Technical Quick climate control question

[callisr]

Hi all!
My son has a 64 plate 500C in his sights which is fitted with climate control.
I’ve read a fair bit about the actuator arms failing but everything I’ve found so far seems to be fairly old information so I’m wondering if the issues had been resolved by Fiat by the time the car he likes was built. I have seen a statement by a Fiat specialist in Southampton (Small Car Services) suggesting that the issue was most prevalent on cars built from 08 to 2012.
I actively stayed away from CC when I bought my own 2015 500 due to what I’d read about the CC issues…..
If anyone can offer any words of wisdom on this, and symptoms of a fault we should look out for, we’d both be very grateful!
Cheers
Rich

 

[John202020]

Very much doubt they changed the design probably more time related, newer cars, I think have manual ac?

 

[jackwhoo]

I have read on the forum small car services are very familiar with the problem so a statement from them is likely to be accurate.

 

[Baglady1990]

My 2011 has auto climate control and has worked faultlessly..she did have a wobble just before winter and I had no heat …but turned out to be one of the tiny motors that actuate the flap instead of the known issue with the flap!

Fixing it did give me time to have a look & a fiddle under the footwell on both sides of the system I also found a very helpful video on YouTube … if my actuator pin did break in the future I feel confident I could repair it myself
Without the need for the whole system to be removed

 

[varesecrazy]

But..

Dean doent post on here often..

As an example :
A 2018 post will probably only involve
pre 2016 cars ;-)

Ive had FIATs that have inherent design flaws still present 10 years into production...

So I think any major changes are unlikely..
Door handles as a prime example :-(

 

[jrkitching]

I've not seen anything beyond heresay to suggest Fiat have addressed this issue.

If it does fail with the 'worst case' fault, there are no good choices; a proper fix by a franchised dealer will likely cost upwards of £2000 and all the other repair options are basically bodges. There is no pre-purchase inspection procedure I know of which can tell if this is going to fail the next time you use the HVAC system.

For these reasons, I wouldn't want to own any small Fiat with climate once out of manufacturer's warranty, and there's no way I'd ever consider buying a secondhand one.

My personal advice to your son is to forget about buying this car.

 

[Ralf S.]

Fiat does feed back changes into production.

Obviously they can only improve parts while keeping the basic shape and dimensions as the original, otherwise they're designing a whole new sub-system and/or the new parts become incompatible with the fitted old ones that they have to interface with. Fiat Stilo battery box is an example that changed, The new lid didn't fit with the old base.

I've had several replacement Genuine parts over the years where the design is subtly different between old and new. but (I can't remember what the component was now) on one occasion a plastic part was made of a different material, being thicker, harder and just more "chunky" than the old one.


Ralf S.

 

[varesecrazy]

2 days into owning my 2013 punto

An owner of a 2006 asked to grope around the brake servo.. as it rusted out the bulkhead on Grandes.. letting rainwater into the footwell


Fault was still there.. 2 models later.. anticipate the 2017's to be no different :-(

Of course dry climates wont see such a problem.. but heater controls..and door handles, should just work

 

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

Fiat does feed back changes into production.

Obviously they can only improve parts while keeping the basic shape and dimensions as the original, otherwise they're designing a whole new sub-system and/or the new parts become incompatible with the fitted old ones that they have to interface with. Fiat Stilo battery box is an example that changed, The new lid didn't fit with the old base.

I've had several replacement Genuine parts over the years where the design is subtly different between old and new. but (I can't remember what the component was now) on one occasion a plastic part was made of a different material, being thicker, harder and just more "chunky" than the old one.


Ralf S.

Sometime between 10/2012 and 09/3013 FIAT changed the length of the 500C's boot wiring harness between body and lid, doubling it's original length and, presumably, minimizing breakage, yet the hatch wiring appears not to have been modified at the same time.

 

[TrevC]

When we bought a 500C a few years ago, we chose a facelifted 65 plate Lounge, which ditched the CC and added front fog lights, compared to the pre-facelift model.

 

[callisr]

Thank you all for the replies and sorry I didn't reply sooner!
Looks like we'll be looking for a 500C pop with A/C then! There's no way his budget will stretch to anything face lifted!

Cheers,

Rich

 

[puntodeltathema]

One thing they did change on Grandes was the design of the rear door handle mechanism (on 5 doors, obvs) to overcome the issue whereby a tiny bit of wear in the rather mechanically inefficient original design meant you couldn't open the doors..... Just saying

 

[PuntoHowTo]

IF fiat did update the system to fix the issues, most likely it would have come in the late 2015 (post September) facelift when they did fix issues like the door handles. Fiat at that time made a decision to keep the 500 in production for what would turn out to be another 6(+) years so to prevent a growing bad reputation they needed to fix a few things, they also updated the safety a bit to try and keep things current with NCAP.

 

[varesecrazy]

I hope you are right Andy..

My 2018 model 500 has got to last a further 3 years and 36k before I want to be looking at any form of replacement..

Only car Ive broken door handles on was a V:lv☆.. as motorcyclists termed those Swedish cars. ;-)

 

[burrowsdeano]

Just to clarify
The heater box was definitely redesigned.
Up to 2012 I’ve now repaired in excess of 300 of these.
Post 2012 I’ve repaired 0, that’s not coincidental.
The later heater box is much more robust.
The only car that kept the early design was the Ford Ka, I would imagine that was to get rid of old stock

 

[Piccolo Nero e Bella]

Just my luck! My car's a 10/2012 build so I don't know whether it's likely to fail or not!

 

[jrkitching]

Just to clarify
The heater box was definitely redesigned.
Up to 2012 I’ve now repaired in excess of 300 of these.
Post 2012 I’ve repaired 0, that’s not coincidental.
The later heater box is much more robust.
The only car that kept the early design was the Ford Ka, I would imagine that was to get rid of old stock

Thanks; that's helpful and provides clarity.

 

[callisr]

Hopefully this thread will provide some reassurance to anyone researching (as we were) cars with climate control.
As it happens, my son has reserved a 64 plate 500s (1.2) 5is morning. It has manual AC.
Thanks to all who replied!

Rich

 

[burrowsdeano]

Type is easily identified by the pollen filter.
If the cover is push on it’s the early type prone to failure.
If it’s held on by 2 x 5.5mm screws it’s the later type that doesn’t suffer

 

[puntodeltathema]

Really useful info - thanks @burrowsdeano .

Shame they didn't do something about the RHD pollen filter access at the same time...