Fiat Professional???????????

[Dave225]

My campervan has just had its 30000 mile service done at a Fiat Professional dealership. I used them as the van is still in warranty, and the cost was not cheap I may add. However, after arriving back to my storage place I have now found that liquid was pouring out under the engine. Examination has shown this to be diesel fuel leaking from the fuel filter as when it was changed the pipes were not re-connected correctly. Apart from a possible safety hazard, I am not impressed with just pouring diesel fuel onto the road. This was not a drip drip,but a steady stream. I will not name the dealership but of course they will receive a letter from me outlining my complaints at their shoddy servicing. I will also copy it to Fiat suggesting that giving this dealership their seal of approval may be misplaced. I am not expecting a response as no doubt all I will get is that ‘you should have checked the vehicle before leaving us’. I admit there was a slight smell of diesel when I picked up the van but naively put this down to the mechanics coveralls. The van then sat in storage until today when i decided to give it a run and then found the fault. Of course sitting idel showed no smell.

 

I am getting too old to crawl around and do this work myself anymore so when I pay good money I expect some form of service. I have to state that my Volvo is serviced by the main dealer and again not cheap, but these sorts of problems never occur. Next year as the vehicle is out of warranty I will find an independent garage to do the work, hopefully cheaper and more importantly, done correctly. Local gossip has indicated problems with this dealership but as they have all the local Council work they really have a monopoly, so do not really care.

 

This is my 1st experience of 'Fiat servicing' and am not impressed.

 

[colin]

I have dealt with 4 different Fiat Professional dealerships, only one (Ford & Slater) have been any good, the rest are just cowboys in my experience, that's why I now call them Fiat Unprofessional.

[Keithl]

Dave225 - 2016-03-30 7:46 PM

... Examination has shown this to be diesel fuel leaking from the fuel filter as when it was changed the pipes were not re-connected correctly.

 

 

Dave,

 

Are you sure this is the case as I have read about a recurring problem with Fiat fuel filters leaking after being changed. Have a read of this earlier thread...

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fiat-Ducato-Fuel-Filter-Replacement/39103/

 

The answer seems to be an entire new filter housing!

 

Keith.

[Derek Uzzell]

Keith

 

In his 17 November 2015 posting in this thread

 

http://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Ducato-soft-close-sliding-door-retro-fit-/37325/

 

Dave225 said "I have just bought a Globecar 2014 registered model, which means it is actually a late 2013 manufactured one...”

 

My 2015 X290 Ducato with “Euro 5+” 2.3 litre motor has a disposable metal-canister fuel filter as shown in the attached photo.

 

My understanding (from what Nick Fisher (euroserv) has advised here in the past) is that the problematical leak-prone plastic-housing type of filter fitted to Euro 4 Ducato X250s (and to a lot of other Fiat Group vehicles) was dropped when Ducato motors became Euro 5 in mid-2011, being replaced with the metal-canister type. So Dave’s Ducato’s canister fuel filter is most unlikely to leak in itself.

 

Of course, when a metal-canister fuel filter is replaced and (as Dave says) the fuel hoses are not reattached properly to the connectors on the top of the filter, a major fuel leak will inevitably result.

[Keithl]

Thanks Derek,

 

I stand corrected.

 

Keith.

[Dave225]

As far as I know Derek is correct. I fully admit that when the fuel was pouring otu I was slithering around on the ground looking up trying to see where it was coming from. I also have to say that diesel these days is not as pungent as it used to be because although I had some of the clear liquid on my fingers I am sniffing away and was just not sure it was diesel. This made me panic even more and think that it was some form of hydraulic fluid. Plus in my vehicle the resevoir for the Comfortmatiic is in the same area and I am fiddling with this thinking this was the problem. Fortunately, sense eventualy set in and i went to see the dealer from whom I had bought the van, in the car not the van as i did not want to get stopped by the Polis for spewing fuel/f;luid all over the road

He basically confimred that the hoses had not been 'popped' back on and promised to pop out to the van and do this. A 2 minute job. So, hopefully my panic has been shortlived, but I am still not too impressed that I had this in the 1st place.

 

Will beack out to the van after theb weekend to see what is what and take some detergent to clean up the stain under the van.

[Dave225]

Just an update if anyone is interested.

 

My problem was not loose pipe connections unfortunately.

 

My friendly mechanic had a look at the van and has confirmed diesel is coming out the base of the filter. He has removed it as he hoped it was just a slack water trap gland but unfortunately the fitting in the bottom of the filter is broken. This means the replacement filter was either a broken part or a bodged installation by Fiat professional. I suspect the latter but really cannot see how they managed it. Plus od course there was no after work inspection by anyone, as this would have immediately seen the fuel leakage. All that happened was my camper was dumped in the yard along with other assorted commercial vehicles and left to me to check. So, my advice is if you are haing any work done by Fiat Profesional, check it all carefully before you drive away.

