At last, having made a phone call to my main dealer last night at 5.57pm, I took the car down this morning and a few issues dealt with:

Rattle - this had started recently from under the car. Apparently it is the cat, and a new one is being ordered to be replaced under warranty;

Fuel Depollution error - light has not been on for ages, and Examiner did not pick anything up; will monitor the situation. No other errors were picked up either.

Tyre Pressures - I constantly get a tyre pressure warning error, which I have to cancel. Pressures again checked by the garage. This is a KNOWN issue apparently, and a solution is being sought from FIAT UK.

Wheel nuts - the different size nuts were mentioned, and again issue is being checked. They had not heard of this before.

Ripped sun Blind - ordered and being replaced under warranty; apparently they are real buggers to do, and a few cars have been in already.

Door runner paint - going to be looked into by paint shop, one side is a lot worse than the other. I mentioned about the corrosion warranty, so they happy to have a go.

Tyres and uneven wear - one of the reasons I rotated the wheels initially. Both front tyres are rubbing severely on the outside. Car will be booked in again to be laser aligned plus go on the jig. A friend of mine said it could be due to the suspension!

Service Light - Examiner used to reset the spanner. Reckon it must be because of build date, which I will now check using the code. Once car goes in for service next month, it will again be reset to ensure a one year interval.

Version 5.41 and telephone - mentioned about the update and phone problems. This is again being looked into and will get back to me. I am now so close to a service I will probably now just wait.

Er, thats it. My contact down there has now left, but dealt with his superior. Seemed very knowledgeable, and he is off to Fiat HQ this week anyway; he promises to get a few answers sorted so when car booked in for warranty work, the other issues can be sorted.

Overall, good service, considering a Sat morning visit which was semi-booked in last night i.e. told to just turn up!

Stu

EDIT - forget to mention to them about the slightly sticking offside sliding door, but they will hopefully like at this when replacing the sun-blind on that same side. I knew I would forget something [V]
New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

[:0][:0]quite a list there stuart[V]

I have a bling* bling* shiny blue thing

Super. I'm looking forward to my new Ulysse when it arrives!

I had a rattly cat when first delivered - this was quickly changed.

I've only seen the depolution system error once (when the diesel hose came away from the pump/filter because the engineer didn't re-fit it properly after some other work).

I've never had a false pressure warning from the sensors, but there's another cautionary note about these valves that I'll make in a separate posting....

Wheel nuts have been discussed in a separate thread. My dealer certainly knew about it - they pointed it out to me (one of the first good things they've done!)!

I've not fallen foul of the ripped sun-blind thing yet, but have seen postings from others that indicate it's not uncommon - just need to be careful when using them... In fact, we've not had a need to use them yet (the tinted windows are pretty good).

Door runner paint is also something discussed elsewhere - not seen this on mine yet. Seems to be a relatively rare problem that may be linked to how well the doors are hung (which may also be linked to the problem with the blinds).

I also had uneven wear of the front tyres until I had the tracking/balancing/allignment all checked out. I only started getting the problem after hitting a particularly hefty bump on the motorway (hole in the road), and have not seen it since getting it all re-adjusted and new tyres - I'm now 5000 miles into the new tyres and no sign of uneven wear.

I've only seen the service light come on once so far, and I was about 700 miles off the 12000 service. I'm about 3000 miles off the 24000 service and so expect to see the light come on in 2300 miles time!

I've found 5.41 better with the telephone than before. The feedback I have is that while I'm talking it's a lot clearer, and while I'm not talking it still has some background noises (that sound like I'm in a swimming pool) that are probably the RT3 trying to cancel the noise of the incoming speaker to prevent feedback, but this is quieter than it used to be and just sounds odd rather than getting in the way of the conversation. It's better than it used to be, and it's usable now, but it's not perfect. I have also had feedback that indicates that the lower you have the volume of the phone, the less of a problem the noises are!

Is it possible that your sticking door is as a result of paint flakes in the guide-wheel on the runner?

John

New Fiat Ulysse 2.0JTD Eleganza, in blue, with options!

Right, quick update.

Depollution error - this came on again on our trip away! I now reckon this is down to the cat problem, which is being replaced. Obviously there is a sensor somewhere that is indicating something is wrong, which there evidently is! It will be interesting to see if it reoccurs once cat replaced.

Sticking door - this is intermittent, the handle itself does not fully pull back the catch, which means as you pull door open it does not always stay locked. Not an issue if you got electric doors [V]

@ Paul L - every make of car has teething problems. I don't count mine as major, and dealer seems happy to rectify what they can. I still feel I made the best choice for MPV. My dad just had delivered his 4th new SL500; already been back to M-B for a major recall on the Brake Assist system.

Stu

New Fiat Ulysse 2.2JTD Eleganza, in silver, with options

Hi,

The 'Venga Bus' now booked in for its first service at the main dealer at the end of this month. Only will have done 10k by then, so will be the 12 month service.

