Westerham Womble
Free Member
Just to pen a cautionary tale.......
Our 2 year old Moho went in for 1st service having covered 18000 miles. I logged in advance I was having occasional issues where the hill holder was not releasing and it felt as if I was trying to move away with the brakes on (only about 6 times in this mileage). I did experience a clutch overheat message one time.
So receive a phone call to say plugged into diagnostics and will need to investigate overheat by removing gearbox to access clutch. Second phone call to say requires new clutch and excessive heat has damaged Dual Mass Flywheel which also needs replacing oh and this isn’t covered by warranty. Also it logged I had pressed the accelerator and brake at the same time which must be a contributory cause. Fortuitously that evening I went along to a motorbike club where someone was giving a talk and got chatting to a chap on my table, turns out he works for another Fiat garage and thought it should be covered by warranty.
I request Diagnostics printout which I sent over to my new “friend” who got the Dealer Expert Technician to look through. He highlighted that the brake light switch wasn’t working properly, that the hill holder looks for the light to go out before releasing brakes and this could be the cause. Apparently there is also an edict from Fiat to ignore the pressing both pedals fault as it happens to everyone.
After explaining my hypothesis to surprised dealer he begrudgingly admits I could have a point and raises a technical case with Fiat. Fast forward a couple of weeks as flywheel needs to come from Italy and on day of collection they finally agree to cover under warranty.
So the moral of the story is that ECU data can work as friend and foe, don’t trust a dealer to think why, insist that the Dealer Expert Technician reviews a problem (apparently one in each dealer) and that sometimes a little switch can cause £££ of remedial work.
My motor biking buddy is now due a nice Shiraz for his troubles.
Our 2 year old Moho went in for 1st service having covered 18000 miles. I logged in advance I was having occasional issues where the hill holder was not releasing and it felt as if I was trying to move away with the brakes on (only about 6 times in this mileage). I did experience a clutch overheat message one time.
So receive a phone call to say plugged into diagnostics and will need to investigate overheat by removing gearbox to access clutch. Second phone call to say requires new clutch and excessive heat has damaged Dual Mass Flywheel which also needs replacing oh and this isn’t covered by warranty. Also it logged I had pressed the accelerator and brake at the same time which must be a contributory cause. Fortuitously that evening I went along to a motorbike club where someone was giving a talk and got chatting to a chap on my table, turns out he works for another Fiat garage and thought it should be covered by warranty.
I request Diagnostics printout which I sent over to my new “friend” who got the Dealer Expert Technician to look through. He highlighted that the brake light switch wasn’t working properly, that the hill holder looks for the light to go out before releasing brakes and this could be the cause. Apparently there is also an edict from Fiat to ignore the pressing both pedals fault as it happens to everyone.
After explaining my hypothesis to surprised dealer he begrudgingly admits I could have a point and raises a technical case with Fiat. Fast forward a couple of weeks as flywheel needs to come from Italy and on day of collection they finally agree to cover under warranty.
So the moral of the story is that ECU data can work as friend and foe, don’t trust a dealer to think why, insist that the Dealer Expert Technician reviews a problem (apparently one in each dealer) and that sometimes a little switch can cause £££ of remedial work.
My motor biking buddy is now due a nice Shiraz for his troubles.
because it’s not their money....
