General Fiat 500 broken seat tilt/release cable

[greypanda]

I have a 2016 Fiat 500 and last year I accidently broke the seat tilt/release cable (the cable snapped out of the handle) on the driver seat. My local Fiat dealership fixed it (put the cable back in place) for £189. They added a lubricant to the part once it was fixed and it worked pretty well. An expensive fix but at least the seat worked again.

Fast forward to last month, the seat tilt/release cable broke again (same problem as before, the cable has snapped out of the handle) and now the dealership have quoted me £189 to fix it (put the cable back in place) or £530 to replace the whole mechanism (albeit this comes with a guarantee on the part) - argh

I am sure it's faulty as the passenger side seat tilt/release cable works smoothly, whereas the driver side is just a nightmare and has now broken again.

I am between a rock and a hard place as I want the tilt/release cable on the driver seat to work (& to hopefully never ever have this issue again), but I don't want to be spending £500+

Anyone else ever experienced this before with their Fiat 500? If so, what did you do?

 

[John202020]

Cheaper to replace the seat? Secondhand?

 

[greypanda]

Cheaper to replace the seat? Secondhand?

Thanks John202020. I considered this!

I had a quick look earlier. Currently no black tartan fabric seats in spotless condition like mine - I guess that will be the only difficulty, but I can keep an eye out

I wonder if anyone else has had the same issue as me.

 

[jackwhoo]

You paid (handsomely) for a repair by the dealer. The work should have been carried out to an acceptable level of competence. The repair should have lasted a reasonable length of time. How long did the repair last?
Did you pay using a credit card?

 

[greypanda]

You paid (handsomely) for a repair by the dealer. The work should have been carried out to an acceptable level of competence. The repair should have lasted a reasonable length of time. How long did the repair last?
Did you pay using a credit card?

Thanks jackwhoo.

It lasted just shy of 1 year and yes I paid with my credit card - safest way. I'm sure many would throw away invoices, but I still have mine.

Perhaps I should firmly, yet politely, request that the next repair is made FOC as the repair didn't last? Even if it was half of the £189 then fair enough.

 

[Ralf S.]

To be fair, if the component holding the cable is twisted/frayed/ripped/deformed then they may have fitted the cable as best as they could without replacing the damaged part (which seems to cost £300). If they try to fix it again, then you will likely have the same issue, potentially more frequently, as I presume the damaged end is not getting any better with use or the cable slipping out. It needs a proper fix, which seems to be the new component.

If you can find a whole secondhand seat of any flavour, as long as the crucial piece is the same, you should be able to swap it over onto your seat, so I don't think you will have to find a seat identical to your fabric.. just identical in structure. Seats come out fairly simply... and if the piece is accessible without removing cushions and covers, you may be able to swap it yourself, so not even very expensive.


Ralf S.

 

[greypanda]

To be fair, if the component holding the cable is twisted/frayed/ripped/deformed then they may have fitted the cable as best as they could without replacing the damaged part (which seems to cost £300). If they try to fix it again, then you will likely have the same issue, potentially more frequently, as I presume the damaged end is not getting any better with use or the cable slipping out. It needs a proper fix, which seems to be the new component.

If you can find a whole secondhand seat of any flavour, as long as the crucial piece is the same, you should be able to swap it over onto your seat, so I don't think you will have to find a seat identical to your fabric.. just identical in structure. Seats come out fairly simply... and if the piece is accessible without removing cushions and covers, you may be able to swap it yourself, so not even very expensive.


Ralf S.

Thank you Ralf S - extremely helpful. I need to give this more thought.

Might even be worth a call to my local independent Fiat guy?

 

[John202020]

However if the handle is OK but there's a issue with the release causing excess strain a replacement handle may only fix the issue for a while? Fixing the problem not the cause?

 

[jackwhoo]

Thanks jackwhoo.

It lasted just shy of 1 year and yes I paid with my credit card - safest way. I'm sure many would throw away invoices, but I still have mine.

Perhaps I should firmly, yet politely, request that the next repair is made FOC as the repair didn't last? Even if it was half of the £189 then fair enough.

My opinion is the (costly) repair should have lasted at least one year.
By email or letter ask for your money back , when they reply no you can apply to your credit card provider for a refund - which is straight forward.
If you accept a free repair you loose any right to a refund.

A second hand seat is a good cheap solution to problem.

Good luck.

 

[greypanda]

However if the handle is OK but there's a issue with the release causing excess strain a replacement handle may only fix the issue for a while? Fixing the problem not the cause?

