General More Croma woes

[T14086]

As you well know the Alfas I was talking about are from many yeras ago; and do not today's Alfas share many parts with FIATs? Could his be why they go wrong so often too?

Yes of course but you no doubt still havea good knowledge of more modern alfas so I knew you would be aware/familiar of the fault examples I gave. I hear it all to often how so many think the older alfas were better in so many ways.

Anyway I digress. To give this some balance I will grant you that when it is running right the 150 Multijet is an absolute peach, and it pulls like a train. It appeals to my strange sense of humour to kick down a couple of cogs on the A1 and surprise the muppet in his 316 BMW at how a 'mundane' family car can leave his tutonic pride and joy helplessly impotent.

lol...I like that

And yes cars do have faults, but for many of us here I think it is the frequency and the randomness of them that is the issue with the Croma.

I wouldn't really say random and I am sure Fiat are aware of the many issues but its not just the customer it frustrates its many of the dealerships & staff aswell. My main 'gripe' is the silly 3rd year warranty:bang:

You say that you would treat a car that has had it's EGR and alternator done recently differently to one that has not.

I ment (perhaps I wasn't to clear) for example you are looking for a croma and one has no history and the other has recent egr/alternator...its obvious which one you would buy assuming they were same price.
Why dont someone strip and alternator down to find out what is going wrong and if it can be repaired cheaply we can pass this info on to others on the forum.Sometimes wether right or wrong we need to do some investigation and i'm sure that one of the many knowledgable people (of which its fair to say there are many in this section) will do this soon.

It was the same with the cylinder head gasket on my old Rover 75. It went at 50k miles, then again a month later. The garage assured me that it probably wouldn't happen again. but they couldn't guarantee it; the car had to go.

How common is it to see overheated rovers in motorway service stations, and yes because of this I avoid them. Reliability to me is more important than performance or looks but its helpful to know a certain vehicles weak points then you can always pick up a secondhand part to keep in the shed for the day that part fails...and it no doubt will

 

[JOHN COOPER]

my alternator expire on my 1.9 JTD150 to day any one know how much they are to replace, and the arb need changing as not bad for 40.000 miles love the car but iam looking to change some time this year if only Fiat would bring them back to the uk i would have a nother.

 

[bobbyblue]

my alternator expire on my 1.9 JTD150 to day any one know how much they are to replace, and the arb need changing as not bad for 40.000 miles love the car but iam looking to change some time this year if only Fiat would bring them back to the uk i would have a nother.

John,

I got mine (New not reconditioned) from alternatormart.co.uk it cost me £168 delivered by courier next day. I fitted it myself so I don't know how much labour charges would be at a garage, maybe another forum member could advise. I reckon 2-3 hours. best of luck.

Bob

 

[Radlet6]

Hi John

The proper FIAT ones are a tad short of £200 - the Lucas ones are closer to £280.???????

Any garage should be able to fit it within 2 - 2.5 hours. If they quote you any longer than that tell them to jog on.

 

[JOHN COOPER]

Many thanks for your fast responces.

 

[T14086]

labour (book) time is 0.65 hours, garages normally round it up to a hour.

 

[Radlet6]

T14086

You say your main gripe is the 3 year warranty - try the extended 5 year one.

I have to pay for the work to be done and then claim the money back. Last time (yes, I have had to use it more than once) it took 8 weeks for the cheque to arrive, and that only after many emails, phone calls and the threat of phoning FIAT UK. :bang:

Bet the person who wrote that policy isn't popular mind. This reminds me of quite an amusing anecdote:

Many years ago I used to work on the used car lot of a BMW/Volvo dealership. At that time all used car warranties were the third party insurance type (even main dealer ones). There were many stipulations with these policies around how often you had to have the car serviced, what was included and what was excluded from the policy.



The length of the latter list depended largely on how much the policy cost but they all had a number of things in common:

• Brake parts
• Suspension parts
• Exhausts
• Triumph Stags

Yes this is true and I kid you not. There was not a warranty company on the market in the late 70's and early 80's that would issue a policy on a Triumph Stag, and most were as blunt about it as printing the fact in the list of exclusions.

 

[Radlet6]

labour (book) time is 0.65 hours, garages normally round it up to a hour.

Is that with the engine in the car or out of it? .

Book time may say 0.65 hours, but that is another laugh the manufacturers have with dealers; how many people do you know who can do it in that time. I bet it will take you that just to get the old one off.