Fiat Ducato Servicing - First Service

[Tourope]

If you've got a new motorhome based on a Fiat Ducato engine and chassis, beware unscrupulous Fiat service centres telling you you need an annual service.

I got a call from the nearest centre to me (Stoneacre Hyde - Manchester) saying my 'van was due an annual service. Not thinking much about it I booked it in and arranged a courtesy car for the day (the centre is not close to home and is not well serviced by puiblic transport).

Later I remembered that when I bought the 'van the seller told me the 'van itself would tell me when it was due. So I got out the owner's handbook and it said the service was due only after 30,000 miles. Suspicious I rang back Stoneacre and asked them to explain why they thought it was due an annual service. They said it was not essential but "recommended by Fiat". Oh and when I asked what it would cover and the cost they said the set price was £172 and it covered an oil and filter change. Not at all happy with the response I rang the Fiat Service HQ using a number I found on the website. There i was told that an annual service is entirely optional (advisory at best) and the 30,000 miles servicing period shown in the handbook is correct at 30,000 miles (or 2 years - not shown in the handbook - whichever comes first). Furthermore the oil and filter change does not have to be performed by a Fiat dealer - but only Fiat parts must be used.

So I rang up a place I've used in the past for servicing my car and asked him if he could do it and yes he did, and it only cost me £62.

I'll be avoiding Stoneacre Hyde when the 2 year service is due.

[PJay]

As this was a first service, don't you have to have a Fiat authorised garage , to keep the warranty?

We have an 11 year old van, and have a regular service every year, at a Fiat commercial garage.

Has your friend stamped and signed the service book?

Stoneacre where only going by the guidelines.

How many miles do you do a year?

I will be interested ti hear what the "knowledgeable" gurus on here have to say?

You must have paid thousands of £ for your van, so why bulk at getting it serviced , to protect your investment?

 

PJay

[david lloyd]

I have always had the van serviced, from new, at 12 months rather than the service intervals stipulated in the book. However, the first service is, basically, an oil and filter change and I have it done at a local garage (that used to be a Fiat authorised repairer) and they use genuine Fiat parts, stamp the book and that has been acceptable. The cost is similar -around £60. Come the second service I trust this garage to only replace items that are absolutely necessary - an example would be the air filter which they will check and if it needs replacing will do so with a genuine part but, if it doesn't require replacing, they simply clean and replace it.

 

Far better service than the two nearest Fiat Professional garages.

 

David

[Keith T]

I have a new FIAT based Autotrail due for delivery anytime now, and called into the local FIAT Professional garage the other day to ask them about the service requirements.

Their advice was as per the FIAT information at 30k miles regardless of usage/ period.. I queried this on the basis of 'low usage' per year, but they (this was the salesman not service dept) was quite adamant that was the recommendation.

I then queried this with my 'local' garage, who I've used to service the present motorhome and also my car over the past two or three years, and he suggested the first annual .'check' rather than doing nothing...and I know his charges, using genuine FIAT parts if required , would be around half of what FIAT locally would charge me.

As my dealer also does the FIAT base vehicle servicing, it will be interesting to hear their view and also the cost. . It would appear that to continue the warranty on the Autotrail side there will have to be the annual habitation check anyway..

[Bop]

PJay - 2017-04-11 7:03 PM

 

As this was a first service, don't you have to have a Fiat authorised garage , to keep the warranty?

We have an 11 year old van, and have a regular service every year, at a Fiat commercial garage.

Has your friend stamped and signed the service book?

Stoneacre where only going by the guidelines.

How many miles do you do a year?

I will be interested ti hear what the "knowledgeable" gurus on here have to say?

You must have paid thousands of £ for your van, so why bulk at getting it serviced , to protect your investment?

 

PJay

 

Morning PJay,

 

I'll come clean now and say that I've not read the fine print in the warranty details but does it actually stipulate that a first service must be done by a Fiat Commercial garage.

 

This is just for my learning (my 1st service is way off) but I thought you could take your vehicle to any VAT Registered competent dealer/garage as long as the manufacturers service process was adhered too and original parts used.

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[colin]

AFAIK the 3rd year is dependent on van being serviced at an approved fiat workshop. But not all vans come with a 3 year warranty.

[StuartO]

It seems to be common practice across all the manufacturers' dealerships to over-sell servicing, now that the manufacturers are recommending such long service intervals.  It's a way of staying in touch and getting a little more revenue in.  I rolled with that and stuck with the Main Dealer for the first few years.