This is exactly it - thanks. Handle OK but cable pops out then causing the issue. I feel I will need to replace the whole mechanism to fully fix this problem.

 

[mj2k]

Cheaper to replace the seat? Secondhand?

Thanks John202020. I considered this!

I had a quick look earlier. Currently no black tartan fabric seats in spotless condition like mine - I guess that will be the only difficulty, but I can keep an eye out

I wonder if anyone else has had the same issue as me.

I got a full, very grubby 500 interior for £20 collected from Ebay, so assuming you can do the job yourself it might be worth looking for a cheapo interior, dismantling the seat and swapping the cable over from the 2nd hand to yours. Or if there are issues with the mech generally, just swap the cover / foam over from yours to the replacement - it's much simpler to do the cover / foam at once rather than stripping the covers off, and if your replacement's anything like my cheapo set was, you wouldn't want that foam anywhere near any part of your body .

 

[greypanda]

I got a full, very grubby 500 interior for £20 collected from Ebay, so assuming you can do the job yourself it might be worth looking for a cheapo interior, dismantling the seat and swapping the cable over from the 2nd hand to yours. Or if there are issues with the mech generally, just swap the cover / foam over from yours to the replacement - it's much simpler to do the cover / foam at once rather than stripping the covers off, and if your replacement's anything like my cheapo set was, you wouldn't want that foam anywhere near any part of your body .

Thanks so much mj2k.

I am sure I could do it - how hard could it be can always rope in some help! The last part of your advise sounds terrifying, but I am not surprised for a £20 seat the things we do to save ££££

May I ask why you needed a new interior?

 

[mj2k]

Thanks so much mj2k.

I am sure I could do it - how hard could it be can always rope in some help! The last part of your advise sounds terrifying, but I am not surprised for a £20 seat the things we do to save ££££

May I ask why you needed a new interior?

I didn't really, I needed some parts from a spare set to try and create a lower passenger seat since my other half kept hitting her head on the roof, but decided I might as well strip the seats down completely for the airbags / cables, in case I ever needed them.

I did a little writeup on it here

 

[greypanda]

I didn't really, I needed some parts from a spare set to try and create a lower passenger seat since my other half kept hitting her head on the roof, but decided I might as well strip the seats down completely for the airbags / cables, in case I ever needed them.

I did a little writeup on it here

The Sparco seats look amazing, really suit the Abarth - if I had an Abarth I'd definitely consider that! Your other half must have been so pleased too. Great work.

Thanks again

 

[mj2k]

The Sparco seats look amazing, really suit the Abarth - if I had an Abarth I'd definitely consider that! Your other half must have been so pleased too. Great work.

Thanks again

Thanks

Believe it or not, with the exception of the Abarth horn button, the rest of the interior is now 500 GQ Edition so would look just as good in any 500 with matching interior style; I've stashed my original brown leather Abarth interior in the loft.

 

[Alan2701]

I have a 2016 Fiat 500 and last year I accidently broke the seat tilt/release cable (the cable snapped out of the handle) on the driver seat. My local Fiat dealership fixed it (put the cable back in place) for £189. They added a lubricant to the part once it was fixed and it worked pretty well. An expensive fix but at least the seat worked again.

Fast forward to last month, the seat tilt/release cable broke again (same problem as before, the cable has snapped out of the handle) and now the dealership have quoted me £189 to fix it (put the cable back in place) or £530 to replace the whole mechanism (albeit this comes with a guarantee on the part) - argh

I am sure it's faulty as the passenger side seat tilt/release cable works smoothly, whereas the driver side is just a nightmare and has now broken again.

I am between a rock and a hard place as I want the tilt/release cable on the driver seat to work (& to hopefully never ever have this issue again), but I don't want to be spending £500+

Anyone else ever experienced this before with their Fiat 500? If so, what did you do?

 

[Alan2701]

just bought a 2016 pop star for my daughter, the seat cable had stopped working on it before we purchased it, we discovered!
I'm pretty handy with my hands so I started to take it apart, it turns out there will be lots of them as there is a manufacturing flaw in the plastic pull that the cable attaches to, it's easy to remove from the seat, undo the screw in the top covered by the flap and push the fabric out of the way underneath the plastic mounting for the flap and there's two plastic catches squeeze them in and the pull and mount will come out, there is a hole for the cable ball end to go through and sit as a retainer when its being used, the one side is weaker as its not got any side support, this had sheared with the force of releasing the catches at the bottom, I've made extra plastic layers for it, but i will be producing a thin stainless clip to slide on and then it should be fine forever, this of course is only any good if the cable hasn't frayed.
hope this has helped
regards
Alan