General Servo cover plate rusted through
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General Servo cover plate rusted through
Finally got some time after work and before it got too dark to take a closer look.
Fortunately mine didn't seem too serious, only a little surface rush at the bottom where the water had collected.
Gave it a it of a scrape with an old screwdriver, some fine wire wool and a paper towel to make sure it was good and dry. Then sprayed on some waxoyl to keep surface covered and provide some long term protection. Had a bit of a job getting the can in close enough, borrowed a longer straw from a can of WD40.
Ran out of daylight so will peel it back again tomorrow to look a bit lower down. Very glad to have caught it at this stage. Probably would be a lot worse if left a year or two.
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Fortunately mine didn't seem too serious, only a little surface rush at the bottom where the water had collected.
Gave it a it of a scrape with an old screwdriver, some fine wire wool and a paper towel to make sure it was good and dry. Then sprayed on some waxoyl to keep surface covered and provide some long term protection. Had a bit of a job getting the can in close enough, borrowed a longer straw from a can of WD40.
Ran out of daylight so will peel it back again tomorrow to look a bit lower down. Very glad to have caught it at this stage. Probably would be a lot worse if left a year or two.
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Not sure if i am the first mjet owner to have found the problem, but when i checked my car today i found the early signs of corrosion. As i have got no wax oil i have used come grease to pack the area to try and stop it getting any worst. As you can see from the below picture even with the fuel filter removed and engine cover it is difficult to get at the plate because two coolant pipes run just under the brake master cylinder my next job is to try and stop the water getting to the plate in the first place.
https://www.fiatforum.com/#
https://www.fiatforum.com/#
well it took a bit longer than i though it would but mended the leak, the form seal on mine was compleatly rotten on the bottom of it, you could push it off with you finger.
The mjet is so hard to get at the brake master cylinder to check for rush and also paint the affected area i would say it would be easyer to just follow the guide (which is very good) and renew your seal, although the plate on mine looked good it was starting to wrot right at the bottom where you couldn't see it. For the sake of half a tube of silicon and an hour it's a good use of your time and saves getting soggy mats.
The mjet is so hard to get at the brake master cylinder to check for rush and also paint the affected area i would say it would be easyer to just follow the guide (which is very good) and renew your seal, although the plate on mine looked good it was starting to wrot right at the bottom where you couldn't see it. For the sake of half a tube of silicon and an hour it's a good use of your time and saves getting soggy mats.
Munchkin
New member
Spoke to Fiat Customer Relations yesterday who said they wern't aware of a problem with the plate rusting. I talked the guy through it and also told him about this thread on the forum as it contained pictures and plenty of owner comments.
He seemed quite conducive to all I said and that he agreed the level of protection on the blanking plate sounded inadequate and would get looked into. Maybe this won't help owners of current GPs but might help the design of future models.
In the meantime I'd urge any owner with a rusty plate to e-mail Customer Relations to raise awareness.
He seemed quite conducive to all I said and that he agreed the level of protection on the blanking plate sounded inadequate and would get looked into. Maybe this won't help owners of current GPs but might help the design of future models.
In the meantime I'd urge any owner with a rusty plate to e-mail Customer Relations to raise awareness.
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I checked mine at the weekend, no rust :slayer: but to make sure i cleaned and degreased it, then painted on some underbody sealing thats so thick i had to leave the tin it hot water to make it plyable. Then i applied it much the same as bodyfiller and smoothed in all the way around the areas where the water could get and on the front of the plate and let it dry in the sun for half the day. This weekend i am going to then paint over it in red oxide
Hi there, i'm new to the fiat forum. But after a small amount of fact finding and researching about the grande punto (my wifes car) I found these items about the rusty bulkhead/servo plate so decided to check out my wifes car for this problem and hey presto with a bit of light scratching about with a screw driver, it poked straight through a rusty scab, Aaahhh. The thoughts of going back to fiat to complain about there little baby filled me with dispair ( I found them completely hopelessly unhelpful about the rear door handles not opening when I tryed to get my disabled son from the back seat, not the first keeper so not going to honour any repair!!).
