had two different main dealers scratching their heads!! It seems to re-set itself after a couple of days, but it has happened four times now and it does seem to be stop-start traffic that sets it off.

AJKelly said:

Thanks for that - I also get a clang/rattle sometimes when starting the engine, only from cold start.

Click to expand...

turns out it wasnt the ballast, started this morning and got the clang, and yeah. only from cold

There's an EFI ECU update for certain models (inc 1.2 8v) which may correct these cutting-out/low idle issues.

D4nny8oy said:

There's an EFI ECU update for certain models (inc 1.2 8v) which may correct these cutting-out/low idle issues.

Click to expand...

Thanks mate - I'll feed that back to the main dealer - it's booked in again on the 25th Feb for a week. They want to have a good look at it.

Previously it's only done it when I've been in fairly heavy stop-start traffic, but that theory was blown out of the water yesterday when I just nipped out and it started again after about 2 miles (and very light traffic!!)

Hi AJ, I am having exactly the same problems with my wifes GP 8valve 1.2 Active on a 56 plate.

Have you any further news or has the problem not reappeared?

Am thinking of taking it in to the main dealer to get checked over.

What kind of cost could I expect??

Richard Senior said:

What kind of cost could I expect??

Click to expand...

None.....its under warranty.

Richard Senior said:

Hi AJ, I am having exactly the same problems with my wifes GP 8valve 1.2 Active on a 56 plate.

Have you any further news or has the problem not reappeared?

Am thinking of taking it in to the main dealer to get checked over.

What kind of cost could I expect??

Click to expand...

The problem crops up every now and again - It first happened after about 1 month (500 miles) then nothing until early Dec 07 (8000 miles) - it's happened 4 times since Dec 07, during which time it's also had it's first 12 month service. I'm starting to get concerned because of the increased frequency of the problem and the dealer not being able to identify the cause. If they don't rectify it this time, then I'm sorry to say that I'll be changing car before the warranty runs out.

Get it into the main dealer ASAP mate, while it's still under warranty - NO COST TO YOU + THEY SHOULD SUPPLY A COURTESY CAR.

I hope they can sort it out because the GP's a nice little car.

Richard,

Good luck at the main dealer - let me know how you get on?

Remember - insist on a courtesy car because they have got my car scheduled for a week, as they want to have a good look at it.

I can confirm that I have now lost all faith in Fiat UK :bang:

My car has been at the main dealer since February 25th 2008 (yes Feb 25th!!) with the idle speed problem.:bang:

Although the AA were called out in the first instance and confirmed that the car was cutting out at idle speed, but no error was showing on the ECU. At this point I took the car back to a dealer in Mansfield, who re-set the ECU + did a new download - this cured the vehicle for about 8 months. In December 2007 it started doing it again, but it re-sets itself after a day or so. I played by the rules, phoned a closer dealer in Nottingham and reported the faul, but by the time they could see the vehicle it had re-set itself (in hindsight I should have taken it straight down to them, but I wouldn't have got a courtesy car)

It has been fully serviced by the main dealer according to their schedule, they said that after the first full service in Feb it would perhaps clear the fault - NOT A CHANCE - IT STARTED AGAIN ABOUT TWO DAYS AFTER THE SERVICE, but guess what, no errors were showing in the ECU. :bang:

The Fiat main dealer have road tested the vehicle a few times, hooked it upto the computer (No Faults Showing) and are now saying they can't find any fault with the vehicle and it is therefore with regret that Fiat UK are unable to assist me on this occasion

I am currently saying that I'm not happy at being fobbed off, when the fault was recorded and confirmed by the AA patrol and that Fiat UK should honour the warranty and either replace the ECU + associated sensors etc (the AA patrol suggested it could be a faulty ECU or sensor) or swap the car through their dealer network :devil:

I have never experienced customer service like this - I doubt if they would try and pass off this kind of service to your average German consumer :bang:

request field engineer visit

Warranty Problems - GP 1.2 Active 56 plate

:bang::bang:

I've just about reached the limits of my patience with my GP 1.2 Active and the problems with the intermittent cutting out of the engine (see earlier threads)


To cut a long story short, the car has an intermittent problem which causes the engine to cut out when it reaches idle speed - it drops to about 400rpm and cuts out. When it happens, it carries on like this for anything between about 10 miles, upto about 80 miles, where it seems to re-set itself. I want the problem found and fixed while it's under warranty.


Unfortunately the dealer said they can't replicate the fault and Fiat UK have agreed with them that if no errors are showing on the ECU and they can't replicate an intermittent fault, then NO errors exist and they can't help. This seems a nice way of Fiat ducking out of/avoiding a potentially expensive repair - can anybody advise me on my next steps with Fiat ?? I just seem to be banging my head against a wall :bang::bang::bang::bang: with their customer service team.


So much for the peace of mind that buying a new car with a 3 year warranty is supposed to give nothing but stress!!


It would seem that it's just my luck to get the one and only faulty GP 1.2 Active :worship:Any advice would be appreciated...........:worship:

Re: AJ......Kelly

Personally next time it did it i would drive it to the nearest dealer and hope it hadnt reset itself before i got there. I know how frustrating it is when they can't find a problem tho there is one. Good luck

Re: AJ......Kelly

marty61 said:

Personally next time it did it i would drive it to the nearest dealer and hope it hadnt reset itself before i got there. I know how frustrating it is when they can't find a problem tho there is one. Good luck

Click to expand...

Cheers Mate - that's what I'm gonna do

Re: AJ......Kelly

AJKelly said:

Cheers Mate - that's what I'm gonna do

Click to expand...

Yea good luck, oh and by the way this isnt just a quaint Fiat thing, most manufacturers would have trouble with an intermittent, its exactly the same with anything that has a fault now and again not just cars, but the dealers could be a little more empathetic and maybe loan u a car for a day or 2 and see if one of the Sales guys could get it to happen driving to and from home, but that may not be acceptable to some people.

Hope it gets fixed.

Chin up...