 

Because MHs do such small mileages they would normally trigger the 2 year time period between services but I've always given mine at least annual attention.  This year (at 11 years old) it had a brake service and front wheel bearing replacements, but not an engine service  (apart from level checks) because it had only done 3,000 miles since last year's.  I'm sure that over rather than under serviing is a good idea for a MH and I think it's important not to skimp on servicing costs when you have spent many thousands buying the thing.

 

I no longer use Fiat Professional for servicing, prefering a local garage which I know and trust.  They are probably quite a bit cheaper too.

 

[euroserv]

I would advise low mileage users to get the oil service done every year regardless. I call my vans in for an inspection at 12,500 miles and an oil change every 25,000 miles. I see each one 3 or 4 times a year! The front pads will not normally last 30,000 miles.

 

You don't have to have servicing done by a dealer in order to qualify for the 3rd year warranty any more. That ended when the mileage limit went up to 120,000 a few years ago.

 

The garage that you use must be VAT registered and competent. They can also use equivalent after-market parts; it is not necessary to use Fiat items.

[david lloyd]

euroserv - 2017-04-12 11:27 AM

 

I would advise low mileage users to get the oil service done every year regardless. I call my vans in for an inspection at 12,500 miles and an oil change every 25,000 miles. I see each one 3 or 4 times a year! The front pads will not normally last 30,000 miles.

 

You don't have to have servicing done by a dealer in order to qualify for the 3rd year warranty any more. That ended when the mileage limit went up to 120,000 a few years ago.

 

The garage that you use must be VAT registered and competent. They can also use equivalent after-market parts; it is not necessary to use Fiat items.

 

Good sound advice - thank you Nick.

 

David

[Bop]

david lloyd - 2017-04-12 12:03 PM

 

euroserv - 2017-04-12 11:27 AM

 

I would advise low mileage users to get the oil service done every year regardless. I call my vans in for an inspection at 12,500 miles and an oil change every 25,000 miles. I see each one 3 or 4 times a year! The front pads will not normally last 30,000 miles.

 

You don't have to have servicing done by a dealer in order to qualify for the 3rd year warranty any more. That ended when the mileage limit went up to 120,000 a few years ago.

 

The garage that you use must be VAT registered and competent. They can also use equivalent after-market parts; it is not necessary to use Fiat items.

 

Good sound advice - thank you Nick.

 

David

 

Too right David, he's probably saved me a good few quid with his advice above.

 

Thanks Nick B-)

 

Andrew

[cleddytanhouse]

My MH is now just 2 years old and it went into the local Fiat Professional garage, a couple of weeks ago.

It had a standard service and cost me £240.00. From what has been said, I think that I was done!!!!! It has done 7000 miles only.

[Tourope]

Hi PJay, I only bulked at the cost of £172 for an oil and filter change and the fact that the Fiat dealer was effectively conning me into believing it was essential. As I said I had the oil and filter change done anyway but not a such a stupid price. I am copying below the email response I got from Fiat Customer Care when I queried the service interval:

__________________

 

Case Reference: 35100875

 

Re:Fiat Ducato Motorhome YN16 AOK

 

Thank you for contacting Fiat Professional Customer Relations,

As discussed, we advise that that in order to keep the warranty valid, the abovementioned vehicle needs to be serviced as per the maintenance programme in your owner's handbook, ie every 2 years or 30000 miles (whichever comes first).

 

Should you require any future assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Relations team on 00800 3428 1111, choosing option 2, from Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 18:00 and Saturday from 08:00 until 17:00.

 

 

Kind regards,

Julien Ardin

Customer Relations

Fiat Professional

 

[PJay]

Tourope - 2017-04-12 2:56 PM

 

Hi PJay, I only bulked at the cost of £172 for an oil and filter change and the fact that the Fiat dealer was effectively conning me into believing it was essential. As I said I had the oil and filter change done anyway but not a such a stupid price. I am copying below the email response I got from Fiat Customer Care when I queried the service interval:

__________________

 

Case Reference: 35100875

 

Re:Fiat Ducato Motorhome YN16 AOK

 

Thank you for contacting Fiat Professional Customer Relations,

As discussed, we advise that that in order to keep the warranty valid, the abovementioned vehicle needs to be serviced as per the maintenance programme in your owner's handbook, ie every 2 years or 30000 miles (whichever comes first).

 

Should you require any future assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Relations team on 00800 3428 1111, choosing option 2, from Monday to Friday between 09:00 and 18:00 and Saturday from 08:00 until 17:00.

