General Leaking Sunroof and Electrics? Please help!

[FrancescaFiat]

Hi everyone,

I'm totally new to fiat, multiplas and cars in general so here goes...!

My partner and I bought a Fiat Multipla (2001, petrol, ELX)in July from a guy claiming to be a mechanic, selling the car for his 'boss'. The car had a very recent MOT (end of May) and he said he himself had MOT'd it that day and it was absolutely fine (though no second MOT certificate!). Well, we took it home after paying £1000 and it seemed fine for the first couple of weeks, then my brother noticed there was something odd about the exhaust and we discovered that one of the 'back boxes' (I think that's what it was called!) was completely missing, the other totally corroded and rusted with huge holes in. There were also problems with the steering and something that still needs doing on the passenger door (not 100% what that was but the garage said it could wait). So, we spent £500 on the steering problem and the exhaust and off we went. Then we noticed water coming in, I got a lap full in the front passenger side as it came in directly above me (there is some sort of grey panel that clips in on the inside of the roof that it was leaking through). Then we found that the drivers side window wouldn't open, then the passenger side, then a notice came up on the screen saying 'Aircond faulty contact garage' and finally the central locking has become patchy, with it locking all doors but the drivers side, which we have to do with the key now.

I have called a few garages who all want us to pay diagnostic charges and then charges for the subsequent work and it seems as if it will be another large outlay My brother (who's done a lot of work on his own cars) seems to think that it's probably just the fuses that have been damaged by water coming in from the sunroof, and that if we sort out the leak and replace the fuses it will probably be fine. What do you all think? On the one hand I don't want to do anything dangerous, either making the problem worse or accidentally electrocuting myself in the process just to save money and on the other hand I don't want to pay them several hundred pounds to change a fuse that we could have done ourselves.

Any advice at all would be very much appreciated, pulling my hair out about this as we are going on holiday on monday and have already spent my savings on that - really hoping we can avoid too many extra costs!
Thank you all in advance
Francesca

 

[widemouthfrog]

Hi (and welcome to the Forum).

I think there's a good chance your brother is right about the electrical problems. As for the leaking sunroof, have a good read of this thread:

https://www.fiatforum.com/multipla/106225-ive-got-leaking-sunroof-problem.html

Unlike most other cars, there are no drain tubes (which essentially do the same job as gutter downpipes on a house), so once you do get a leak on a Multipla sunroof, the water will almost certainly end up inside the car.

You can buy fault code readers from ebay for a few quid, but if you're not mechanically minded I wouldn't bother. Either that, or get your brother to have a look at buying one!

I hope you get this sorted without too much grief. If you can avoid being fleeced by so-called competent mechanics, the parts (but not labour) you need to fix your problems shouldn't cost much - maybe £20-30.

 

[FrancescaFiat]

Thank you widemouthfrog! We are going to give it a go I think, sealant for the sunroof and try out some new fuses. The sunroof thing does seem to be a bit of a silly design!

Last question if you can help... where abouts should I look for the fuse box? Unsurprisingly the guy we bought the car from had no manual... is there a good way to download a manual or somewhere to buy one cheaply?

Thanks in advance

 

[widemouthfrog]

The main fusebox is under the removable floor of the glovebox in front of the driver. There are two little grey plastic turnbuckles - twist them about a quarter turn and the glovebox floor can then be lifted out. Most (but not all) of the fuses are housed there.

Personally, I wouldn't be in too much of a hurry to replace the fuses until you've fixed the sunroof leak and given things inside the car a chance to dry out.

There is no decent manual for the Multipla. There are ones on CD that can be bought on ebay for a couple of quid, but they are a pain to use and not always very helpful. If you go on to the Multiplaowners forum you'll find a few useful pages of "How To's" there and even a copy of the handbook (I think). Other than that, use the search facility on this forum - there's lots of useful stuff buried in old posts!