General 4x4 warranty issue - brake calliper

[hollister]

Took my superb '10 plate 16k miles 4x4 (not to be confused with my '05 plate 4x4 where I am doing brakes myself) into main dealer 15 miles away because:

a). rear brake kept squeaking and was getting very hot

b) I wanted a new tiny 4x4 side sticker (the word 'wheel' had dropped off) before the warranty ran out at end of March, and I had to book a 'slot' to have the car examined

So, I waited patiently in showroom (God, the saleswoman's click-click heels got annoying – how many miles must they walk across the polished tiles each day?). My experience here was turning out to be very different to that at my local trusty independent garage.

After getting on for two hours, my keys were returned and I was told that the sticker could be ordered on warranty and that it would be a two hour job(!) to clean the car and apply it. I said if they got the sticker in I'd do the job myself. Service guy said fine but they'd still charge it to warranty as a two hour job(!) – well that's just the kind of rubbish that gives garages a bad name, and I'll leave it up you the reader if you think that sort of attitude may be endemic.

With the squeaky brakes, the best they could tell me, after nearly two hours was that the pads and discs were very worn and they'd have to change all (!) of them before further investigations could be made. Well, do you think I was going to entrust the work and my wallet to them?

Eventually the car's squeak became almost an emergency coming back one night, very loud non-stop squealing and I turned to the guys I trust (no NOT the Fiat main dealer) – but my local independent garage to help.

Diagnosis within few minutes (no they don't wear clickety-click heels) – a seized nearside rear calliper, red-hot brakes! Prescription, new rears discs/pads and new calliper. They felt it really wasn't worth the time and trouble to try and re-build it.

So there, a nice little story, should I waste my time trying to get something out of Fiat towards the calliper?

 

[Matthen]

Your local fiat dealer sounds almost as useless as the one we used to use... You could right a letter to Fiat UK, complaining to them about the poor service, and requesting the cost of the parts, but I'm not sure you'd get anything.

Can't help but try though

 

[jrkitching]

So there, a nice little story, should I waste my time trying to get something out of Fiat towards the calliper?

This is exactly why I stripped down my less than a month old car to properly lubricate the reaction frames. The problem is even worse on cars with read discs, because they're even more exposed to the hostile weather.

IMO if FIAT can't build UK-spec cars to cope with a typical British winter, they should pay for the lot - having to replace pads & discs at 16k is ludicrous. In practice, they'll say the discs & pads are wear & tear items, but I don't see how they could wriggle out of paying for the caliper.

 

[Batfalcon]

What worse has the typical British weather, compared to the Greek one, besides the rain?
We too are driving our cars on dirt or asphalt, (maybe of the worst kind), full of potholes and with temperatures around -10 C during winter.

 

[richardllew]

Have you got the pads and caliper that were taken off. With these you should have a reasonable case for a warranty claim against FIAT UK. If your garage has binned them then you have a fairly weak case.
The rear nearside pads should have worn much more than offside rear pads if the caliper was seized. If so, the dealer should have spotted this and fixed your car immediately or given you a courtesy car.