Technical New Model Doblo - My third separate suspension problem

[Yobbo]

My 2011 Doblo has just passed 35000 miles and has now developed its third separate suspension problem.

Previously It has had the two rear Dampers replaced and a broken front spring.

What has now happened is that the top mounting for the drivers side front spring has virtually seized. What this means is that as the steering is turned the spring mounting doesn't rotate but twists the spring instead. This means that I get a twang, twang, twang noise as I turn lock to lock, because the spring loads up as it is twisted rather than the whole thing rotate, and it then lets go with a twang as the load releases. The spring should rotate smoothly and not in a series of jerks.

I wouldn't mind suspension trouble if I abused the car, but its only used on road (mainly dual carriageways) and has never had a heavy load in it and rarely comes across speed humps. In my 1.25 million mile driving career it is the only car I have driven that has ever had suspension trouble.

It must be faulty design to have all these problems at such a low mileage. :bang:

I still love the car though as it ticks every box I need.

Back to the main dealer.......................

 

[Ulpian]

Exactly the same problems I had with mine. Plus, my gearbox was very obstructive and sometimes would not go into first, no matter what I'd did. Then there was the terrible clutch take-up and the poor economy.

Like you, I essentially liked my car, but the cold sweats I got when I couldn't get it into gear and the constant fear of stalling, plus the economy and finally, rusting, killed any affection I had. I put my problems down to poor quality control, but I'm not sorry to have got rid of it.

 

[Yobbo]

Ulpian, thanks for the sympathy mate.

Lucky my clutch and gearbox are perfect.

Did you pay for the front spring fix ? If so approx how much ?

 

[Ulpian]

It was out of warranty, and the extra year the dealer gave me didn't cover that particular component, of course.

After much telephoning customer services, in Italy, they agreed to pay half the cost. I think I paid over £100, but it might have been less. Anyway, I wasn't happy to pay even a penny for a component that should never have failed.

Good luck anyway. They don't need to lose customers, but if they keep fitting rubbish components they will. There are still lots of manufacturers out there.

 

[T14086]

You would think Fiat would be the experts of making top strut mounts considering the amount of failures across the Fiat range!

 

[Yobbo]

True.

Unfortunately due to work commitments the car can't visit the dealer for a couple of weeks, but I will update once its fixed.

 

[Yobbo]

I did finally get this fixed last week. Both top spring mounts had failed. As one of them was only replaced 6 months ago it was warranteed and so I got a goodwill deal from my local garage and both mounts were replaced for about £170. Car is now fine...........for now

 

[500e]

What!!! 1 top mount £170

 

[Yobbo]

Re: New Model Doblo - My third sorry Fourth separate suspension problem

You are not going to believe this.........................yet more suspension trouble. I believe that the other front spring has now broken :bang:

Off to the main dealer for the fourth time for suspension fixes :yeahthat:

 

[strensallred]

both my front top mounts were shot, 60 plate doblo cargo just upto 90,000 on the clock had both done for £85 by my local kwitfit

 

[Yobbo]

Re: New Model Doblo - My fourth separate suspension problem

I was right, drivers side front spring had failed. Now all fixed and back to normal again. I got a bit of goodwill from Fiat despite it being out of Warranty.

So that is both front springs, both front top mounts, both rear damper mounts and both rear dampers my Dobby has had in 42k miles from new.

As I said before it never goes off road, hardly sees a speed ramp and has never had anywhere near half its payload capacity in it so it is not very satisfactory.

 

[Yobbo]

The Dobby had its MOT today and thankfully passed with no advisories. I was chatting to the MOT tester about all the front spring failures I have had and he reckoned that it is becoming an epidemic on all cars.

He has been MOT testing cars for 30 years and said you would rarely see a broken coil spring years ago. He reckons he currently finds 2-3 broken springs a week and last week he found five, but most people don't realise that they have a spring broken. I have no reason to doubt him as he was trained by my late father and is a very honest 'play it by the book' tester.

 

[Doblotastic]

Here we go again. Another spring failure.

Yesterday I heard a familiar knocking from the front then after 20 miles it spat out the bottom coil of the right hand front road spring.

It did the same thing 18 months ago when it was still just in warranty. I insisted on both springs being changed (12000 miles ago). The dealer doesn't want to know this time so I'll get my local garage to do the work.

The right hand top mount/swivel is sticky as well and I'd been putting off getting this done but it will be fixed at the same time.

I've already had the knocking rear shocks changed.

The car has now only clocked up 35500 miles. Welsh roads aren't great but they're not terrible either.

Oh, and another thing to bump the cost up - it needs new front pads and disks.

According to the garage, springs are now failing regularly on all sorts of vehicles. He's just done a BMW which cut its front tyre when a spring failed and has a Punto to do this weekend. He agreed it never used to be like this. He also said that brake disks are commonly wearing to their limit thickness in the life of one set of pads.

 

[Yobbo]

Guess what ? Yep, another front drivers side spring has failed on my 2011 Doblo 7 seater :bang:


So to sum up in 58,000 miles the following have failed;


1 left front spring
2 right front springs
2 right top swivel/strut mounts
1 left top swivel/strut mount
Both rear damper mounts
Both rear dampers


As I said before, the car has an easy life, most of which is on the motorway unladen at sensible speeds. What is essentially a commercially based vehicle should have more robust suspension than this. I am just about starting to lose the faith.........

 

[cobby58]

Quite disconcerting to read that! Mine has just got 24k on & I have ordered one rear shock to hopefully cure all the knocking going on at the back end. Looks like I have the rest of your front end problems to look forward to.... ?