My little Tonka Toy (as I call it) 500 1.4 Sport has had to go in to the dealers today. It started making a grating/flapping noise when pulling up hill or pulling away but mainly when slowing down using engine braking.
So I popped it into Reseach Garage in Nuneaton where I bought it from 2 years ago.
Took one of their inspectors out for a quick spin round and he said "yup, I can hear it.....sounds like a gearbox bearing, probably the main bearing. You can either leave it with us or drop it in on Wednesday. If it's the gearbox bearing it will be under warranty but as it's in it's 3rd year we have to get a Fiat engineer out to look at it" so I left it with them.
They loaned me a 1.2 pop in BNW. Have to say it drives quite nice, but I am very pleased that I opted for the 1.4 when I bought mine instead of the 1.2.
The 1.2 is very nice round town, but once out on the open road I can really feel the difference in power. Accelerates nicely upto 15-20 mph but then the power drops off which is right around the area that the 1.4 starts to come alive. Took some getting used to, as did the lack of 6th gear, the amount of times I've nearly put it in reverse driving around today is scary....lol
But, they have the gearbox off the car now and are waiting for the Fiat engineer to come and look at it which should be about wednesday. So may be without my Tonka toy for a week or more
Gutted, was going to head to the south coast for the weekend. Technically I could take the pop down there, but I really don't want to not with a £750 insurance excess!
But, it gives me a few days to do a 1.4 vs 1.2 comparison and pop v sport. Although no B&M so no steering controls or USB in the pop, which is a bit of pain as all the music I play in the car is on USB..hehe.
Can anyone tell me what the City button actually does? The sport button on mine makes the accelerator more responsive and tightens the steering, but I feel no difference at all when I press the city button in the pop, must be making some difference to the engine performance I guess.
Just thought I'd share the story in case anyone else wants to read it
So I popped it into Reseach Garage in Nuneaton where I bought it from 2 years ago.
Took one of their inspectors out for a quick spin round and he said "yup, I can hear it.....sounds like a gearbox bearing, probably the main bearing. You can either leave it with us or drop it in on Wednesday. If it's the gearbox bearing it will be under warranty but as it's in it's 3rd year we have to get a Fiat engineer out to look at it" so I left it with them.
They loaned me a 1.2 pop in BNW. Have to say it drives quite nice, but I am very pleased that I opted for the 1.4 when I bought mine instead of the 1.2.
The 1.2 is very nice round town, but once out on the open road I can really feel the difference in power. Accelerates nicely upto 15-20 mph but then the power drops off which is right around the area that the 1.4 starts to come alive. Took some getting used to, as did the lack of 6th gear, the amount of times I've nearly put it in reverse driving around today is scary....lol
But, they have the gearbox off the car now and are waiting for the Fiat engineer to come and look at it which should be about wednesday. So may be without my Tonka toy for a week or more
Gutted, was going to head to the south coast for the weekend. Technically I could take the pop down there, but I really don't want to not with a £750 insurance excess!
But, it gives me a few days to do a 1.4 vs 1.2 comparison and pop v sport. Although no B&M so no steering controls or USB in the pop, which is a bit of pain as all the music I play in the car is on USB..hehe.
Can anyone tell me what the City button actually does? The sport button on mine makes the accelerator more responsive and tightens the steering, but I feel no difference at all when I press the city button in the pop, must be making some difference to the engine performance I guess.
Just thought I'd share the story in case anyone else wants to read it