500 Fiat 500C issues - Help!!

[Cat18275]

Hello
I'm hoping I can get some advice from you lovely people.
I have a 2012 500C for 4 years now and am experiencing all kinds of problems.
Initially my heater over the Summer would only blow out hot air and not cool down. Now the weather has got colder it has decided to do the opposite and just blow out cold air - a nightmare when the mornings are icy.
I took it to the main dealers to be told that the part I need would be over £1200 and I'm looking at 4-5 hours of labour costs to fit it. Not something I can afford. The diagnosis cost me £90!
I have been told that there may be a way to disconnect the temperature so the internal air just circulates. I'm thinking it may be an option if I purchase a in car plug in heater. Does anyone have any ideas on this?


Also (as if that's not enough) the roof sensors seem to have stopped working which means it no longer opens in stages and it doesn't seem to recognize the roof being up so the boot no longer opens. Does anyone have any quick fix solutions I can try?


Finally there are a few mould spores appearing on the fabric roof. I don't want to put anything on there to damage the material - are there any special cleaners I can purchase to treat this?


Thank you so much in advance. I would be grateful for any advice you can give me.

 

[rallycinq]

What part are the dealership saying needs replacing?

D

 

[swifty500]

You may have air locked in the system-bleed it-The only thing that can cost that much to fix with that much labour is the heater blend vents-these are a dashboard out job to fix and NEVER get the dealer to do that-half price at an independent mechanic. You can use the recuirculate button but it would steam up quickly and the air would be stale. The roof/boot problem is likely to be the infamous boot loom wiring problem- I did. Mine for a £50 part and 2 hours labour

 

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

Hello

Also (as if that's not enough) the roof sensors seem to have stopped working which means it no longer opens in stages and it doesn't seem to recognize the roof being up so the boot no longer opens. Does anyone have any quick fix solutions I can try?


Finally there are a few mould spores appearing on the fabric roof. I don't want to put anything on there to damage the material - are there any special cleaners I can purchase to treat this?

For the roof/boot issue try doing a roof initialization as per the page image below - it should sort the problem.

As for the mould, I'd suggest a cleaner/protector pack such as;
https://www.autoglym.com/convertible-soft-top-clean-protect-complete-kit
There are others by Meguairs, 303 etc. None of them are cheap but I think it's worth it once a year or so. Make sure it is for a fabric roof, not vinyl.

I do my roof annually and it looks like new. While it lives in the garage these days it spent three years exposed to all weathers. If your car lives outside buy it a cover.

All the best.

 

[John202020]

Sounds like the blend door issue (maybe) for your temperature control, if it IS confirmed then it's do you keep or sell the car.

 

[varesecrazy]

Hi. Where abouts in the UK are you.

There are several poeple who specialise in the dashboard/ heater issues.

Charlie .oxford

 

[Cat18275]

Sounds like the blend door issue (maybe) for your temperature control, if it IS confirmed then it's do you keep or sell the car.

Sadly its on finance and out of Warranty so I am stuck with it

 

[Cat18275]

Hi. Where abouts in the UK are you.

There are several poeple who specialise in the dashboard/ heater issues.

Charlie .oxford

I am near Rochdale - is there anyone in the North West?

 

[Cat18275]

I've heard there is a way to reset the air con/ heater? Does anyone know how to do this? (Ill try anything)


I've searched threads but it mentions holding down the Mode and Auto buttons - I don't seem to have a MODE button.

 

[Cat18275]

What part are the dealership saying needs replacing?



D

Hi. They’ve diagnosed (at a cost of £89.99)a possibility of 2 things....
1. Heater flap/ air distribution motor or
2. Heater box

The cost of the heater box excluding labour is £1760.00!

 

[frupi]

Hi. They’ve diagnosed (at a cost of £89.99)a possibility of 2 things....
1. Heater flap/ air distribution motor or
2. Heater box

The cost of the heater box excluding labour is £1760.00!

Aside from the cost of diagnostics, which to be fair, any dealership is going to charge for their time using the latest equipment available to diagnose the problem, the actual cost of the repair, is diabolical and I personally wouldn't bother getting it fixed, unless of course you are able to find an independent specialist/mechanic/technician who can do the replacement/repair for a fifth of the quoted price.

I agree it's not very convenient not having a working heater in the car, but at the price to fix quoted to fix it, who has that sort of money laying around to spend on a car heater? I don't know how long you still have left on finance, but if it's a couple more years, the car won't be worth much anyway once it's about 7 years old. Not what you want to hear, but sadly that's the deal. If the car went to auction now, it wouldn't fetch anywhere near as much as you might expect it to.

