"it sound like the exhaust fumes hitting of the gasket. Personally, fiats are rubbish and I wouldn't buy one"

Personally, I think Vardy's are a steaming pile of s**te and I wouldn't deal with them.

"Exhaust fumes hitting of the gasket"? What a lot of b*ll*cks (excuse my French but FIAT dealers really wind me up). Never EVER believe what a FIAT mechanic tells you, there's probably three in the whole country who actually know anything about cars.

Most small independent garages are far better than dealerships or the national garage chains, if your car is no longer under warranty then it makes more sense go to those instead. Personally, I prefer to do all the work that my car needs myself. At least that way I know it's been done properly and for the very reasonable price of a few hours of time [8D]

------/F/I/A/T/------

Fart In A Tin
<font color="orange">1994 Punto 55SX, metallic red with black bumpers, 3-door, small, Italian and beautiful! </font id="orange">

1 and a half years warranty still left on car, that includes the hundreds of £££ i spent on the extended warranty.

Quick to take your cash off you but when somethin goes wrong they dont give a toss.

Cold start knocking has apparently been recognised by Fiat as piston slap on some engines but provided the knock lasts no longer than 60 seconds then it is apparently acceptable

Piston slap on a 2 month old car acceptable ?? I don't think so.

When I start the engine I let it idle until the noise has gone, but my wife is off like a shot as soon as the engine starts and knocking when it is revved is absolutely awful.

The car is back to the dealer next Wednesday for diagnosis and if it is piston slap I will be pressing for rectification regardless of Fiat's excuses

And don't forget , in law the dealer who sells you the car has the legal responsibility not Mr Fiat Concessionaire/importer'.

Sometimes dealers wont do anything because Mr Fiat won't reimburse them but that should be between them and not you.

Just because Mr Fiat says something is acceptable doesn't mean a lot.

New to Fiats

1996 55 S 5dr
anenome rosso

Fiat called me back. Now that there is water in the electric's its to go in on monday to get the headlamp replaced.

If Reg and the gang have any objections, av got a wee phone number for them to phone.

Seems like it does pay to complain.

"Piston slap"...not a term I'm familiar with :I, can anyone explain what it is?

------/F/I/A/T/------

Fart In A Tin
<font color="orange">1994 Punto 55SX, metallic red, small, Italian and beautiful! </font id="orange">

it's side to side travel of a piston in a cylinder bore, rather than the usual up and down movement. Of course all engines have some piston movement from side to side (or they'd seize) but knackered or badly designed ones have too much which makes a knocking noise. I think mine might do it when it's cold, bugger all you can do about though without serious work.

Spirito di Punto | M-reg 55SX, black, 5dr. Clear repeaters. I'm fitting remote locking this week!!

Piston slap happens on starting the car from cold. It's a tapping or knocking noise. It's when the piston hits the side of the cylinder wall before the oil gets a chance to circulate around the engine.


<h5>Click here for pictures of my Uno
Click here for pictures of my Brava

You beat me to it.

<h5>Click here for pictures of my Uno
Click here for pictures of my Brava

Fiat dealers and the importers should both sit up and take notice of what is said on this website...In my experience neither the importers or many of the dealers seem to give a toss about the customer...the result will be a loss of custom which would serve them right. I also believe that many of the dealership employees know very little about cars they represent.

Just a quick update....

I think in this case it the dealership which has given fiat the bad name.

Fiat customer services phoned me back a few days ago and advised me to go back to the garage I bought it demand the light be fixed as water was in the electrics and if they said anything on the matter she gave me a number for them to contact her and explain themselves.

I didnt need to do this however as I booked the car back in and when I took it up I explained there was water in the headlights which when it took the cover off noticed the electrics were soaked. The receptionists (who I know) reply to me was....

"Yes, I spoke to the mechanic who was working on it the last time and he says he remembers the headlight was full of water"

Funny - he never told me that last time. I was told it was condensation and there was no chance of water getting in to the electrics!!!

So after leaving my car in today, I got a phone call late afternoon to say that the warranty I had didnt cover the headlamp but the manager was willing to pay for it!! (aye right!)

Was told the new lamp should be here this afternoon and could pick the car up tonight.

But to add to the calamity, I received another phone call about dinner time saying that they had ordered the wrong light and were now had to order another one which would be here in the next couple o days.

What a feckin riot this place is by the way!!!!!!!!


Here's the light which they told me on two occasions was just condensation.....

That's unacceptable. There's clearly a problem. Let us know how it pans out.

<h5>Click here for pictures of my Uno
Click here for pictures of my Brava

i go on a ericsson mobile phone site/forum called esato.com and people from the mobile phone companys do monitor the site and sometimes post on the forum so i dont see why Fiat UK's customer service can't do the same to see problems and perhaps officialy/unofficially comment

The Fiat Cinquecento
Fun While It Runs

Totally agree custard......

My ISP do that too, I had a problem - posted it on an ADSL bulletin board - and a memeber of my ISP's team replied - looked into the account from their end and got it sorted pretty sharpish for me.

Every customer service company dealing with the public should look into employing one of these peeps.

i told them about the water in the headlights of my punto 4 years ago, one of the first to report it. still haven't got back to me.

99 Brava 100 HSX with not enough mods

That's an insane headlight. I've never seen a mk2 with it as bad as that before.

Spirito di Punto | M-reg 55SX, black, 5dr. Clear repeaters. I'm fitting remote locking this week!!

Has the headlamps had modified covers fitted, and are the breather pipes ok(not trapped inside lamps).
Also alot of not so hot mechanics can't manage to get the outer covers to fit properly allowing water to pour in.

I feel bad
David coupe20vt

All they said to me is that they have fitted every modification fiat recommend - and nothing else was possible to do.

However the full headlamp is now being replaced with a new one.

Pays to complain - and i mean REALLY complain!!! Their prob just fixin it to stop me phoning up and constantly going into the dealership to annoy them. it seems to have worked but!

Good stuff,
Glad you got it sorted

David coupe 20vt

While my MK2 (2002) was under warranty it went in 3 times for condensation in front headlights. One headlight is always worse than the other. Completely dissastisfied with FIAT dealer response that it's a "recognised" fault and that it's something "you've just got to live with". Took the issue to FIAT requesting them to be replaced. They responded by instructing the dealer to inspect again adding they could not not over ride the offical dealers decision not to replace.Grrrrrr