- Joined
- Jan 3, 2012
- Messages
- 22
- Points
- 7
We've got a 2017 4x4 twinair Cross that has been brilliant for years, even using it as a proper 4x4 with plenty of off road here in South Africa. But recently it's been in and out of the garage and we need some advice as to what to do ...
At the last service about 9 months ago (50 000km) we needed to replace the water pump, frustrating on such a young car but not too crazy expensive. On the way back from a long journey we noticed a slight loss in power/economy and when we stopped at a petrol station to check I noticed a little bit of mayonnaise at the top of the oil cap and got a bit of a fright. I assumed then that the water pump swop had been botched and coolant was getting into the engine.
Long story ... despite being in and out of the dealership a few times ... filling up the coolant a bit since the water pump change, the Fiat dealer insists the engine/coolant system is 100%. They've done dye tests in the coolant as well as compression tests etc. and are adamant that all is well. They say that twinair engines often get a bit of mayo in the filler neck - and we'd just come back from the desert with some extreme highs and lows in temperature which could have caused this.
A few weeks ago we had an orange warning light with the engine light - straight back to the dealer. The dealer said it's the catalytic converter error and cleared it ... apparently nothing to worry about.
The coolant level has since stabilized, but always sits in the middle of the max/min - if you top it up to max level it always goes to the middle after a while - the dealer again says that is normal on these cars.
This weekend the dreaded orange engine light came on again, no loss of power or economy, but back to the dealer again to check. They came back with the cat error again - P0420-62 (signal compare failure). The dealer says they can't delete it as it's showing as 'active' whenever the car is on. The only solution the dealer has put on the table is to replace the whole cat - as it's a sealed unit.
It is crazy expensive to replace the whole cat (£2000 just for the part) - so I'm wondering what out other options are? It's also bonkers to be having this problem at 55000km and only 4 years old.
There are no cat specialists here who can attempt to clean or service it - so do I go to an exhaust specialist and get the cat removed and deleted? Can you clean or replace the sensors on a twinair as a starting point? It just seems odd that it's a full cat replacement or nothing from the dealer?
Any advice as to what to do next or check would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
At the last service about 9 months ago (50 000km) we needed to replace the water pump, frustrating on such a young car but not too crazy expensive. On the way back from a long journey we noticed a slight loss in power/economy and when we stopped at a petrol station to check I noticed a little bit of mayonnaise at the top of the oil cap and got a bit of a fright. I assumed then that the water pump swop had been botched and coolant was getting into the engine.
Long story ... despite being in and out of the dealership a few times ... filling up the coolant a bit since the water pump change, the Fiat dealer insists the engine/coolant system is 100%. They've done dye tests in the coolant as well as compression tests etc. and are adamant that all is well. They say that twinair engines often get a bit of mayo in the filler neck - and we'd just come back from the desert with some extreme highs and lows in temperature which could have caused this.
A few weeks ago we had an orange warning light with the engine light - straight back to the dealer. The dealer said it's the catalytic converter error and cleared it ... apparently nothing to worry about.
The coolant level has since stabilized, but always sits in the middle of the max/min - if you top it up to max level it always goes to the middle after a while - the dealer again says that is normal on these cars.
This weekend the dreaded orange engine light came on again, no loss of power or economy, but back to the dealer again to check. They came back with the cat error again - P0420-62 (signal compare failure). The dealer says they can't delete it as it's showing as 'active' whenever the car is on. The only solution the dealer has put on the table is to replace the whole cat - as it's a sealed unit.
It is crazy expensive to replace the whole cat (£2000 just for the part) - so I'm wondering what out other options are? It's also bonkers to be having this problem at 55000km and only 4 years old.
There are no cat specialists here who can attempt to clean or service it - so do I go to an exhaust specialist and get the cat removed and deleted? Can you clean or replace the sensors on a twinair as a starting point? It just seems odd that it's a full cat replacement or nothing from the dealer?
Any advice as to what to do next or check would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!