 

 

Kind regards,

Julien Ardin

Customer Relations

Fiat Professional

 

As I said our van is 11 years old now, and the rules have obviously changed . i had my car serviced every year, for 6 years. in that time ddi 8300.miles!1 On the last service they suggested that the timing belt should be changed . We said the mileage and they agreed did not need doing Saved £200.00

 

PJay

 

[Derek Uzzell]

The Owner Handbook for recent Ducato models includes guidance on the “SCHEDULED SERVICING PLAN” that indicates that the initial service is at 30,000 miles or 24 months.

 

Even when a ‘low mileage’ initial service at 24-months is carried out (which is likely to be appropriate for the majority of motorhomes) it would be unrealistic to expect this to be cheap if a Fiat Professional agent performs it, as the overall cost of genuine Fiat parts and the recommended Selenia oil will come to around £190 (VAT-inc)

 

Representative VAT-ex (£) prices for parts

 

Oil filter - 10.00

Pollen filter - 28.00

Fuel-filter - 59.00

Selenia 0W/30 oil - 62.00

 

and the service itself will take between 2 and 3 hours of labour-time.

 

So if someone quotes you a super-cheap price, you’d be wise to ask whether the parts and oil to be used will be (respectively) genuine Fiat and Selenia-branded and exactly what the work is going to cover (eg. will the brake-fluid be replaced?)

[euroserv]

An experienced guy could do the whole lot in 90 minutes. This is how they make money; huge labour rate and over-stating the time required. Unless there are warning lights on and without the office computer flagging that vehicle updates are required, the diagnostics will not be plugged in. Even if you ask for it (and pay for it) the brake fluid will more than likely not get changed at two years, and it does not need to be. The pollen filter can be bought for half that amount from the factors and it is the same brand as the OE one. It is good for 4 years anyway. Fuel filters are expensive but we leave the Euro5 ones alone until 75,000 miles with no issues. Our labour rate is about half of a franchised garage and we only charge for the time that we spend working on the vehicle. We don't use Selenia oil because it is so expensive; we use a quality oil that exceeds the specifications and costs half as much. We pass on this saving to the customer. Most dealerships also use other oils and don't pass on the savings.

I hope that it is becoming clear that it is possible to charge a lot less while not compromising the quality of the parts or materials.

Here it is anyway.

 

[Deneb]

Hi Nick,

 

When you say that diagnostics will not normally be plugged in, according to Fiat service instructions Euro 5+ and newer vans have to have the oil replacement counter reset in the PCM via diagnostic update after an oil change, to prevent the DPF regen oil degradation algorithm switching on the dash warning light and eventually putting the vehicle into limp mode.

 

Are you saying this is not actually required? Just interested as I intend to do my own intermediate oil changes and full servicing once outside the manufacturer's warranty.

[euroserv]

Thanks. I stand corrected and am a little embarrassed.

 

You do have to reset the service mileage, and the DPF oil change reset. Including the time it takes to remove the cover where the plug is and replace it carefully this can take up to 5 minutes to do. It might take longer for a Fiat agent to do it. They are always complaining about how slow the Examiner device is!

:D

[Deneb]

Thanks Nick. No need to be embarrassed, you've answered my question and in super-quick time too :-D

 

 

 

[Derek Uzzell]

euroserv - 2017-04-13 11:35 AM

 

An experienced guy could do the whole lot in 90 minutes. This is how they make money; huge labour rate and over-stating the time required. Unless there are warning lights on and without the office computer flagging that vehicle updates are required, the diagnostics will not be plugged in. Even if you ask for it (and pay for it) the brake fluid will more than likely not get changed at two years, and it does not need to be. The pollen filter can be bought for half that amount from the factors and it is the same brand as the OE one. It is good for 4 years anyway. Fuel filters are expensive but we leave the Euro5 ones alone until 75,000 miles with no issues. Our labour rate is about half of a franchised garage and we only charge for the time that we spend working on the vehicle. We don't use Selenia oil because it is so expensive; we use a quality oil that exceeds the specifications and costs half as much. We pass on this saving to the customer. Most dealerships also use other oils and don't pass on the savings.

I hope that it is becoming clear that it is possible to charge a lot less while not compromising the quality of the parts or materials.

Here it is anyway.

 

That may well be the case, but (as far as I’m aware) you are not a Fiat Professional (FP) agent and, if under warranty attention/repair were required, you would not be authorised to carry out that work.