So I asked my mate at work if he could help me with the repair and he did, I ordered a elearn disk off ebay( what a load of crap, made no sese and although i imput the correct model the only model it gave was 1.2 8valve so did'nt even relate to what i was looking at!) and then we got on with it. Firstly I repaired the leaking scuttle panel hatch with sikaflex and then let that harden and then started to remove the plate, we did'nt have to remove the dash or drain the brake fluid. We released the pedal box (not removed) removed the master cylinder from the servo( two nuts) removed the pedals from the box and gently pulled the master cylinder from the bulk head plate/servo and slid the plate from the front of the servo (alot of swearing and sore hands) and this is what was found. Much worse than expected! Fitting up was no bother at all because we had taken a bit of time on the strip to gain knowledge of how it was assembled. Just fitted it as reverse of strip and bled the clutch and last but not least seriously wax oiled the entire plate and area. done!!I'm posting this so that more people (if technically skilled) could tackle this job themselves without the need to take there pride and joy to some shonky fiat dealer who will proberbly cock it up. The plate itself was only about £11.50 and the cost to fit the thing was a saturday morning away from the wife and kids not £600!!!
So I asked my mate at work if he could help me with the repair and he did, I ordered a elearn disk off ebay( what a load of crap, made no sese and although i imput the correct model the only model it gave was 1.2 8valve so did'nt even relate to what i was looking at!) and then we got on with it. Firstly I repaired the leaking scuttle panel hatch with sikaflex and then let that harden and then started to remove the plate, we did'nt have to remove the dash or drain the brake fluid. We released the pedal box (not removed) removed the master cylinder from the servo( two nuts) removed the pedals from the box and gently pulled the master cylinder from the bulk head plate/servo and slid the plate from the front of the servo (alot of swearing and sore hands) and this is what was found. Much worse than expected! Fitting up was no bother at all because we had taken a bit of time on the strip to gain knowledge of how it was assembled. Just fitted it as reverse of strip and bled the clutch and last but not least seriously wax oiled the entire plate and area. done!!I'm posting this so that more people (if technically skilled) could tackle this job themselves without the need to take there pride and joy to some shonky fiat dealer who will proberbly cock it up. The plate itself was only about £11.50 and the cost to fit the thing was a saturday morning away from the wife and kids not £600!!!
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I too have this issue with my 06 1.4 dynamic.
Discovered the problem about a year ago when I realised the rear foot well behind the drivers seat was swimming! I thought I was covered by the 8 year anti perforation warranty, so contacted Fiat Customer Care who told me to take it to a main dealer and have it inspected before they could comment any further. So I took it to the local main dealer (Vospers) and showed them the rusty plate. Their response was that they hadn't seen this problem before and that it wasn't a plate but the actual brake servo itself that was rusty! They also told me that the cause was probably brake fluid that had leaked onto it and that I would need to leave it with them for further investigation.
Got a phone call later in the day to say that they had inspected it, couldn't find a leak and that I needed a new part - a Brake servo at a cost of £765 and a bill for £88 for the privilege of telling me that! I was not impressed and argued the fact that they hadn't told me anything that I didn't already know! Eventually they agreed to only charge me £44! I was told to bring it back one day when it was raining! They had also contacted Fiat customer care to basically tell them that there was no good will and that it is not covered by the 8 year anti perforation warranty!
Looking at the warranty descriptions on the FIAT website I came across the following which made me laugh:
"Eight year anti-perforation warranty
Of course, neither you nor we would ever expect your new Fiat to suffer any corrosion problems in its first eight years. However, should any corrosion occur - which can cause a perforation (or hole as it's more commonly known) - you're protected by an eight year warranty."
Surely this shouldn't happen to a car that was less than 4 years old!
Discovered the problem about a year ago when I realised the rear foot well behind the drivers seat was swimming! I thought I was covered by the 8 year anti perforation warranty, so contacted Fiat Customer Care who told me to take it to a main dealer and have it inspected before they could comment any further. So I took it to the local main dealer (Vospers) and showed them the rusty plate. Their response was that they hadn't seen this problem before and that it wasn't a plate but the actual brake servo itself that was rusty! They also told me that the cause was probably brake fluid that had leaked onto it and that I would need to leave it with them for further investigation.
