Technical Very annoyed at Fiat dealer diagnostic price quote

[FireballXL5man]

I posted yesterday that my revs counter on my 1.2 lounge had gone beserk and was indicating 8,000rpm. I achieved a temporary fix by leaving the car for half an hour and then switching the electicals on and off. Each time the rev counter dropped by 500rpm and eventually read zero. The rev counter behaved normally this morning, but this evening it has shuddered up to 8,000rpm with the car engine revs at idle and has stayed there (despite the engine being switched off).

The car is 3 years 10 months old, so it's out of warranty. I've spoken to the Fiat dealer, from whom I bought the car new, and they say they will cherge me £80 for a diagnostic check, before any rectification work is carried out, which will be charged at the hourly rate.

£80 seems to me to be excessive for the diagnostic check and the service manager says that the problem could just be a wiring fault.

Do other garages (non-Fiat) have diagnostic equipment for the 500 and do members think would I be able to get a better deal elsewhere?

Have any other 500 owners experienced similar revs counter problems and what are members views on these projecter diagnostic and repair charges?

Thanks in advance.

 

[306maxi]

Don't think 80 quid is too bad tbh.

 

[ahmett]

I posted yesterday that my revs counter on my 1.2 lounge had gone beserk and was indicating 8,000rpm. I achieved a temporary fix by leaving the car for half an hour and then switching the electicals on and off. Each time the rev counter dropped by 500rpm and eventually read zero. The rev counter behaved normally this morning, but this evening it has shuddered up to 8,000rpm with the car engine revs at idle and has stayed there (despite the engine being switched off).

The car is 3 years 10 months old, so it's out of warranty. I've spoken to the Fiat dealer, from whom I bought the car new, and they say they will cherge me £80 for a diagnostic check, before any rectification work is carried out, which will be charged at the hourly rate.

£80 seems to me to be excessive for the diagnostic check and the service manager says that the problem could just be a wiring fault.

Do other garages (non-Fiat) have diagnostic equipment for the 500 and do members think would I be able to get a better deal elsewhere?

Have any other 500 owners experienced similar revs counter problems and what are members views on these projecter diagnostic and repair charges?

Thanks in advance.

80 pounds without solving anything just to check is a complete joke. Do you know any good indies in your area? Try to find a Fiat specialist independent. Avoid the Fiat dealer unless you absolutely have no choice. Once a dealer has sold you the car they couldn't care less about looking after you 'aftersales' unless it is to charge you! It seems Fiat dealers in the UK are even worse than in Greece, at least in Greece you scare them if you say I will call Fiat who seem much more helpful than the dealers. Really Fiat HQ are much more nice than the dealers from my experience.

 

[FireballXL5man]

I agree with you ahmett. £80 before any work is carried out is excessive. Especially considering that we've bought two brand new cars from the dealership since November 2009. So much for looking after valued customers. Also, the service manager hinted that it could be a wire causing the problem.

I intend to try and find an independant garage in the Worcester area before I allow the dealership to look at the car.

Does anyone know of any independant garages in Worcester, England who have the ability to carry out the necessary diagnostic and repair work on a Fiat 500?

 

[frupi]

I'm wondering whether the diagnostic charge just differs between dealerships. The Fiat dealership I have used twice, once for a basic service and the other for replacement of a steering motor under warranty, stated that they charge £60 for diagnostic hook up, or, it is hooked up to diagnostics as part of a routine service. Whether they 'load' the service price wise, I have no idea, but as an example, out of two Fiat dealerships who quoted me for a oil/filter change with basic vehicle health check, one quoted me £82 (which is the one I went with) and the other £150 for exactly the same thing, or so I thought. Seems the lower priced quote did not include diagnostic hook-up. Interestingly, back in June, I received a card from the only Fiat dealer I have used so far, offering me a free software update. This clearly included full diagnostic hook-up, the only inconvenience to me, a 50 mile round trip. During the free diagnostic, they discovered that the electric steering motor had a terminal fault and replaced it under the third year warranty, which was a good job, because they quoted me nearly £1k to do the job!

Anyway, the price dealers charge, I believe, is directly influenced by the cost of the subscriptions that dealers have to pay to access their marque's diagnostic database. Some have very high subscriptions to pay, up to £400 a month I've been told by the dealer of a different car I used to own.

 

[FireballXL5man]

Well even if they have to pay Fiat £400 a month. To charge me £80 for one diagnotic check is a bit steep. I'm going to look elsewhere first.

 

[frupi]

As you're out of warranty, you could of course always buy one of these:

http://www.autel-tech.co.uk/eobdii-code-readers-and-scanners/12-autolink-al419

I'm sure someone with expert knowledge will be able to tell if it would be able to read electrical faults/issues as part of retrieving trouble codes?

