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Ducato servicing


360david

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What about the dealer you purchased from? I assume as you've not returned to the dealer you must have bought it from a dealer some way from home, a good reason to try and buy locally if possible other wise where do you go when something goes wrong. Goid luck with your search.
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We use C J Burgess at Sittingbourne who are "FiatPro" dealers for base vehicle servicing - they are excellent and have courtesy cars.

For habitation we use TC Motorhomes at Herne Bay - again very very good service and reasonably priced (speak to Neil or Shane).

TC can do both chassis and habitation inc MOT so are a good one-stop option. Can't recommend them highly enough.

 

Barry

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David’s motorhome is a Fiat Ducato-based 2017 Swift Escape 674 and warranties relating to it were discussed here last month

 

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Motorhome-warranty/52628/

 

It would be sensible for the 1st service to be performed by a Fiat Professional (FP) agency.

 

I believe Boris is referring to JG Burgess at Sittingbourne

 

https://www.burgessfiat.co.uk/fiat-motorhome-aftersales

 

The closest FP agency to Ashford is probably at Canterbury

 

https://www.northgate-group.co.uk/fiat-professional/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As Derek says above, I think the issue will turn out to be that the OP with such a young van will need to find a dealer with Multiecuscan software to reset the DPF countdown service indicator.

 

Whilst in theory he may find a non franchise dealer with it, I suspect he is most likely to find he needs to go to to a Fiat Pro dealer.

 

Unless you are willing to buy Multiecuscan software yourself, which some on here have indeed done, you are rather tied to a Fiat dealer for "Cab" servicing on a newish van....

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Even if an non-Fiat Professional garage has the equipment needed to reset a Ducato X290’s ‘oil change’ counter, that garage will not be able to apply any Fiat software revisions that the vehicle is due to have.

 

Following my Rapido’s 1st service (at a FP agency) I was told that three software revisions had been applied. One was obvious and caused the instrument-cluster to illuminate whenever the vehicle’s ignition was on (a feature that had become standard for Ducatos since mine was built in 2015), while the purpose of the two other revisions was not immediately known by the FP technician (and I wasn’t that desparate to find out).

 

Also, if a motorhome owner has noticed minor Ducato-related problems, these can be investigated by a FP agency during the service and addressed under warranty,.

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A competent non-franchised garage that services or repairs different marques of vehicles won't "need" MultiEcuScan to carry out basic servicing tasks or many basic repairs.

 

Whilst MultiEcuScan is very comprehensive diagnostic software for FCA vehicles only, a commercial business dealing in a variety of different vehicles will almost certainly have access to some form of aftermarket diagnostic equipment such as the likes of Wurth, Autodata, MaxiSys, Launch etc. which should be more than capable of carrying out basic functions such as resetting oil counters and service indicators.

 

The problem is often not that they don't have the equipment to complete the tasks, but not being expert or overly familiar with a single type of vehicle, they may not always be aware of the necessity to carry out such functions as part of the routine service procedure.

 

As for software updates, there may be several released each year for each of the ECUs on most current vehicles. Most manufacturers do not have a policy of updating vehicles routinely. Many of the updates are only applied to new production.

 

Whilst the X290 dashboard illumination update was an exception, which Fiat dealers were instructed to offer to the owners of existing vehicles to which it had not been applied when they appeared in franchised workshops, Fiat's policy on software updates generally is that they should not be routinely offered and only applied to existing vehicles if the owner complains of a fault which a specific update has been designed to fix, and the fault can be demonstrated to or by the dealer.

 

This does not prevent individual dealers from offering updates at their own expense or on a chargeable basis should they wish to do so, but I wouldn't expect multiple updates to be applied as a matter of routine each time you take your vehicle for servicing. Independent garages can also access and apply updates if they have paid to access Fiat's servers, but due to the costs involved this would realistically only apply to an independent Fiat specialist.

 

This is in line with the approach taken by most manufacturers. I would also recommend not falling into the trap of believing that an update necessarily equates to an improvement. I'm sure anyone with a computer can think of at least one update they may have received for a specific piece of software or their operating system that has either left them thinking that the software has been detrimentally affected or has introduced a new "bug".

 

The only manufacturer I am aware of that routinely applies all software updates at each service is Volvo. One only has to read through various Volvo forums to find customers complaining about what they consider to be adverse changes to the operation of certain items on the vehicle or changes in the way that power is applied or the gears respond that they feel are not improvements.

 

Sometimes it really is a case that, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

 

The things that could affect you if you take your vehicle to a non-franchised garage for servicing during its initial warranty period are that, whilst the manufacturer cannot refuse to honour the warranty if its conditions have been complied with, the onus is then on you to prove that to be the case, whereas with a franchised dealer history the assumption will be that it is the case, and in the event that you wish to seek goodwill outside of the warranty cover or period, you may find the manufacturer less inclined to offer it.

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