Got a phone call later in the day to say that they had inspected it, couldn't find a leak and that I needed a new part - a Brake servo at a cost of £765 and a bill for £88 for the privilege of telling me that! I was not impressed and argued the fact that they hadn't told me anything that I didn't already know! Eventually they agreed to only charge me £44! I was told to bring it back one day when it was raining! They had also contacted Fiat customer care to basically tell them that there was no good will and that it is not covered by the 8 year anti perforation warranty!
Looking at the warranty descriptions on the FIAT website I came across the following which made me laugh:
"Eight year anti-perforation warranty
Of course, neither you nor we would ever expect your new Fiat to suffer any corrosion problems in its first eight years. However, should any corrosion occur - which can cause a perforation (or hole as it's more commonly known) - you're protected by an eight year warranty."
Surely this shouldn't happen to a car that was less than 4 years old!
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Decided to check my 2007 1.9 multijet today so following the guide on here i checked the seal on the hatch cover and the seal was knackerd . As mentioned in other posts there is not a lot of room in the engine bay of a multijet, the easiest way i found to check for signs of rust i used a length of garden cane with a tent peg on the end
so i could pull the sound proofing forwards and shine a torch in to see the master cylinder plate.
It had started to rust so i removed the engine cover ,airfilter box ,fuel filter and fuel filter bracket.
I then had to tear the sound proofing slightly because the aircon pipes make it near impossible for the sound proofing to be pulled out of the way.
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I prodded the plate with a screw driver which revealed no rot just surface rust so i cleaned it all up ready for sealant to be applyed. I used silflex 291 due to the aircon pipes being in the way the best way i found to do it was to put it on the end of my finger and push it into the gap between the plate and bulkhead .
when putting it back together i smeared a very small amount of copper slip on the wind screen wiper splines hopefully makeing easier to remove the wipers next time .
so i could pull the sound proofing forwards and shine a torch in to see the master cylinder plate.
It had started to rust so i removed the engine cover ,airfilter box ,fuel filter and fuel filter bracket.
I then had to tear the sound proofing slightly because the aircon pipes make it near impossible for the sound proofing to be pulled out of the way.
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I prodded the plate with a screw driver which revealed no rot just surface rust so i cleaned it all up ready for sealant to be applyed. I used silflex 291 due to the aircon pipes being in the way the best way i found to do it was to put it on the end of my finger and push it into the gap between the plate and bulkhead .
when putting it back together i smeared a very small amount of copper slip on the wind screen wiper splines hopefully makeing easier to remove the wipers next time .
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I found out from one of the fellas at work who owns a vauxhall corsa on an 04 plate that he also suffered a waterleak problem, then later found that it was a common problem on corsa's and was coming in from the bulkhead servo plate . He went to his main agent and they told him that it would cost vauxhall to much to treat it as a recall/warranty! The problems you are all encountering with this rusty bulkhead issue is courtesy of GM ( GM owned fiat untill recently) design team! Thanks. When I ordered the plate from fiat in Poole the parts advisor sounded a little surprised and stated that he had never ordered one of the plates ever! I explained to him why I was replacing the plate so he asked his service manager if he had ever heard of it and he was as puzzled as he was saying that he had replaced servo units but not the bulkhead sealing plate! This is a serious issue for fiat, although when I inspected my old plate it looked as though it would be unlikely to cause a safety issue until it almost completely rusted away, by which time you'd have serious trench foot. Mind you FIAT's answer to the problem would proberbly be to give you a pair of welly boots as a cure!!! Lol.
