Brilliant guide, many thanks.
General Drivers side door handle HANGING OFF!!!!!! :(
- Thread starter Kez 1000 fire
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General Drivers side door handle HANGING OFF!!!!!! :(
Brilliant guide, many thanks.
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Thanks for that....hope it helps others too and stops Main Dealers making a fortune out of straightforward repairs......I'd phoned Fiat Customer Service (in Milan....but it's a free number to ring) and had been told they'd no knowledge of the breaking handle hinge being a problem but that if I took it into the local Dealers they might contribute to the repair costs but the Dealers would have to do a report first.......Even though it was patently obvious what was wrong with the handle, the Dealers said they would charge for the report and only if Fiat accepted some liability would the fee for the report be waived. Unbelievable that 1. fiat claimed not to know of the common problem, and 2. even when a fault is manifestly obvious a full chargeable report has to be submitted.
Great guide. Thanks. Hopefully I'll never need it though!
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The Haynes Award for Most Promising Newcomer goes to MarcoVenturi.
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Very kind of you all......makes it all worthwhile. Glad to help, just as others have helped me in the Forum
Gilly willy
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Mine has also just virtually fallen off. Took it to my local garage and when they phoned Fiat to get a price for the replacement (£70) they were advised they had suppled hundreds of them as they've been snapping off in the cold weather. I shall now be contacting Fiat Customer Services to ask how they plan to compensate us.
Typical Fiat, there is a £12ish repair kit for the door handle that they should have told you about.
I would call them back and ask why they have not told you about this.
paula urchin brown
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hi there my door handle as broke today how do i put a new hinge on cant view the pdf thats on here 
Jlspenceley
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I've had my fiat 500 lounge second hand for 3 months on 59 plate, two days ago I went to open the drivers side door an the handle came off in my hand ( I'm a slim lad an obviously did not use excessive force )
Is this a known fault? I bought this through car craft who provide their own one year warranty yet they state it's not covered. Surely a door handle should not break like this.
Would it be worth contacting fiat over this issue or is it a grin and bear it and pay for it myself problem.. Responses would be welcomed..
Is this a known fault? I bought this through car craft who provide their own one year warranty yet they state it's not covered. Surely a door handle should not break like this.
Would it be worth contacting fiat over this issue or is it a grin and bear it and pay for it myself problem.. Responses would be welcomed..
Yes. Plenty of other posters here with the same problem.
You need to read the small print of the car craft warranty to find out just what it does and does not cover.
Personally I would agree with you, but the 500 is, in my opinion, built using some of the cheapest and shoddiest components available on the planet.
Most folks have found FIAT unwilling to cover this in the third year of the warranty. On a car over 3 yrs old, I doubt FIAT would even consider your claim for a minute.
The cheapest way is to fix it yourself using the excellent guide in this thread; this will cost you less than £15. Make sure to put a little white grease on the new hinge to prevent it from failing again in the future.
Failing that, buy the part yourself and get an independent garage to fit it. Expect to pay around £30-£40 for the fitting.
The key to getting a good result is to work very, very carefully so as not to break any of the trim or clips. The approach used by flashyphotos in this thread is indicative of the kind of attitude you're looking for from your chosen repairer. Taking it to a franchised dealer would be at the very bottom of my suggested ways to fix this problem.
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Jlspenceley
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Thank you very much for your detailed advice, I will definitely exhaust other routes rather than pay over the odds for a sheer awful design fault. Thankfully it eases the pain of knowing other fiat 500 owners are sadly experiencing the same problem.. Fiat will be getting an email.
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For the benefit of others, if your 500 is under warranty, there is a service bulletin for the breakage of the pivot pin, which is: 7005 1 831 BA.
Quote this to your dealership if they start to cause any sort of trouble.
Quote this to your dealership if they start to cause any sort of trouble.
Hello all,
I'm using the extremely useful guide and am on the very fiddly bit of attaching the new hinge. But one thing I am confused about is the white plastic thing that is included in the replacement hinge pack (pictured in the guide). What is this used for and where should it be attached?
Thanks for your help!
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I believe the small plastic part is to replace one already in the chrome part of the handle which you can't actually see if you replace the hinge as I did.....but in fact the plastic part didn't need changing on my job. Its purpose is like a rawlplug/wall plug, to accept the small screw that holds the hinge to the outer handle. If you don't over tighten the screw, you almost certainly won't need to replace the plastic plug.
Hope that helps.
Hi everyone
My passenger door handle is now going the same way as the driver one was, very stiff to close. *I don't have another £227 to waste on this car so wondered if this :*
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181132123116
does actually work? *If I purchase that on eBay and then take to local garage what am I looking at do you think labour charge wise? *If I take MarcoVenturi's guide will they be able to fix it do you think? *Same garage that replaced handle so they know how to take door apart and replace but just wondered if that part actually fixes it first (they advised me to change handle last time but not sure if that fix kit would have worked as handle fell apart as they took it off)
Thanks
H
My passenger door handle is now going the same way as the driver one was, very stiff to close. *I don't have another £227 to waste on this car so wondered if this :*
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181132123116
does actually work? *If I purchase that on eBay and then take to local garage what am I looking at do you think labour charge wise? *If I take MarcoVenturi's guide will they be able to fix it do you think? *Same garage that replaced handle so they know how to take door apart and replace but just wondered if that part actually fixes it first (they advised me to change handle last time but not sure if that fix kit would have worked as handle fell apart as they took it off)
Thanks
H
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yes, that's the part you need
Thanks. Will take it in for a greasing first
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