Technical help!! major ecu/wiring loom/air con breakdown

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

Hi i have a ulysse 54 plate and in need of some serious advice!! My car refused to start last week to cut a long story short it has ended up at the local fiat dealer ship as other garages can not fix it. Turns out that the air con unit has a blocked drainage pipe which has blocked up and leaked into wiring loom and ecu. wiring loom has 3 inches of water in it which is causing spikes to all different electrical appliances in the car sending it haywire. The garage have got the car to start but have had to turn all the electrics of so can very unsafe not really driveable. Garage have said that it will cost £2500 to fix the wiring loom and ecu but they arent sure if the car will be fixed after that as not sure which other elec faults have been caused. dont want to pay all this money if not sure car will be working after. car not saleable and we still owe 2 years finance on:bang: it. Got in touch with fiat as sounds like design fault they are looking into it and will contact within 36 hours not holding out much hope. Also spoke to consumer direct who have advised that all manufacturing faults are covered for six years feel like we are clutching at straws but are in a desperate situation and would love any advice.

 

[jarred]

Dont get fobbed off with paying its a recall has been know for a while and any repair in the first two years at fiat it It should have been done. see the vosa site http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/default.asp and put in your details then argue the point with fiat

 

[Lady Flava]

hi, where abouts are you located? we had all sorts of wierd and wonderful problems with ours recently, and no disrespect intended towards fiat in any way, but they really didn't seem to know what they were talking about, and it's always a worry when the customer knows more about the cars than the so called specialists, so I rang peugeot instead, who were extremely helpful, and managed to put right all the faults without charging me the hefty 1200 fiat wanted just to diagnose and replace the ecu. all in all peugeot charged me just over 700, and although it actually did need the ecu, it also needed a few other things doing aswell. also I have to say the guy at peugeot who worked on my car, was rather like a pit bull, in that once he got his teeth into it, he refused to give up untill it was running perfectly again.

 

[T14086]

Dont get fobbed off with paying its a recall has been know for a while and any repair in the first two years at fiat it It should have been done. see the vosa site http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/default.asp and put in your details then argue the point with fiat

Are you refering to airbag ECU

 

[cipher]

The recall points to the Airbag ECU, this would no effect on the AC, ability to start or run.

Next idea?

 

[jarred]

The blocked hose on the air con recall starts as water dripping and condensating on the air bag ecu and wiring loom.The display intermittently showns passenger airbag deactivated/faulty.In the worst case the passenger air bag goes off for no reason.Your right this will not stop the car from running.But if you have not had any of the faults displayed on the head up display the small amount of water (every time you run the air con) leaks into the wire loom and buggers the ecu. Your none the wiser to a fault if nothing comes up on the display and your ecu/loom connections slowly rot away till now it will not start.(just a quick question did you keep coming back to your car and finding one of the rear windows slightly open recently?) Cause thats how I found out there was a problem with mine.

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

Hi update on our car! we have now got the car back from the garage still not fixed although car does now run. The garage have rebuilt our car but have disconnected the air bags the body wiring harness has serious water damage and we have been told that the car will have numerous electrical defects and could carry on to get more as corrosion sets in. The car is now sat on our drive and we are not driving it. Fiat have been so unhelpful. They say that the car did have the recall for the faulty pipe done and that the work was carried out to a satisfactory level therefore they think this has occured through normal wear and tear!! We have now put our complaint in writing. Hav conatacted the finannce company consumer direct say that under the sales of goods implied terms act they are responsible for fixing the car but they have fobbed us off so am writing to them again. Can see that this problem is going to keep on going. Saving up for a new car one thing is certain I will never have another fiat!!!!!

 

[T14086]

believe it or not but I do sympathise with your issues but the car is 5 years old and well out of warranty so you cant really expect 'Fiat' to buy you a new wiring harness or similar.

when/where/who did you get the car from?

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

Do you think that it is acceptable for a blocked drainage pipe to leak water into electrics surely there should be a drainage hole where the wiring loom sits. The garage told us that they do not even check the pipe on a service so how would you know if there is a problem and how can we guarentee that the recall was done to a satisfactory level we only have there word for it and my faith in fiat is at an all time low.

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

By the way did consumer direct have also advised that manufacturing problems are under warranty for six years so although our car is five years old fiat should take responsibillity.:bang:

 

[T14086]

when/where/who did you get the car from?

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

Bought it from a dealership in leeds 3 years ago they no longer trade

 

[T14086]

so you brought it secondhand?

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

Yes but consumer direct advise that the six year warranty on faults is regardless of if you bought it new or secondhand buying secondhand does not make us a second class customer!

 

[T14086]

Yes I know however I think people take the 6 year rule too literally, if every component on every item (whatever it is) sold was to last 6 years there would be very few companies in business.

However I hope you can achieve a satisfactory outcome.

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

I agree but in our case this has been a technical fault which has occured in the past so in our case I believe, and so do consumer direct and the smmt, that we are in the right. Watch this space.

 

[bearinthebigbluehouse]

our car is fixed!!!! the dealership quoted £3,000 to fix our car we took it to a local auto electrcian who has fixed it for £370!!! think that garage was trying to told us that garage had not put our car back together properly left a pipe disconnected. so glad we didnt spend the £3,000 still awaiting a reply from fiat to my letter of complaint which i sent 4 weeks ago recorded delivery saving up now for a new car will have anything other than fiat can definately say will never ever own another fiat!!!!!

 

[cipher]

but it isnt a Fiat...it was built by PSA and fiat in france.

So would that mean that you will not buy anything from France or PSA either?#

You seem to be letting a bad experience with a fiat dealer become an over-arching decision maker on car choice.

We have had some issues with our current Ulysse, but we would get another one.