General Panda Flywheel Bearing Failure

[FIATForumAG]

Flywheel Bearing Failure or How to Lose Customers!!

Words to consider...

I contacted Customer Care Fiat about the problem we had with the car.

It has now been since the beginning of October that the car has been in Fiat's 'hands'. Two weeks waiting for the agent to be able to take the car, which they finally took over on 15 Oct.

It has only done about 38400 miles in just over 4 years and the flywheel bearing should not have failed at this point and yet it falls on us to pay £2,233.55 to fix the issue.

Yesterday, 6 Nov, I wanted an update on the case and called the Fiat telephone number, but it has changed and does not seem to work.

So I called the agent. They received the final part from Fiat Italy last Friday and not the Wednesday as Fiat had advised.

Today, 7 Nov, the car is finally ready.

Why should Fiat expect us to pay extortionate money for the privilege of the whole diabolical experience and for their delay?

They have abused our patience, acceptance and tolerance of your handling of our car issue.

 

[Al D]

You could write to Fiat and the dealer who's done the work regarding a gesture of goodwill. Despite the car being 4 years old, and wear and tear being argued, you could get something towards it, maybe to make the bill a round £2000. It can be reasonably assumed a car should last 6 years without anything major going wrong. Let us know how you get on.

 

[oyumurtaci]

Had a similar issue with my 4x4 (1.3mjt). Due to the way the part is designed, the throwout bearing, clutch actuator lever and slave cylinder are all a single part. Basically, if the bearing fails it ruins everything else, and might damage the pressure plate, clutch, and flywheel in the process. If the slave cylinder fails (as mine did), it wreaks the exact same havoc in a different order. If the pressure plate fails, it kills the bearing and then the rest with it. My car was still under warranty when it happened, but the whole clutch assembly is considered a wear item under the warranty terms, so even if the aforementioned clutch actuator assembly (slave cylinder, bearing etc) is the one that failed, nothing gets replaced under warranty. I got a small (very small, think a few packs of cigarettes small) discount as a gesture of good will, and have decided that if it happens again I'm spending the money on a sintered bronze clutch, slave cylinder-fork-bearing-plate assembly from a Qubo Trekking, which are identical but 2/3 the price.

 

[oyumurtaci]

Here are pictures of the incident. The lines going into the bearing are the slave cylinder hydraulic lines. The markings on the pressure plate are where the plate and bearing mashed together. The clutch is, well, the clutch which has a surprising amount of friction material left but may need to be milled as it became unevenly worn when the failure occurred. Lastly, the black goop sitting at the bottom of the housing in front of the flywheel is charred up contact surface and bearing grease left gunked up in between the clutch and flywheel.