Technical Another broken breather pipe!

[slimgimli]

Had mine replaced last January 2010 at 15000, under second year warranty! Guess what , got the ' smell' again last week! Rang up to be told that it wasn't under warranty in third year even tho it had already been replaced, very helpful lady at the service department told me to ring fiat customer care and plead my case! As they knew it was a recognized fault! FCC said they couldn't do anything till car had been seen. Booked it in, needed both breather pipes doing plus I had a new windscreen washer thingy done! Total price £53.00.
Paid up and was told they would keep the parts till I had rang Fcc. After alot of 'talking' they agreed to send me a £50 voucher, I said I wouldn't use it and in the end they have agreed to refund the dealership who in turn are going to repay me! So final outcome is good but what alot of hassle and aggro when FIAT could just have done the right thing and admitted there was a problem and replace it foc. Must say Rockingham cars were great and very apologetic that I had to pay in the first place!!:bang:

 

[D4nny8oy]

They need to work abit faster then. The Grande Punto was launched at the start of 2006, so even if they found out two years later, that's 2008. That means it's taken them 3 years to arrange production of a new breather hose. They've designed whole new cars in not much longer (new Bravo for example).

Surely they use breather hoses in other cars? It's only the 500 & Grande Punto that i've heard of with widespread problems, so you'd think they might use the same material as those used on the Panda or Bravo for example?

I'm gonna take a wild stab in the dark & conclude that something ain't quite right somewhere.

Like you say, the problem only affected the GP and the 500 using the newer 1.2 and 1.4 FIRE EVO2 engine (which wasn't in the Panda or Bravo). It's breather pipes are different in design from the older engine model, along with them now using a different spec and quality of oil to the oil Selenia 20k with different additives, along with a change in service intervals and emission regs, being made in different factories in different parts of the world, with different parts suppliers.

That's a lot of variables to ponder over and establish the root cause. Like any re-occuring fault, it gets brought-up at the Fiat/DET meetings and discussed. Fiat's reps then take the data back and every issue is looked at and prioritised in order of urgency. This is why the GP scuttle drain tube fault was corrected fairly quickly (risk of belt breakage/fire and no way for the customer to get around the problem if it happens, with potential big cost to warranty in new alternators) compared to the breather pipe (little affect in engine running, plus customer can use the heater on recirc to prevent fumes entering the cabin, and the hose can be replaced at little cost to warranty). At the end of the day, the bean-counters decide what's important and where to allocate resources.

The modified hose has been out for over 6 months now, so the number of potential failures will be greatly reduced and will continue to fall over the course of the year.

 

[JTD_Liam]

It sounds perfectly feasible about them prioritising it as less important to something like the Grande Punto scuttle tube. Just seems bizzare that a fault was identified so long ago & it's taken them years to put in place a fix at the factory.

I would've thought it can't be that hard just to get a stronger hose made & start fitting it at the factory. Then all they'd have needed was to replace hoses on the cars that experienced failure that were already with customers.

It just seems to me that Fiat regularly take ages to correct these things (thinks 500 windscreen washer nozzles) & then expects owners to foot the bill by stating the terms of the (cr*p) 3rd year warranty. It should be replaced FOC even if the car's out of warranty (upto about 5 years) because it's a design fault.

I agree with D4nny8oys theory regarding the time it's taken, but it doesn't excuse Fiat, they should've acted much sooner & not be expecting owners to pay for their time-wasting.

 

[jrkitching]

It should be replaced FOC even if the car's out of warranty (upto about 5 years) because it's a design fault.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[gazz_bee]

Just had the breather pipe replaced on my 59 plate 500. I don't know if this has been posted before but the new design is different to the original - cylindrical rather than an oval pipe and not made from rubber. Left hand pic is new pipe, right hand pic is old one. The replacement definitely looks more durable, although time will tell.

 

[306maxi]

thanks for the pictures

 

[D4nny8oy]

the new design is different to the original - cylindrical rather than an oval pipe and not made from rubber.

Original design was cylindrical- yours has become oval due to clogging-up internally then being collapsed by the intake manifold vacuum, which causes the splitting.

 

[Red Bubble]

Yes they released it under a new part number about 3 months ago, so far none of those we have fitted have split again although its a bit early to judge yet!

Oh thats good to know, as mine has split again, after only 5000k miles, looks like this item is in the same category as the washer jets, i repeat myself gone again !! gets a bit annoying having to keeping having the same jobs repeated. :bang:

Still love my car BUT just thinking the build/components quality is not that good, having always been a Vauxhall driver until 2 years ago, never had these problems with any of those!