Since they don't list the car on their Service Menu Board, I enquired - they have quoted me £172, which I don't think is toooo bad considering. Will let you know of any problems, quality of work, etc.

Stu

Hope it goes well - mine is 2000 miles off its 24000 service - I expect to be doing it shortly after I get back off my hols....

John

HI,

Car now in local dealer for most of the above issues to be dealt with under warranty, apart from the peeling paint. Apparently, they are still waiting for FIAT UK authorisation.

I was hoping to get a Fiat Idea to play with, but ended up with a 1.2 16V Active Stilo - seriously underpowered and no aircon, lol.

Also, Fiat have confirmed they do not do roofbox fixings for the roofbars. If you buy their Thule roofbox from the Breo magazine, you have to replace it with FIAT square roofbars - great. I am going to phone Citreon/Peugeot before I make that trip to the local B&Q.

Stu

Hi,

Car back after a few warranty issues.

New cat now installed - they showed me the old one and how damaged it was; hopefully this will cure the Depollution Error light, maybe.

Sunblind - the one they ordered was already ripped, so another one to be ordered - typical.

Tracking - this was all put right, which probably explains the scuffing/rubbing on the front tyres. Not sure if I have a claim against new tyres, may drop Fiat UK an email.

Wheel nuts - apparently, they are going to give me a new brace?? Even though this is not the issue - I intend to get ALL the nuts replaced if they are deemed unsafe.

That's it for the mo - next time in is two weeks away for first service......

Stu

Hi Stu

Sounds frustrating with the dealer. It seams to be acceptable these days in the motor trade that if the car moves any faults can be repaired at leisure.
I've had this experience for the past two and a half years with my focus at the ford dealer.
I'm completely satisfied with my fiat dealer so far though.

I am also wondering what your concerns are over the safety of the wheel nuts are as mine has the odd sized ones fitted too.

Shrek

Hi Shrek,

I am basically happy with the level of service from the dealer, if anything, a lot better than the Renault and Ford main dealers I have dealt with in the past. They have always squeezed me in on a Saturday as well, following phonecalls on a Friday, which is useful.

My concerns about the wheel nuts stem from an earlier comment made to John K by his dealer - I will do a search on here and find out exactly what was said.

Stu

Hi Stu

Glad to here the overall service is good. I recently had my fm modulator fitted at a car audio specialist (so called). They called me to say it wouldn't start. 2 days later, after much arguing they towed it to the dealer with an hours notice, who looked at it immediately. (15 amp body fuse blown). They billed the audio specialist (£70) for the fault and resetting the computer, and fitted the sunvisor at the same time without me asking. Back to me with 24 hours.

Shrek

Hi,

Not the brightest audio fitters not to be able to find the blown fuse. They must have shorted a major circuit to blow a 15A fuse.

Good service from the dealer.

Andy

Hi Poggy

You over-estimate their intelligence.
They took the feed for the dvd, screen and modulator from the connect system feed and wondered why it blew the fuse.
I said I wasn't happy, or words to that effect.

Shrek

Stuart DemonD said:

My concerns about the wheel nuts stem from an earlier comment made to John K by his dealer - I will do a search on here and find out exactly what was said.

Click to expand...

There are two issues.....

The original locking wheel nuts (which have the same size head as the rest of the wheel nuts [17mm]), fitted certainly up to September last year (and possibly for a while afterwards), have a tendancy to get damaged when trying to remove them, making it impossible to get the wheel off without additional tools.

The later locking wheel nuts are physically better, a more robust design, BUT are a different size to the other wheel nuts (bigger [19mm]) so the standard tools supplied with the Ulysse cannot be used to remove them - you need a different wheel brace to get them off, however it appears that such a brace (or adapter) is not supplied as standard.

BTW - my car has now made it past it's 24000 mile service - no major issues in the last 10000 miles.....

Thanks John for a clear summary of the wheel nut issue.

My Ulysse is an early 2003 model and has the newer larger locking nuts fitted. It was owned by Fiat Uk for it's first year so they must have been replaced during that time. Good to know I just need to put an extra wheel brace in the car.

Shrek

It wasn't an issue for me when I found out as I always carry an extending wheel brace (that has an attachment to fit both sizes). Others may find it an issue though, and my advise would be to request that the dealer supply a brace that fits (at their cost).......

Interesting!

Took my car in the other day to have sunblind fixed under warranty, and they also replaced all my locking wheel nuts with the SMALLER version, to match the rest of the nuts and the wheel brace!?!!

I said I thought the problem lied with the smaller locking nuts and the cross-threading issue, but apparently not! So no new brace, and now back to the 17mm??!

I may have another moan when it goes back in - I still encounter the odd 'fuel depollution' error, and so a new lambda sensor on order to check it out [I had a new cat fitted a few months ago as well ]

Stu