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Gm owned fiat.. more like gm got owned by fiat.
more like gm got owned by fiat.hi all .have a week off work so thought i'd tackle the cover plate ,being lazy and not sure what the weather would be like i had set aside a couple of days ...well it took a whole 2 hours
tools required 1x T25 ...1XRATCHET 1X 13MM SOCKET DEEP ...1X13MM SOCKET SHALLOW ,X1 3INCH EXTENTION 1X 9 INCH EXTENTION 1X UJ ALL 3/8TH DRIVE ..1X 13MM COMBINATION SPANNER
under bonnet ,disconnect battery ,undo 2 master cyliner bolts,pull vacum pipe from servo
inside car pull of trim that covers obd socket and trim below steering column
undo 1 T25 screw and remove heater tube
remove clip and clevis pin from clutch pedal,then the 2 bolts that hold the clutch master cylinder to pedal box and move to side
undo the 5 or 6 nuts that hold the assembly to the bulkhead and pull back as far as possible ,it won't come right off the studs
pull back carpet and felt
back under bonnet ,holding brake master cylinder out the way i just ripped the old plate out through the hole
a 2nd person may help ,but from inside you can pull the assembly back enough to fit the new plate up ,then from the engine bay side ,move it in to position ,then it's just a case of putting it back together ,not for getting to treat it ,i used waxoil stonechip and later will get some windscreen sealent so water cant collect in the bottom ...hope that's of help to someone
tools required 1x T25 ...1XRATCHET 1X 13MM SOCKET DEEP ...1X13MM SOCKET SHALLOW ,X1 3INCH EXTENTION 1X 9 INCH EXTENTION 1X UJ ALL 3/8TH DRIVE ..1X 13MM COMBINATION SPANNER
under bonnet ,disconnect battery ,undo 2 master cyliner bolts,pull vacum pipe from servo
inside car pull of trim that covers obd socket and trim below steering column
undo 1 T25 screw and remove heater tube
remove clip and clevis pin from clutch pedal,then the 2 bolts that hold the clutch master cylinder to pedal box and move to side
undo the 5 or 6 nuts that hold the assembly to the bulkhead and pull back as far as possible ,it won't come right off the studs
pull back carpet and felt
back under bonnet ,holding brake master cylinder out the way i just ripped the old plate out through the hole
a 2nd person may help ,but from inside you can pull the assembly back enough to fit the new plate up ,then from the engine bay side ,move it in to position ,then it's just a case of putting it back together ,not for getting to treat it ,i used waxoil stonechip and later will get some windscreen sealent so water cant collect in the bottom ...hope that's of help to someone
just brought this back to life ,since i have done said job whic took 2 hours for a first attempt ,i reckon it can be done in an hour ,so since i live in south lanarksire i thought it would be a good idea to help any members who may not be confident or competent to change the dreaded plate and remove the fear of doing the job ...i will supply the tools and you will with guidance do the job .cost for guidance a 6 pack of becks ,or if you want me to do it ,a box of 15 becks ..a day to do it would need to be arranged ,preferably a weekend ... hope this helps someone as the price fiat dealers quote is horrendous
Just wanted to say a big thanks to the guys above for the step by steps regarding replacing the brake servo plate. I did it yesterday, took about an hour. I'll post a couple of pics up with a few pointers that helped me doing it on my own.
Oh all I would say is be really careful if you decide to try and remove the vacuum hose from the plastic nipple on the brake servo. The hose is pretty rigid and a lot stronger than the nipple which subsequently snapped off in my hand. If I was to do it again I would remove the hose from the non return valve by warming it with a hot air gun to make it more supple. I managed to temporarily fix it with a bit of plastic tubing but its going to need re-drilled and a new nipple inserted I'll get a post up when I do it in case anyone else is as unfortunate as me!
I'll get a post up when I do it in case anyone else is as unfortunate as me!First pic is how I held the whole assembly up from the inside, the rope just goes up and around the steering wheel. Second pic is using rope to pull the servo away from the plate to give you better access. Third pic is the the nipple that I snapped. Hope some of that helps.
Sam.
Sam.
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LilChrisSwansea
Banned
Should this put me off buy a grande punto tjet or a 1.4 sporting?
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FFS if you are looking to buy a car you look at reasons TO buy the car, not NOT to buy the car!
Anyway I gave my plate another coating of Hammerite as noticed the rust was starting to come through again.