See where the little joke now comes from:-
F - Fix
I - It
A - Again
T - Tomorrow

LOL

 

[brigguscoop]

Ours went at about 7500 miles. New one looks like the new one in the picture and looks a more durable rubber. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Bhindi]

My car is approaching 2 years now, with only just 7k on the clock I haven't taken it in for a service yet. As I have always intended to keep the car for many years as I am still thrilled with it, I am not overly concerned if I come against a dealer arguing with me about loosing the warranty over the debate of how many years or mileage to get it serviced.... My partner is very capable of servicing my car.

Anyway... I digress... having just read this thread about fumes in the car, it has probably identified the fault I have been experiencing for a few weeks, but as yet have not got my partner to look into it for me.....

IF my dealer wants to play silly buggers with me, and not replace under warranty, does anyone have a ball park figure as to what the breather pipe costs?

 

[Chris@souls]

Less than £20 inc vat so nothing to worry about

 

[Bhindi]

Thanks, I have looked under my bonnet now, and I have a whopping great split... grrrrrrrrrrrr.... And just for added annoyance, it turns out my dealer no longer exists.

Research Garage Nuneaton are going to take my car for the day and rectify this, and hopefully also sort out the other smell I used to get from the fan heater (from new) which is the fishy one that someone else mentioned.

 

[RobinPJ]

Thanks, I have looked under my bonnet now, and I have a whopping great split... grrrrrrrrrrrr.... And just for added annoyance, it turns out my dealer no longer exists.

Research Garage Nuneaton are going to take my car for the day and rectify this, and hopefully also sort out the other smell I used to get from the fan heater (from new) which is the fishy one that someone else mentioned.

Ask them to repair it for free - they won't I'm sure but worth asking just for the halibut.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Thanks, I have looked under my bonnet now, and I have a whopping great split... grrrrrrrrrrrr.... And just for added annoyance, it turns out my dealer no longer exists.

Research Garage Nuneaton are going to take my car for the day and rectify this, and hopefully also sort out the other smell I used to get from the fan heater (from new) which is the fishy one that someone else mentioned.

Which garage is it that no longer exists? Not Grays?

 

[madrat]

I can remember my MK1 panda 45 and my Yugo 45 both with the 903cc engine had this problem, the solution was to use a piece of heater hose as this was much thicker and a lot cheaper. Some years later, when my sister got a panda Bella with the same engine I couldn't believe they were still fitting the same breather pipe that still split, so this is not a new thing for Fiat.

 

[Melanabb]

I can remember my MK1 panda 45 and my Yugo 45 both with the 903cc engine had this problem, the solution was to use a piece of heater hose as this was much thicker and a lot cheaper.

I can't believe you had Yugo! I'm originally from former Yugoslavia (home of Yugo) and what extraordinary piece or carp that was! My brother in law still has it (with the dimmed/full beams swich - I kid you not - left of the steering wheel on a kid of light swich arrangement!!!) I feel for you bro!

 

[306maxi]

I can't believe you had Yugo! I'm originally from former Yugoslavia (home of Yugo) and what extraordinary piece or carp that was! My brother in law still has it (with the dimmed/full beams swich - I kid you not - left of the steering wheel on a kid of light swich arrangement!!!) I feel for you bro!

My brother in law apparently bought one new for his then girlfriend Strangely enough they didn't go on to get married

 

[madrat]

I loved my Yugo and the only reason I didn't get another one after I parked mine in the side of a rover on a wet road (I fancied the 65GLX with the full body kit) was the trade sanctions imposed because of the war, they were a step up comfort wise from a panda I can tell you and much much better than a metro. I am toying with the idea of getting one now as a play thing. I must admit the 311/511/513 were not the best but the 45/55/65/tempo that were based on the fit 127 were OK. If I could find a soft top version I would defiantly have it.

http://www.zastava-yugo.co.uk/

 

[RobinPJ]

I loved my Yugo and the only reason I didn't get another one after I parked mine in the side of a rover on a wet road (I fancied the 65GLX with the full body kit) was the trade sanctions imposed because of the war, they were a step up comfort wise from a panda I can tell you and much much better than a metro. I am toying with the idea of getting one now as a play thing. I must admit the 311/511/513 were not the best but the 45/55/65/tempo that were based on the fit 127 were OK. If I could find a soft top version I would defiantly have it.

http://www.zastava-yugo.co.uk/

I can see that they don't call you mad for nothing.

 

[madrat]

:slayer: