Technical 500 common problems

[Bluetruck]

Inside the car work from the back seat. Pop out the cover in the middle of the cup holder, you'll see a 10mm nut. Remove this and lift out the console. Slacken right back the adjuster and slip out the cable ends. Use a screwdriver and push the outer cables out of their holes. Go under the car and remove the white caps on the rear of the brake back plates. Remove the outer cables from their various brackets. Use a screwdriver and free the outer cable from the backplate. You can now riggle out the inner cable from the lever looking through the hole in the back plate. To refit push the inner cable into the back plate and use a stiff bit of wire to hook the end of the cable into the lever. The rest is a reverse of taking off

 

[gaurav500]

Inside the car work from the back seat. Pop out the cover in the middle of the cup holder, you'll see a 10mm nut. Remove this and lift out the console. Slacken right back the adjuster and slip out the cable ends. Use a screwdriver and push the outer cables out of their holes. Go under the car and remove the white caps on the rear of the brake back plates. Remove the outer cables from their various brackets. Use a screwdriver and free the outer cable from the backplate. You can now riggle out the inner cable from the lever looking through the hole in the back plate. To refit push the inner cable into the back plate and use a stiff bit of wire to hook the end of the cable into the lever. The rest is a reverse of taking off

Thank you! Any pictures by any chance?

Also do you reckon I need a ramp or is there enough space for me to just slide under on a flat road?

 

[Bluetruck]

No pics sorry. Get under and have a look, You'll need to get the car up in the air at the back as high as you can. I've only ever done them on a ramp. Try and use genuine Fiat cables, I've used aftermarket cables and they fit really bad.

 

[John202020]

Thank you! Any pictures by any chance?

Also do you reckon I need a ramp or is there enough space for me to just slide under on a flat road?

Separate sides; https://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4...082f777d25e46207e70e351ca821be098d56f3&000168

 

[Texas149]

Right now there are a couple of genuine Fiat ones on the Bay for about the same price as above.
Paul m.

 

[typecastboy]

Separate sides; https://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4...082f777d25e46207e70e351ca821be098d56f3&000168

MAD15 will get you 15% off this weekend.

 

[Bluetruck]

After original post it set me thinking about my TA85 500. I've never got comfortable in the drivers seat, i could never find the sweet spot. The rest of the problems i listed bothered me so i binned it. Swapped it for a 14 plate 1.2 Panda Easy. Helps working at a Fiat Dealer so got a cracking deal. All i had to do was tax the Panda, swap my private reg off and drive away in a Panda. I'd done the the prep on. It ended up with a full service, a cam belt and 2 new tyres!

 

[John202020]

So it had to happen, another one from the list has materialized on our car, saving money I replaced the exhaust myself, in the process I notice the hand brake cable has quite a kink in it rather than a smooth curve, new one it is, at least its only £11.50 from Carparts4less?

Oh and I'm going to have to treat the rear beam again!

 

[Bluetruck]

So it had to happen, another one from the list has materialized on our car, saving money I replaced the exhaust myself, in the process I notice the hand brake cable has quite a kink in it rather than a smooth curve, new one it is, at least its only £11.50 from Carparts4less?

Oh and I'm going to have to treat the rear beam again!

Lather the spring seats with oil/grease/waxol in fact anything that keeps rust getting hold. Its a good thing. Give the cable brackets on the rear beam a tweek too. Try and bend them a bit so the cable runs a bit more straight. It seems to help the cable last longer.

 

[John202020]

Lather the spring seats with oil/grease/waxol in fact anything that keeps rust getting hold. Its a good thing. Give the cable brackets on the rear beam a tweek too. Try and bend them a bit so the cable runs a bit more straight. It seems to help the cable last longer.

The armoured cable (outer) seems to have failed there's a clear stress point in the cable when applied I will also treat all brackets and beam with Hammerite perhaps silver to match car or maybe just hammered black ? I still have two new top strut mounts to install and a list on my Mazda .

 

[John202020]

Stress point, and just for interest the damage to the sill

 

[Bluetruck]

The armoured cable (outer) seems to have failed there's a clear stress point in the cable when applied I will also treat all brackets and beam with Hammerite perhaps silver to match car or maybe just hammered black ? I still have two new top strut mounts to install and a list on my Mazda .