 

The brake fluid was replaced on my Ducato - I asked how it was done and whether it involved bleeding the clutch slave-cylinder. (In fact no charge was made for the brake fluid as the FP agent said they had plenty in stock.) I was also advised in advance what parts would be fitted and their individual cost, plus the labour costs and how long the service was expected to take (2.5 hours). So there was no question of being surprised when the bill was presented.

 

I provided the FP agent with a (short) list of things they could leave alone (eg. the starter-battery electrolyte level) and things I wanted them to check carefully (eg. the headlamp aim). We discussed the service afterwards and I’ve every reason to think it was done thoroughly. If the guy doing the work didn’t rush, that’s a good thing in my book.

 

Obviously basic servicing that does not include computer diagnostic connection could be carried out more cheaply by sourcing parts oneself and using lubricants that may not match Fiat’s specification. I could do the work myself if I so chose, but being prepared to ‘sub-contract’ the servicing and having spent around £46K on an expensive toy, why should it much concern me if servicing-time is set at 2.5 hours rather then 1.5 hours, particularly when the FP agent is a convenient 15 miles from my home?

[henrypartridge]

My previous Peugeot had to have an annual oil change if the vehicle covered 6000 miles or less, I think because of possible contamination of the oil due to low miles? I've used the same measure on my Ducato X290. Possibly unnecessary but the vehicle was 45 grand and the service 85. I had it done by Nick sat Euroserv, he also took out and greased the headlamp screws and other odd bits of preventatiive maintenance. I figure he knows these vehicles better than most FP workshops though to be fair I've been happy with warranty work they've done. It'll be going back to Leicester for the two year service as I'm confident what needs to be done will be done and what doesn't won't.

[weldted]

I appreciate that this is an old post? Took our 17/09/2019 Burstner Fiat 2.3 150 comformatic at 10378 miles in for its first service and a couple of warranty niggles (the dreaded low oil level and low oil pressure warning light failed) I had asked for the light service as the van has been sorned since the end of December 2020. Just taxed it today to take it to the Fiat approved workshop.

 

On collecting it I am totally confused, went to pay the bill told it was just a couple of warranty flash upgrades so nothing to pay. I asked what about the service? She told me the technician said as it was such a low mileage the service was not required until 20000 miles. I would soon have more frequent services than the book says so I am confused?/ iI do not have the extended warranty as I was not aware at the time of purchase that this was an option.

[tonyishuk]

I am old school , I’m afraid.

 

The first service is the most important, bearing in mind the oil in engine has been sitting in the sump since it was built and the oil filter collects the swarf missed whilst building the engine.

 

Yearly ( whatever happened to Duckhams 20-50?) . There maybe new oil technologies, but have you seen the colour of the oil after a years running, even at low mileage? And have that sitting in the sump over winter with minimal engine use?

 

Mind you this is an old post, so maybe in keeping !

 

Rgds

[Brian Kirby]

weldted - 2021-09-01 5:59 PM

I appreciate that this is an old post? Took our 17/09/2019 Burstner Fiat 2.3 150 comformatic at 10378 miles in for its first service and a couple of warranty niggles (the dreaded low oil level and low oil pressure warning light failed) I had asked for the light service as the van has been sorned since the end of December 2020. Just taxed it today to take it to the Fiat approved workshop.

On collecting it I am totally confused, went to pay the bill told it was just a couple of warranty flash upgrades so nothing to pay. I asked what about the service? She told me the technician said as it was such a low mileage the service was not required until 20000 miles. I would soon have more frequent services than the book says so I am confused?/ iI do not have the extended warranty as I was not aware at the time of purchase that this was an option.

Check your Fiat handbook, Ted. Unless they have now dropped the requirement, they have always had a time related service requirement in addition to the mileage requirement. In the handbook for ours the requirements are stated under "Servicing Schedule", for the diesel versions, on pages 192 - 195.

 

Then, if the time related servicing is not shown, check with Fiat UK for peace of mind. It is possible that the tech made an assessment of the oil quality, and decided it was not worth changing on that basis.

 

At least the garage is trying to save you money, so they can't be faulted on that score!

[747]

I hate threads like this. :'(

 

It reminds me that after 7 trouble free years with my Nissan 3 litre engine, my replacement van may be a Fiat run by a rubber timing belt and liable to sulk and go slow or stop. :-(

 

It may even mean at times I have to use Fiat Professional when I much prefer the knowledgeable Commercial and HGV service and repair garage I have always used.

 

I miight buy a Carravan instead. *-)

[Shedifice]

Just got quoted for the first 24month service by Fiat swindon £611!!!