See what codes it throws up then go find a good independent armed with your knowledge and get it sorted that way.

There are of course other diagnostic readers available and there are plenty of people on here who can undoubtedly point you in the right direction.

 

[bluematt1]

Main dealers have very high overheads and the £80 will be for an hours labour which by the time the technician has the car in runs some diagnostic checks and maybe has to remove trims/etc to do possible wiring checks once found on internet a diagram or maybe update software which can overcome some issues.
An hour soon goes by................
You ever called out British Gas it will be £100 just to ring your door bell .
Trouble is every one thinks its easy but its not always dealers dont want to spend ages on this sort of job for say £30 everyone is this day and age has targets to meet so time has to be justified/accounted for .

 

[ahmett]

Main dealers have very high overheads and the £80 will be for an hours labour which by the time the technician has the car in runs some diagnostic checks and maybe has to remove trims/etc to do possible wiring checks once found on internet a diagram or maybe update software which can overcome some issues.
An hour soon goes by................
You ever called out British Gas it will be £100 just to ring your door bell .
Trouble is every one thinks its easy but its not always dealers dont want to spend ages on this sort of job for say £30 everyone is this day and age has targets to meet so time has to be justified/accounted for .

So buy a Korean car with a 5 year warranty then because we all know fiats warranty is more than a joke either that, or be your own mechanic with your car or do a three year plan where u get a new one every three years

 

[FireballXL5man]

£80 is purely to hook the car up to the diagnostic equipment, as I understand it. Everything else in the repair is on top of that.

I'm not satisfied with that. I'm looking for a fix elsewhere first. If unsuccessful, I'll have to go back to the dealership. If that is the case and they charge me a high price to fix the 500, I won't be buying my next new car from them.

 

[bluematt1]

Just plugging it on a diagnostic machine wont tell you what to replace as such it will point you in the right direction possibly where to look .

 

[FireballXL5man]

So if the dealer was to tell me that that they've got a piece of equipment that can be connected to my car, it'll point them in the right direction and possibly where to look....oh, and by the way, it'll cost £80 to do this, before any other costs (labour and parts).

I know this may be the way things are done nowadays and modern cars cost significant money when they go wrong, but I'd feel pretty peeved to be told the above. Especially having spent £30,000 with the dealership on two new cars since 2009.

Also, my wife and I have owned four Fords, from new, in sucession and maybe we've been lucky, but we've never had a fault like this before.

We'll see what happens.....

 

[T14086]

Diagnostic equipment helps but it's no match for experience or good diagnostic skills and training.

I see loads of cars go from garage to garage, each charging the customer for labour and parts than make no difference then in desperation it comes to dealerships who are familiar with the issue and it's easily solved quickly.
Some garages take it to dealerships themselves then add 'a cut' on for themselves so the cheapest isn't always the best or cheapest in the long run. It is worth getting a local garage have a quick look in case it is something simple or obvious of course.

 

[RobinPJ]

What about getting in a mobile auto-electrician?

 

[FireballXL5man]

Not good news. I've had the car looked at and been told that a new instrument cluster is required. With programming the cost will be about £500. Apparently the mechanic has seen this before with 500's.

I feel that I should talk to Fiat customer care. Can anyone give me the phone number please?

Feeling pretty fed-up at the moment.

 

[ahmett]

Not good news. I've had the car looked at and been told that a new instrument cluster is required. With programming the cost will be about £500. Apparently the mechanic has seen this before with 500's.

I feel that I should talk to Fiat customer care. Can anyone give me the phone number please?

Feeling pretty fed-up at the moment.

Is it necessary to pass the mot? You could always live without one if so

 

[FireballXL5man]

Ahmett, I will certainly live without the rev counter.

If I was daft enough to pay £500, or probably more if the dealership rather than a private individual, did the instrument cluster replacement, just for a red needle which tells me how fast the engine is revving, I should have donkey ears.

This really shouldn't happen on a car of this age ( 3 years 10 months) and less than 30,000 on the clock. As for £500 (or more) for a fix, it's a very poor reflection on Fiat.

I'll wait and see if (or when) other members rev counters fail and see what they do......

 

[306maxi]

You're the first that's had this issue AFAIK

Obviously it's not the most important thing to have, I've owned cars that didn't have rev counters and it's not all that important.

If it were me I'd get a cluster off ebay for 50 quid and plug it in and see what happens.

 

[bgunn]

I'd speak with a company like BBAreman and see if they can repair the existing cluster.

http://www.bba-reman.com/uk/

 

[The Twins]

Same thing happened on my Audi A4 some yrs ago. Thank goodness it was in warranty as I think the cost was about £700!