360david Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 I purchased a new 2017 Motorhome on a fiat Ducato van in October 2017. he book seems to say a service due every year but the dashboard service due date is 20.000 miles. The van would have done around 7000 miles by October. Do I really need to service it every year to maintain the warranty. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 The first ‘scheduled service’ for a 2017 diesel-fuelled Ducato will be at 2 years (or 30,000 miles) from the vehicle’s date of first registration. That’s what the SERVICE SCHEDULE section in your Fiat Ducato Owner Handbook indicates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pottypam Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 Derek has assumed you are referring to the engine service. I wonder if you are referring to the habitation handbook. A yearly service of the habitation area is a usual requirement of warranty conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 David said that the “dashboard service due date is 20.000 miles”. He is unlikely to have said that if he was referring to a habitation-servicing annual requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will86 Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 David, I believe I'm correct in saying that 'habitation' apples to the warranty of the whole vehicle and the dashboard service applies to the oil change and mechanical parts. Depending how practical you are will depend on how you view maintaining your own vehicle. BUT if you miss a warranty check and a serious fault occurs the dealer can (I think) charge you for any repairs. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don636 Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 Our van has done 19,000 miles in 5 years spread evenly over the years and it is serviced by Fiat every year as I prefer to have the oil and filter changed every year and the van given a safety check all round. The service schedule says every 20,000 miles but if it is subject to adverse conditions every year. Adverse conditions might be construed to include low mileage in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 24, 2019 Share Posted July 24, 2019 David owns a 2017 Swift Escape 674. A new coachbuilt motorhome will normally have several warranties - a warranty covering the base vehicle (in this case a Fiat Ducato) - a warrranty covering the conversion (in this case the motorhome was made by Swift) - a water-ingress warranty (also Swift-related) - warranties for major appliances (eg. the heater and fridge) These warranties can be expected to have significantly different terms and conditions and not necessarily have the same duration. Assuming that David’s motorhome is a 2017 model (not an earlier model UK-registered in 2017) the terms and conditions of its Swift warranty will be as described here https://www.swiftgroup.co.uk/owners/warranty/coachbuilt-2017 and it will be noted that the Swift warranty does NOT cover the Fiat element of the motorhome. The Fiat Ducato Owner Handbook includes a “DEMANDING VEHICLE USE” section that advises that, when certain conditions apply, checks must be carried out more often than indicated in the Scheduled Servicing Plan. One of the stated conditions is "engine often idling or driving long distances at low speeds or long periods of inactivity” a condition that might relate to many motorhomes. But the indicated tasks are ‘checks’. There’s nothing to say that they must be performed annually, nor that things like oil/filters MUST be changed unless the appropriate ‘check’ reveals that they should be. (As I said above, the ‘normal’ service shedule for David’s motorhome will be based on a 2-year, or 30K-miles interval.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
360david Posted July 25, 2019 Author Share Posted July 25, 2019 Many thanks for the replies. much appreciated. I had the habitation service last year so looks like habitation and fiat this year. Thanks again David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 The requirement for an interim first service for a recent Ducato was discussed in this 2017 forum thread https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/forums/Motorhomes/Motorhome-Matters/Fiat-Ducato-Servicing-First-Service/46805/ and ‘official’ advice regarding maintaining the Fiat warranty is given in Tourope’s 12 April 2017 2:56 PM posting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deneb Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Derek Uzzell - 2019-07-24 1:57 PM The Fiat Ducato Owner Handbook includes a “DEMANDING VEHICLE USE” section that advises that, when certain conditions apply, checks must be carried out more often than indicated in the Scheduled Servicing Plan. One of the stated conditions is "engine often idling or driving long distances at low speeds or long periods of inactivity” a condition that might relate to many motorhomes. But the indicated tasks are ‘checks’. There’s nothing to say that they must be performed annually, nor that things like oil/filters MUST be changed unless the appropriate ‘check’ reveals that they should be. (As I said above, the ‘normal’ service shedule for David’s motorhome will be based on a 2-year, or 30K-miles interval.) The handbooks for later Euro 5 and Euro 6 Ducatos have removed any indication of oil change frequency from the scheduled servicing by mileage/time based grid, and state that "the actual interval for changing the oil and replacing the engine oil filter depend on the car usage conditions and is signalled by the warning light or message (if present) on the instrument panel and must never exceed 2 years". "If the vehicle is driven mainly in towns, change the engine oil and filter every 12 months". Iveco's workshop manual for the very same Multijet 2.3 F1A engine (which is fitted in some versions of the Iveco Daily as well as the Ducato) goes further, including the following in the definition of demanding use: "The engine oil must be replaced at maximum every 24 months. If the number of kilometres travelled in a year is very low, or in any case less than 20,000km/year (12,500 miles/year) the engine oil and filter must be changed every 12 months. If the vehicle has not been driven for at least 3 months, the engine oil and filter must be changed before starting the engine". The manual also recommends that "If less than 40,000km are covered per year, the gearbox oil should be changed at least every 3 years". Whilst the gearbox is not the same unit as used on the Ducato or other Sevel vans, the known weaknesses of the latter unit (including the propensity of water to find its way into the box on some models) suggests that a similar regime may be worth consideration. I have just drained the gearbox on my not quite 3 year old 12,000 mile Ducato, and refilled it with the fully synthetic Tutela Matryx gear oil, rather than the lower spec Experya used in the factory. Whilst I did not find any indications of water in the oil, there was a noticeable amount of swarf on the magnetic drain plug when I removed it. Also noticeable since the oil change is that the gearchanges are much smoother than previously - I always found them slightly notchy before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plwsm2000 Posted July 25, 2019 Share Posted July 25, 2019 Just to add that there may also be warranty requirements to grease certain AL-KO rear axles every 12 months Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Deneb - 2019-07-25 10:51 AM The handbooks for later Euro 5 and Euro 6 Ducatos have removed any indication of oil change frequency from the scheduled servicing by mileage/time based grid, and state that "the actual interval for changing the oil and replacing the engine oil filter depend on the car usage conditions and is signalled by the warning light or message (if present) on the instrument panel and must never exceed 2 years". "If the vehicle is driven mainly in towns, change the engine oil and filter every 12 months”... Thanks for that information - I was 100% certain that the Owner Handbook (Publication Date 03/2014) provided with my early-2015-built Ducato had the oil/filter change interval specified by mileage as well as time, but I was 100% wrong :$ (I notice that an on-line Owner Handbook for the latest Ducato is now accessible and contains details of the 9-speed automatic transmission.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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