I have no experience or knowledge of the engine in your car. 1Ltr Firefly?
I do know that on other Fiats with turbo (which I think your car has) then there is a turbo waste gate adjustment that can be done which radically improves loss of engine performance. I had to do this on my 500X 1.4 Turbo at around 30K miles.
I would add that in my case the engine ECU showed no fault codes as I assume there was no direct failure but just a loss of boost pressure.
You are saying that the EML light came on in which case a fault was logged. What was the code? What was the stored data?
It may be time for you to get a decent fault code reader and inspect/retrieve info from you car if the garage will not tell you. Even if the car is still at the dealer you have a right to access your car and read the info yourself. If they kick up then maybe you need to get your car retrieved and sent elsewhere.
The mentioned specialist Hampshire is I believe Small Car Services owned and run by Dean Burrows. He is excellent and well experienced and I trust him. You can give him a call to discuss etc. Even if you have to have your car towed/transported to Hampshire the cost overall could be far less than repeated failed dealer attempts.
Seriously though, you may need to seek a second opinion / testing etc.
On a side point I'm really concerned with how not only Fiat dealers but also other dealers are failing all of us.
My biased views have several points
o Not many old and experienced dealers
o Those dealers that are still around have next to no "old crew" with back to basics experience
o The new technicians have no real "old hand experience" and rely on the "computer says ....... change x"
o x is changed at your expense and it does not work
o you also get charged for £75 to £100 diagnostics regardless of the outcome
o dealers run with carefully managed cost margins and make most of their money from annual maintenance and warranty claims. Your car clogging their workshops while they scratch their heads is not good for them so there is that tendency to "try this" and hand it back, all at your expense.
NOTE! There are no doubt good/better/reputable etc. dealers out there but finding one it another problem
If you speak to Dean then let him know Nick B referred you and more importantly how you get on. Dean is a no bullshit guy and will discuss / advise etc. but remember that untill a vehicle is in his workshop he is somewhat limited. That said he may already have experienced the problems you are having and knows what the fix is. You can only ask!
