Dee
New member
My car is a new shape FIAT Punto Sporting, has done only 5,000 and is 3 years old.
I work from home so hardly drive it.
I had problems with the car's Air Conditioning, everything seemed to work
but the car wasn't getting cool.
My Dad came back from holiday so he looked it over today and we found an
Aluminium pipe in the car that carries the gas, it has a crack in it.
This is the obvious reason for the leak of gas.
My question is this should this be expected to happen on a car with such
few miles on the clock?
The car has only ever been worked on by a FIAT Dealer.
First time it went in for safety recall where I got a letter saying there might
be a chance some cable catches on a pulley or belt I think.
And 2nd after 2,500 miles and when it was 2 years old the power steering
failed and the entire unit was removed and replaced - that time I ended up
paying half the cost. I also had a service at the same time by the same FIAT Dealer that replaces the power steerin system.
I'm wondering if the line could have been cracked during either of these two
procedures, espacially the power steering replacement?
The sides of the aluminimum pipe is round in shape however at the site of
the crack it's flatted slightly almost like someone has taken some big
pliers and squeezed the pipe, the crack is also near a bend in the pipe.
To myself this crack looks as if it come about from a fault during the manufacture of the car, due to the way the car has been designed - the pipe has many twists and turns in it and aluminium is a very brittle metal, which neither myself or the two people who looked ta it today can understand why it has been used in this application.
This is my family's third (3rd) Punto and the other two never gave a problem, BUT
they were the old shape punto and the most basic model Punto. After having had many trouble free years with those two puntos I decided my next Punto would be the the best model Punto I could afford and at the time that was the NEW shaped Punto Sporting.
But this car has been nothing but trouble and seeing as I only average approx 1,500 miles per year in it I don't feel I should have had anywhere near as many problems.
I work from home so hardly drive it.
I had problems with the car's Air Conditioning, everything seemed to work
but the car wasn't getting cool.
My Dad came back from holiday so he looked it over today and we found an
Aluminium pipe in the car that carries the gas, it has a crack in it.
This is the obvious reason for the leak of gas.
My question is this should this be expected to happen on a car with such
few miles on the clock?
The car has only ever been worked on by a FIAT Dealer.
First time it went in for safety recall where I got a letter saying there might
be a chance some cable catches on a pulley or belt I think.
And 2nd after 2,500 miles and when it was 2 years old the power steering
failed and the entire unit was removed and replaced - that time I ended up
paying half the cost. I also had a service at the same time by the same FIAT Dealer that replaces the power steerin system.
I'm wondering if the line could have been cracked during either of these two
procedures, espacially the power steering replacement?
The sides of the aluminimum pipe is round in shape however at the site of
the crack it's flatted slightly almost like someone has taken some big
pliers and squeezed the pipe, the crack is also near a bend in the pipe.
To myself this crack looks as if it come about from a fault during the manufacture of the car, due to the way the car has been designed - the pipe has many twists and turns in it and aluminium is a very brittle metal, which neither myself or the two people who looked ta it today can understand why it has been used in this application.
This is my family's third (3rd) Punto and the other two never gave a problem, BUT
they were the old shape punto and the most basic model Punto. After having had many trouble free years with those two puntos I decided my next Punto would be the the best model Punto I could afford and at the time that was the NEW shaped Punto Sporting.
But this car has been nothing but trouble and seeing as I only average approx 1,500 miles per year in it I don't feel I should have had anywhere near as many problems.