My wife was driving our Fiat Ulysse 2.0 JTD automatic and the orange light in the corner of the dashboard (engine) lit up and the car lost power and stopped and a lot of the dashboard lights lit up.

We had it recovered to a Fiat Dealership and from their intial look they think that the cam belt was loose and jumped. If we are lucky it could be ok but if not then the engine could be damaged. The service department will be replacing the cam belt and seeing if the car starts in the next two days. If not then they will take the engine out and see what is damaged.

Its a three year old Ulysse, 63k miles. So unfortunately a few thousand miles and a few months just outside warranty. The last service was 4k miles ago and the car also had the automatic gearbox 3.5k miles ago while it was just still in warranty.

I don't know much about cars, and I am hoping someone can give me an idea why the cam belt problem would have happened.
Is it just a random problem?
Do the tensioners fail?
Was something not checked or set correctly when the service or gearbox replacement was done?

Any idea how bad the damage might be? Is it as bad as the cam belt snapping?

Thanks

I assume the car has never had a belt change? The problem could be a seized tensioner or a worn bottom pulley.

I am afraid that from my experience with Ulysee belt brakes its never good news

You will be extremley lucky if the belt has snapped not to have done internal damage. This normally leads the tech to find that the injectors will not come out of the head too which is another big cost.

Just keep your fingers crossed mate!

There really is an on-going cambelt issue with the Ulysse (see my other rants.)

Fiat thought they had repaired my 2.2 Jtd with a snapped belt under 'Goodwill' as it was booked in for a premature belt change already - that said it has taken them 7 months so far and a new engine etc. and ITS STILL NOT FIXED !

Having got it back it has a fault similar to the 'economy mode' rev restriction keeps happening - intermittently. It cuts the revs to avout 2,000 rpm and will drop you to about 50mph from 70, or 15 mph when going up hill !

They have done another three box changes since (value c. another grand) and have now said - no more !
Since the end of Jan 08 together we have spent well over the value of the vehicle.
It's crazy !

I still see my old Preg Ulysse doing therounds but the 'new' one is U/S !

I now have the 'Depollution filter faulty' warning/light on (the one you mention) and the aforementioned fault - having paid out over a grand to have this done too !

When we took the vehicle in with the faulkt the tech refused to come out with us in the vehicle saying it was 'too dangerous to be on the road' - plugge dit into the Examiner and said "there's nothing wrong" !!!! It was a real 'Computer says NO! " moment.

They even gave it back to me telling me they hadnt road tested it last time !

Reluctantly I will now have to take them to court.

I have informed VOSA about the fault but they say they wont issue anything until there is a suitable 'volume of evidence' - which is unlikely as they're no longer making it !


Good luck

DadsTaxi have you passed your details to:
[email protected]

I think he is taking Fiat to court over the snapped cam belt issue and is looking for evidence from people with similar problems.

Also has anyone seen this regarding the corrosion on the injectors:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080725103226AAIhTy4

"After a short period of time ( i have seen it happen in 9 months) the injectors corrode solid into these guide tubes, and the guide tubes are a part of the cylinder head and cannot be removed."

"This problem is quite well known amongst the dealer network, and it is even a bit of a joke that how can a designer f**k up quite so badly with the engine design. (did they not know a steel injector would corrode in an alloy guide tube? dissimilar metal corrosion! d'oh)"

The dealership have confirmed that it is a snapped cam belt.

Just a quick update, the dealership could not get the injectors out but did manage to get Fiat to pay to replace the engine. So I have now got my Ulysse back and Fiat paid for replacing the engine and I paid for the replacement cambelt and a few other things.