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AndyB

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Hi All,

 

Anybody had any dealings with Fiat regarding out of warranty faults ?

 

Long story short, 4 year old Ducato 7500 miles, serviced every year by garage now has airbag and SRS warning lights on, flashing odometer and dim warning lights occasionally on with ignition off. Advised probably need airbag ECU etc.

 

Was hoping for some positive reports from fellow members.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

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Hi,had mine done out of warranty foc but had to pay for the diagnostic costs,but it sounds like you have more than one problem. I am no expert but search this forum for dashboard lights glowing ect. We that was the wife pushed fiat hard but fair saying this was not exceptable and not fit for purpose after so short a time.if you get no joy you can get the ecu repaired ,again search this forum.good luck.regards Tringy.
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I have had two separate faults on my 2016 registered Fiat based Hymer.

 

1. The instrument panel had faintly glowing warning lights, but in my case with the engine running. This happened during the warranty period and my dealer (Hymer and Fiat professional franchisees) replaced the whole instrument without quibble. This was a known common fault which you can google. I understand there is a firm who can repair the panel at a considerably cheaper price than Fiat. Unfortunately I cannot recall the name of the firm, but is liable to be searchable under the same terms as the fault.

 

2. I had the seatbelt light and airbag light fault in the early part of this year. I approached Fiat (Ireland) who were straightforward to deal with and quite quick to offer a goodwill replacement although I did have to pay for labour (approx 45 minutes). I did use the leverage of the previous electrical issues which also included a warranty replacement of the wiper control unit. Fiat sent the wrong unit and as a further goodwill gesture my dealer fitted the correct one free of charge at a later date due to the distance I had traveled when the wrong unit was sent. It must be added that the dealers, Donaghey’s of Letterkenny have an excellent reputation for customer service and are worth the long distance I have to travel for services etc.

 

I would also point out that there are threads on this fault which suggest that the swivelling of the drivers seat can disturb the wiring for the ecu which controls the airbag. Your airbag is inoperative during this fault and Fiat will advise you (naturally) not to drive the vehicle. This apparently can be remedied at a lower cost. Similarly should you fail to have a free replacement from Fiat I read comments from others who send their ecu to crashdata for a much cheaper repair. Users seem to have a high regard for their service, although I believe there is at least one other repairer. Should you choose to go down this route, do your research as I believe there is a set sequence and time scale applied during the removal and replacement of the unit.

 

Hopefully Fiat will come good for you, there are plenty of precedents for you to quote.

 

 

Davy

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Just to add to the good advice already posted. The flashing odometer suggests a misconfiguration of the network which controls communication between the various ECUs.

 

You may be able to fix this simply by asking a Fiat Pro dealer to carry out a proxy-configuration, which resets the master configuration file held in the body computer, or completing it yourself if you have access to suitable diagnostic software. This, and resetting any SRS errors, may be all that is needed to fix your Airbag/SRS issue and would be worth investigating before going down the route of repairing or replacing the ECU itself. In any event, the fault codes that have caused the warning light to illuminate really need reading to determine whether the fault is with the ECU or elsewhere in the SRS system before taking any action.

 

The faint dashboard warning lights are likely to be a different issue, the known problem with the instrument cluster as already mentioned.

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Thank you so much for taking the trouble to reply.

 

I was hoping that it would just be a simple fix with the wires under the swivel seats. Unfortunately the garage that I use found this not to be the case and has recommended contacting Fiat direct. I’m awaiting a response to a detailed email that I’ve sent to Fiat detailing the faults and service history of my Adria which I bought new in September 2015.

 

Never had any issues with my 2 previous Peugeot Boxers and for the first time in 12 years of owning motorhomes I feel like throwing the towel in and spending my hard earned cash on something else !

 

Hopefully I’ll have some news soon.

 

Cheers

 

Andy

 

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Andy, I feel the best way to deal with fiat is to ring customer services direct rather than email as you will have a contact name and able to keep the pressure on them instead of waiting on emails.that is the way we got the best results.its what worked for us and it was a pretty good experience .tringy
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This sounds like the well established Fiat instrument panel fault ie, dim warning lights sometimes still lit with ignition turned off, other spurious panel light issues all point to a faulty manufacture which Fiat are well aware of and they have replaced hundreds (so I have been told by more than one agent). Mine is a 2014 Fiat Ducato 150 Euro 5.

Fiat following complaint, renewed mine out of warranty.

This is best done through the agent though, they have a Fiat complaint system they can use.

Best of luck.

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Just a quick update,

 

Phoned Fiat customer care this morning and logged faults.

 

No response from the email sent via their website yesterday.

 

The van is booked in with Fiat next week and the service receptionist mentioned that they had dealt with a few Ducatos with similar issues.

 

I’ll hopefully update with some good news.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ok,

 

Good news on the repairs.

 

Took the Adria to Thames Fiat Slough this morning who have confirmed a new airbag ECU and instrument cluster are needed.

 

I had to pay the 120 pounds diagnostics, and will have to pay about 160 pounds labour, but Fiat are paying for the ECU and instrument panel which cost just over a 1000 pounds !

 

All credit to Fiat Customer Service for their assistance, but in the past 35 years of driving all manner of cars, vans , motorbikes and motorhomes have never experienced failures like this in any vehicle, let alone at such low mileage and age.

 

All booked into Fiat in a few weeks time.

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That's not a bad result.

 

Clusters and various other ECUs suffer similar types of failures on all manner of vehicles. You only have to look at some of the repairer's websites to see how wide ranging the problem can be. It seems that the problems happen more often on motorhomes though, possibly due to their usage patterns which can cause the battery to go flat, lose voltage or be disconnected incorrectly by owners fitting accessories.

 

Cartronix would probably have repaired your original cluster for £150 with a lifetime guarantee and there are other companies that may have been able to repair the SRS (airbag) ECU for about £60 - £70.

 

Worth bearing in mind if you are confident enough to remove and refit them yourself, but if you had to pay someone else for labour it's probably swings and roundabouts between that and the result you have obtained from Fiat.

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Have just come across this thread and would like to mention my excellent experience with Fiat.

My van was ja few months out of warranty. I managed to get it bogged down in a sand drift, and the frantic high revving and gear changes damaged the gear box. I was in Spain but was able to drive it home, carefully.

The end result was that Fiat agreed to pay for the parts, about £1200, I paid for the labour, £800. Fiat were very helpful and proactive, keeping me informed all the way. In contrast, i heard nothing from the garage unless i phoned them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just a quick update,

 

Thames Fiat replaced the instrument cluster and airbag ECU, charged 190 pounds for the labour, parts supplied FOC.

 

All seems well and as a bonus the temperamental Camos Jewel rear view camera seems to have sorted itself out.

 

So I’ve brimmed the fuel tank, checked the tyre pressures and put the Adria back into storage till the end of January.

 

Merry Christmas

 

Andy

 

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Thanks for the update, pleased that you got some satisfactory resolution for the problem. This was in line with what they offered me. I got the labour free when I had a wasted trip because they sent the wrong part which was good of the dealer as it was not their fault. I had a 2 hour hundred mile trip each way on two occasions so worked out ok.

 

Davy

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