Technical Punto Sporting - Hill Holder failure

[almcluskey]

Have just taken delivery of my shiny new Punto Sporting this afternoon, however about 10 miles from the garage (it's an importer, so there was no point turning round), the Hill Holder failure light came on.

Any idea if this is going to cause me problems short-term (I've stalled it a couple of times from hill starts, unsure if this is the failure or me getting used to a new car)?

Is it possible to switch the hill holder off?

I can get it to the garage tomorrow, but as it's not come from them, I expect the service to be surly at best and if it's not a major issue, I'd prefer not to bother for now.

 

[wolfracepunto]

:I hill holder....????


EVERYONE- SPRAY YOUR PUNTOS BLACK

David

 

[joel]

I guess its for starting up hill?

 

[polecat]

I'm assuming its an automatic then. The manual will tell you if it can be switched by the driver. Otherwise its a garge job.

Don't forget the pics.[8D]

Dave

 

[almcluskey]

Nah, it's a manual. From what I can gather, it "holds" the clutch for an extra couple of seconds to give you time to move your foot from the brake to the accelerator. Completely pointless. And it's messing up my new car.

Aside from that, no complaints! The 1.4 engine is *really* nippy (I'm coming from a P-reg 1.2 8v though, so I may be wrong), and the 6-speed box is surprisingly good.

I'll get a photo or two up tomorrow.

 

[polecat]

Wierd, don't they know about h/brakes.

Good luck anyway and i'll look out for the pics.

Dave

 

[Ned]

The hill holder system will hold the brakes on for approx 2/3 seconds allowing you time to get the bite of tthe clutch correct when pulling up a hill it will also operate the same for going down hill, all you do is dab the brake pedal when in 1st and it will operate.......Check that the brake lights work as the 4 pin pedal switch also sends signal to the abs control node.(It`s a very good option when used)

 

[almcluskey]

I think there should be a couple of photos at the bottom of this post, but we'll see...

 

[alexb]

I couldn't tell you how to fix it, but it is quite a good system!
Just takes a bit of getting used to!

 

[klaus23]

I assume the MkII Sporting doesn't have it...?

 

[almcluskey]

I assume the MkII Sporting doesn't have it...?

Nah it doesn't (but then again, neither does my new one!).

The car's now developed an annoying behind dash rattle, plus the gearlever gaiter pops out and flaps around whenever you put it into reverse (can't imagine this being hard to fix though). Time to head to the dealer I think...

Other than these problems, the car is superb. Much better (so far) than my old 75SX.

 

[alexb]

The car's now developed an annoying behind dash rattle

Mine does this too.
Apparently, two hoses are prone to perishing and bang together, making the knocking/rattling sound.
Fiat should sort it under warranty.

 

[almcluskey]

Just in case anyone's interested, took it into the garage a couple of months ago to get them to have a look at this. When I booked it in, told them (Arnold Clark) that it was coming up Hill Holder failure on the display. Got a phone call from them about halfway through the day and - I kid you not - they asked *me* what a hill holder was. Anyway, having offered me a courtesy car, they took it back in for another day - I'm almost certain so that they could get all the mechanics trained in this new feature that they didn't know existed. Turns out that the clutch switch had gone, so they replaced that and hill holder started to work. And what a genius invention it is! The only problem with it is that I drive other cars a lot due to my work, and you always sit on a hill, bring the brake up then **** yourself when it starts rolling backwards.

 

[dave]

thanks for posting back the results, always a good move it might help someone else oneday.
been on the forum over a year and thats first time i recall arnold clark fixing something first time, did they charge?

 

[almcluskey]

thanks for posting back the results, always a good move it might help someone else oneday.
been on the forum over a year and thats first time i recall arnold clark fixing something first time, did they charge?

Wasn't the first time it had been in for it. First time they did their "fixes everything" solution of clearing out the fault log and resetting the computer. They didn't charge (would have been a bit cheeky given that the thing hadn't worked since the day I got it). It's back into the garage for a couple of days tomorrow as it's making a horrible rumbling noise in reverse, the clutch is hopefully getting replaced and they'll maybe see fit to actually trying to sort the squeak behind the dashboard...

 

[thefishdude]

glad you got the hill holder thing sorted, wishi had it on my older sporting. i know what you mean about the when you in otehr car thing. des the new spoting have 6 gears like the older one like mine?? cause i allways find when i am driving my mum or dads old cars i am trying to pull it into 6th gear as normal and thinking what hells up with it then relaise its got 5 lol

 

[whitey]

is old jim mcdonald still service manager at arnold's in edinburgh mate?

 

[dave]

is old jim mcdonald still service manager at arnold's in edinburgh mate?

last time i watched corry he was still in prison

 

[almcluskey]

is old jim mcdonald still service manager at arnold's in edinburgh mate?

No idea. I tend to run in, drop the keys and avoid speaking to them if possible. If my car wasn't under warranty, I'd never go anywhere near the place. Found a bloke down Easter Road that always did a cracking (and very cheap) job on my 75SX and as soon as the warranty's expired on my Sporting, it'll be going down there too. W.I.Reith's if you're interested.

thefishdude - it does still have the 6 speed gearbox in it, and again it takes some getting used to getting into another car. All in all, if it wasn't for the various delivery faults, I'd be very pleased with it, 'cos it's a great car to drive (the only other car I looked at that I was remotely interested in was the Ibiza Sport 1.8, which was just out of my budget and would presumably have got me even less MPG than I get at the moment).

 

[JSM]

Mine does this too.
Apparently, two hoses are prone to perishing and bang together, making the knocking/rattling sound.
Fiat should sort it under warranty.

Any chance that you have more info on exactly which hoses these are? My car has exactly the same problem and it's driving me insane! Been to FIAT a couple of times but they couldn't find any problem. Only happens when going over uneven roads - kind of clunking / rattling / squeeking noise.

Incidentally, my sporting is also an import and had exactly the same hill holder problem, which was fixed by my local dealer under warranty - clutch switch replaced. Made a huge differenc to the gearchange as well as fixing the hill holder problem. Now if I could just fix the annoying rattle!