Not the usual fail point on the cable, they usually go ahead of the mounting bracket on the axle. Your sill damage is typical of some clot sticking a trolly jack under it. Axle rust most concerning is in the spring seat area, failure in this area happens. Beam and trailing arms are more cosmetic. Clean as much as you can and use a good rustproof paint like POR15, expensive but way better than Hamerite.

 

[p0689109]

2009 Fiat 500 with plus 100000 on the clock. Now I am wondering if any body can tell me if the road noise I get is from the tyres or the gearbox. It all works ok as it should but I am wondering if, with the mileage it has, perhaps they do get noisy in the box? I know the cars are built to a cost so perhaps the sound deadining is not as dense as it would be on a kuxury model. I am tempted to drain and refill the gearbox with fresh oil but if any body can perhaps back up or not that they are a might noisy as a norm it would help my

 

[thomasm5again]

Great, list, only rear hatch wiring failure near hinge in the rubber gaiter to add - already mentioned above.

Out of your list (12 years/50k miles on a 1.2 pop with air con) - average of one thing per year!!!!
- plastic spout on thermostat housing broke year 12 - luckily stopped the car before engine seized
- air breather pipe split (common, easy to do) - smell of petrol in car
- electric power steering (expensive/difficult)
- rear hatch wiring failure as above (fiddly, annoying, kits available) - central locking stopped working as couldn't talk to lock sensor
- nipples seized / replaced in rear drums
- rear shocks (upper bushes) replaced
- front swing arm (play in universal joint for steering connection)
- exhaust rear boxes (last about 5 years, car now 12 years old) - couple of hours to replace v easy
- hinge on door handle (wd 40 now regularly squirted
- hinge on plastic handle on tailgate (regular WD 40 to wash out gunge(
- gaiter around gear lever - worn and plastic clip broke (cheap to do)
- regular jobs: drain holes in engine bay need cleaning out, touch up stone chips esp leading edge of rear front wheel arch
- other consumables: tyres, disks/pads

Will keep an eye on top of struts for rusting through!

 

[steveras57]

quote my 22year old grand -daughter when offered the choice between a panda and a 500 as her first car !
It (the panda!) looks like a bread -bin grandad! as for the 500!- Oh look its got a cute little face!!!.
In the marketplace for a fiat car for a 18/25 year old recent test pass female you can kinda see why the 500 sells so much better!
sod all to do with ability and function its all about style and peer group perceptions!

 

[p0689109]

I have now found that the car(s) suffers from a gearbox fault in that the bearing of the gears has worn in the actual gearboxes ali casing. This causes the oil to leak through onto the clutch and hence clutch slip occurs as opposed to the clutch plate wearing. Removal of the bung at the bottom of the box showed that the bung was oily confirming not only the leak but the noisy gears! The cost of the repair would be more than the worth of the car so It looks like this one is going to the scrap yard!

 

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

quote my 22year old grand -daughter when offered the choice between a panda and a 500 as her first car !
It (the panda!) looks like a bread -bin grandad! as for the 500!- Oh look its got a cute little face!!!.
In the marketplace for a fiat car for a 18/25 year old recent test pass female you can kinda see why the 500 sells so much better!
sod all to do with ability and function its all about style and peer group perceptions!

Gad, my secret's out! You didn't think I bought the FIAT for it's practicality did you? Fortunately the black ones don't look so 'cute' though...

 

[steveras57]

Gad, my secret's out! You didn't think I bought the FIAT for it's practicality did you? Fortunately the black ones don't look so 'cute' though...

that make s them a "dark" secret then dont it!

 

[steveras57]

You're extremely lucky then our 09 has had upwards of 50% of those faults

I reckon Fiat actually builds each and every one of those faults into EVERY 500 they have ever made! then just before it leaves the production line the last thing they put in is a "RANDOMISER!" a small nigh invisible and impossible to find device! its sole purpose is to release these faults individually at the times when its least convenient and you can least afford it! unfortunately it has proven to be the most reliable component of the entire vehicle as it NEVER fails to do its job throughout the vehicle total lifespan and is fully able to repeat the same fault many times