I had a faulty heater flap control replaced on a TwinAir I used to own, thankfully under warranty. The Fiat dealership had to wait for the part to come in and then they had the car for 24 hours to fix it. As I understand it, it would have cost me an absolute fortune if I'd had to pay for it.

How long are you stuck with the car for on finance?

 

[jrkitching]

Condolences to the OP - it's no fun to be making a substantial monthly payment on a car that leaves you freezing cold in winter and realistically has little resale value.

The heater box is just about the first thing to go into the bodyshell when the car is built, and getting proper access to it requires the removal of both doors, the steering column, airbags and most of the interior forward of the front seats. A very experienced mechanic who'd done this before could just about do it in a day; a DIY home mechanic doing it for the first time would likely take a week. So repair or replacement is never going to be cheap.

There's one guy on here who does the whole job for around £600-£700 using secondhand parts, but with secondhand parts there can't realistically be any guarantee and you could spend the money and have it fail again the next day.

Whilst not exactly common, this failure isn't all that unusual and you'd think Fiat would use better quality parts on something that's this difficult to replace.

This story is one of the reasons why I don't think the 500 is a good car to own out of warranty unless you're fully competent with spanners.

 

[chris3234]

Many cars are like that with part's that could go at anytime known 2 people with Ford's that have had heater boxes /matrix's break

That's the problem when all parts are made for the cheepest bidder over in China

 

[g8rpi]

Hi,
Bit of a long shot, but you could contact Fiat customer service and argue that its a failure and they should cover at least part of the cost. If it's on finance the finance company is is just as liable for the car as the dealer. As it's a failure rather then wear and tear you could ask them to contribute to the cost if Fiat won't. It's a long shot but may be worth a try.

Robert G8RPI.

 

[jrkitching]

Many cars are like that with part's that could go at anytime known 2 people with Ford's that have had heater boxes /matrix's break

That's the problem when all parts are made for the cheepest bidder over in China

Poor quality OEM parts are responsible for many, many failures across most, if not all marques; the problem isn't confined to Fiat. Cheap timing chains on some upmarket german diesels is just one example which comes to mind.

Interestingly I had the same issue on a Mk1 Ka; on that vehicle, heater temperature is managed by a water control valve in the scuttle which is made of a cheap bakelite-like material which commonly failed after about 5yrs or so - mine was literally crumbling apart. The key difference is that it was an easily accessibly £28 part that could be fitted at the roadside in about ten minutes; because it was a common failure item, most Ford dealers kept them on the shelf.

I get the point about using cheap components to keep costs down, but I don't get using them in locations where access requires days of dismantling, and only selling them as part of a £1000+ assembly when the only thing that's failed is a tiny part which can't cost more than pennies to make.

 

[chris3234]

Depends on the car one of them was on a fiesta and like the 500 it involved removing the dashboard


I think part of the problem with the 500 is the small size meaning jobs take twice the work of other cars

 

[Cat18275]

My finance is up next March then I have to make the choice to pay of the remaining (around £4500) or hand it back. I'm sure with all the faults on it I would be left with a bill if I chose that option.

 

[Cat18275]

Condolences to the OP - it's no fun to be making a substantial monthly payment on a car that leaves you freezing cold in winter and realistically has little resale value.

The heater box is just about the first thing to go into the bodyshell when the car is built, and getting proper access to it requires the removal of both doors, the steering column, airbags and most of the interior forward of the front seats. A very experienced mechanic who'd done this before could just about do it in a day; a DIY home mechanic doing it for the first time would likely take a week. So repair or replacement is never going to be cheap.

There's one guy on here who does the whole job for around £600-£700 using secondhand parts, but with secondhand parts there can't realistically be any guarantee and you could spend the money and have it fail again the next day.

Whilst not exactly common, this failure isn't all that unusual and you'd think Fiat would use better quality parts on something that's this difficult to replace.

This story is one of the reasons why I don't think the 500 is a good car to own out of warranty unless you're fully competent with spanners.

Could you please let me know he details of the guy who could do this work please?

 

[jrkitching]

Could you please let me know he details of the guy who could do this work please?

I suggest you contact @burrowsdeano, but I suspect that geography may be a problem.

This is the post I was thinking of; you might want to read the entire thread.

 

[burrowsdeano]

If you are interested it just so happens I am trying out a new repair for this exact problem, I’ve successfully repaired the broken drive on a heater box I changed for that issue without stripping the box down. The next stage is to try doing the repair in place and I’m pretty confident it can be done and I think it will work better than the original. Just need to try it out on a broken one. If it’s successful I’m thinking I should be able to do the whole job for between £150-£250 depending on how long it takes. Just need a car to try it on. If anyone is interested get in touch