I have a Fiat Punto ELX 5DR, registered May 2001. Since I bought the car I have had 5 sets of brake pads, and due for yet another. With a total mileage of 40,000, surely this is not \"fair wear and tear\" that Fiat keep telling me.
I have also had to spend £110 on a new exhaust which completely fell off a couple of months ago. Surely it should have lasted longer than 2 years.
My Punto drives like an old car.
Has anyone else suffered the same problems?
Fiat Customer services have been so helpful they told me it was my style of driving and even put the phone down on me! When I phoned back to speak to someone in authority I was told there was no one I could speak to. I do not call this customer service. My case is closed with \"no action\".
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It's probably the dealer trying to get as much money out of the customer as they can.
My mate owns a Xsara which he takes for servicing at the non-Citroen dealership he bought it from. Last time he went he was told there was 1,000 miles left on the pads, even though they'd only been replaced 5k ago! Anyhow he took it too an independant who said there was at least another 10k left on them.
Next time they say the pads need replacing, I'd go to an independant as well to see what they say.
As for the exaust, if the car is only used for short journeys then condensation from cold starts quickly builds up in the exhaust pipes and can rot them away.
Mike Farrow
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Hi,
In my experience garages are (to be politically correct) not particularly accurate in estimating life left in parts.
In my reckless youth, before I knew anything about cars (not that I know a lot now, but I'm trying to learn), every time I took my car to the garage something was "on the brink of failure". It was always "lucky I'd brought this in now" and so on. But nothing ever DID fail. It was always "just about to" but they saw it in time. Lucky that. Not just one garage either - at least three, including one main dealer.
I even read in a trade magazine that "customers are always happier if you tell them it was just about to fail". Not so, not in my case at least. They just think you're lying more.
I digress.
5 sets of pads in 40k miles - something is wrong (with the car or with their service) and don't let them tell you otherwise. But you knew this anyway. :-)
Cheers,
Mark
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Thank you for this. I have taken my car to my local brake/exhaust garage, who are in despair as they guarantee the work for a year and are having to cover the pads on the guarantee. This time they fitted Fiat parts to last 14,000 miles, they have lasted 6,000 miles.
I am not a mechanic or mechanically minded so I am grateful of your encouragement and confirmation that there is something wrong. I will keep on at Fiat.
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Hi,
There is one major contributing factor that governs the rate of brake pad wear- and thats the driver. Brake pad wear is directly proportional to the conditions to which they are subjected to. If the vehicle is used for short journeys where the brakes are applied a lot in traffic going to/from work/shops then they will wear quicker. Similarly if the vehicle is used for long journeys where there are a lot of stops/ starts then, again the pads wear out quicker. In an ideal world we all drive along at 50 mph, use the gears to slow down and only need to 'dab' the brakes on at the last minute to stop the car completely. In reality, we're late for work, drive as fast as we can but the bloke in front in his Jag 4.2 is trying to squeeze 21mpg by driving along at 15 mph so we jab the brakes on and off and then scream down the bypass at 80+ and pull into the slip road braking excessively to bring the car to a halt. The sad fact is that this is how a lot of people drive these days and i'm not saying you do or you don't. The fact is that brake pad wear is caused by your right foot pressing on the pedal.
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These are the views of Robin the Technician with 35 years in the trade. I fix, therefore I am...
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Picking up on Robin's points, do you drive in a hilly neighbourhood? That would cut down your pad life. Lots of level motorway miles would let them last 20-30,000, maybe.
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Thank you for replying. I have been going to an independant garage for the brakes, and as they guarantee parts for 12 months, are finding this very expensive.
I travel 60 miles a day to work and back, so the car is not used for short journeys, this will add to my argument with Fiat, thank you.
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I hadn't reaslised that you were taking the car to an independant anyway and they were getting ticked off by the pads failing. In which case, something is definately wrong about the car!
30 mile trips to work should get rid of any condensation. Maybe one of the exhaust mountings had a flaw which caused the joing to collapse, then additional load on other's caused them to fail, etc. In this case the pipe may have kinked(???), necitating replacement.
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Our Dec 2000 Punto ELX recently had the rear section of exhaust fall off. It wasn't only due to corrosion as the pipe was extremely thin at the weld where it entered the silencer and the rear section has only one mount which at the rear of silencer.
Fiat customer services and Fiat dealers have wellearned reputations, so it is not really that surprising that:-
www.carkeys.co.uk/news/2004_january/20/1734.asp
I don't want to worry you further but if you do a search on the web for Punto clutchs, gearboxes or head gaskets you will see how those reputations came about.
Sorry Janet but welcome aboard.
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5 sets of pads in 40k is excessive by any standard.
Exhaust in 2 years is unusual but not unheard of.
IMHO Fiat should have at least checked the braking system as there are several faults which could cause this.
Are you a member of any motoring org? Fiat would probably be obliged to act on a written report from a qualified person.
I feel that approaching Fiat UK (again) should be your first
approach, however if you have proof that the brake problem is theirs the exhaust may come as part of a goodwill package.
Best of luck
Robin - respect your knowledge but I wouldn't bet a weeks salary
on all pad wear problems being down to the driver.
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When you get to the end of a journey, you could do with feeling if the brakes are hot...If they are continually dragging, they'll heat the disc and wheel assembly up. If you have alloys, this is easy, but if you have the punto plastic wheel covers, this is very difficult, but maybe if you can feel one of the four metal lug bolts in the centre of the wheel, and see if it's anything more than warm, if so I would say there's a brake fault.....if not, it may be inferior parts or just the amount of use. Try and find what make they use, and post it on here ...If it's Powertrain, then it's just the way they are.
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Don't touch the disk itself when u've just braked to a halt. I did this on a mates car once and it damn well hurt!
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Another thought on your brake problem. Are the rear brakes working properly. Isn't there usually a regulating device to ensure the correct balance of braking forces between front and rear brakes? Could this be defective making the front discs do all the work?
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