 

So, the bottom line is a new filter is being fitted and hopefully there will be no more problems, and I can get rid of the stink of diesel that is starting to pervade everywhere. My friendly mechanic has stated he has photographs if I wish to take this up with Fiat Professional but time has allowed me to cool off, and frankly life is just too short. In most cases Fiat professional will deny any liability as I did not spot it in their yard, However they can rest assured that i will not use their services again and I am sure word will get around of my 'mishap' Gossip is a wonderful tool.

[Brian Kirby]

Dave225 - 2016-04-05 12:47 PM............................. My friendly mechanic has stated he has photographs if I wish to take this up with Fiat Professional but time has allowed me to cool off, and frankly life is just too short. In most cases Fiat professional will deny any liability as I did not spot it in their yard, .....................

Fiat Professional is not a company, it is just the name Fiat has chosen for their commercial dealer network. It is unreasonable to tar all who sail under that flag equally. My own experience, so far, has been satisfactory. I don't know who this particular firm was, but they owe you some money and an apology. You will obviously do as you choose, but using one bad experience, with one firm, to disparage all others is unfair, and as to life's too short - if it were me, I'd definitely take it up with them. Unless their customers complain, they won't know what they have done wrong, so won't improve. If they don't improve, the next sucker through their door just gets what you got!

[Guest pelmetman]

Brian Kirby - 2016-04-05 5:24 PM

 

Fiat Professional is not a company, it is just the name Fiat has chosen for their commercial dealer network. It is unreasonable to tar all who sail under that flag equally. My own experience, so far, has been satisfactory. !

 

But in my experience its fair to tar many Ford main dealers with a very big brush, and from what I've read over the years Fiat are not much better *-) ..........

 

"Satisfactory" is what I'd call damning with faint praise Brian, considering what they charge (lol) ........Yet they have you lemmings queuing up to be fleeced time and time again >:-) .....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave225]

I do not share Brian's rather cosy opinion. The work was done by a Fiat Professional approved dealership as it is still under warranty. Therefore Fiat Professional have put their name to the dealership as part of their organisation for doing this sort of work.

 

Of course other dealerships may operate in a far different manner. Unfortunately, the other delarship in my part of the world that Fiat have approved has a not very brilliant reputation either, so I kinda had 'Hobson's Choice'. The one I used does all the local Council vehicles so I assumed they would be fine, but as they had me listed as being with a local Council when I went to collect the vehicle, I should maybe have guessed things were a bit awry. After all do not all Councils have campervans in their fleets?

 

As for my deciding not to take it further, that is my choice. To my mind the price of a replacement filter and the 5 minute job to fit it, is not the end of the world. The old saying of 'caveat emptor' is always valid and all i can repeat is to check everything before you leave the premises, if that is possible.

 

 

[malc d]

If anyone tells me that they will do a "professional" job, I regard it as a threat.

 

I'd prefer it if they promised a thorough job.

 

;-)

[Muswell]

I don't think Fiat Professional has any meaning other than that the garage will deal with Fiat vehicles. A few years ago when I was changing vans I wanted to find where my local Fiat dealers were. I rang up one from the Fiat website and the person on the other end of the phone yelled to words to the effect "Hey Fred do we service Fiats?". You don't see many Ducatos on the road so my conclusion was that you can't expect much in the way of a dealer network.

[Dave225]

I do agree that Fiat Professional is a PR logo, but I needed to get the right stamp in the book, just in case. Actually the dealership I used had about 5 motorhomes dotted about the yard so others were thinking the same as me. I suspect the main issue is that motorhomes use basically a commercial chassis and therefore there is a conflict when getting it serviced. It really is a leisure vehicle and is for personal use so is more akin to a car than a comercial vehicle, buit where do you draw the line? Whne i find my camper sourrounded by refuse trucks, smallish HGV's etc I am getting the feeling of not being in the right place. but then again they have the equipment to handle a 3 1/2 ton vehicle.

 

Fortunately my dealer has now installed a heavy hoist and is offering to do serviceing as well as habitation checks, so in future I can go there. I used to do all my own servicing but age and arthritis now tell me that is not wise anymore.

 

However, I return to my comments above that if anyone is getting work done by any business, do check before you leave the premises. I admit that in my particular case I had just had about 1 hour of run around while the correct paperwork was being found, just how many times can you be told 'sorry', the vehicle itself was 'dumped' at the back of the yard and I had to go find it, and then find it was blocked in, then wait even more while some erk eventually came to move the blocking vehicles. So by then my patience was well shot and all i wanted to do was get out of there as quickly as possible, and therfore did not notice that i was spraying the road with diesel. My mistake i fully admit. Of course it should not have happened, but it did. As they say, life is one long experince.