FIAT 500 - Transmission failure

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Thu 5 Jun 2014 17:35
FIAT 500 - Transmission failure - tiffy-tiffy

Hi,

My FIAT 1.2 has a dualogic gearbox, it was fine in the last few years and recently all went down hill. First broken down in March this year, dashboard flashing with 'transmission failure' and car got tow to local garage to be fixed. They do a diagnostic test on it and found failure on hydraulic pump, so replaced that part, but they can't reprogram my car, so tow to FIAT dealer for reprogram, 4 days later it broken down again with dashboard flashing 'transmission failure'. Took car back to FIAT, they have a look and found a dodgy cable, claim it's damaged while hydraulic pump being installed. Cable got replaced, after driven for about a month, car broken down again with 'transmission failure; on dashboard again! Fuse got blown off and I want to know why this happening so frequent, what caused this and is that garages' fault or dealer's fault ? Very annoyed about it as all my salary just gone into fixing this car!!!

Thank you

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Thu 5 Jun 2014 23:18
FIAT 500 - Transmission failure - Peter.N.

Sadly this sort of thing is all to common with modern cars because they are so complicated. I drive cars 10 years or more old that I can repair myself, for that reason I wouldn't have an automatic.

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Fri 6 Jun 2014 12:18
FIAT 500 - Transmission failure - gordonbennet

Peter, youll probably struggle to ever buy a 10 year old automated manual (or DSG type) of any make still on its original gearbox and internals, i agree with you in that i wouldn't go anywhere near one.

TC autos don't usually give trouble so long as they've had the odd oil change, my 12 and 18 year old TC autos are both as good as gold, driven plenty of manuals far newer than that which crunched into and jumped out of gears.

The only TC auto i owned which ever went wrong was on a mk 3 Zodiac, after about 6 weeks/6 meetings of banger racing, eventually it lost forward drive but seeing it could do 60 in reverse i did its last race like that anyway...not for long..:-)

All my Benz autos have been perfect, but maintained properly with oil changes.

OP in reality these automated manaul boxes are the perfect example of ''at your own peril once warranty has expired'', no help to you i know but the only advice i (and most here i suspect) would offer would be to get shot of the thing as soon as you can, sorry.

Edited by gordonbennet on 06/06/2014 at 12:22

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Sat 7 Jun 2014 09:09
FIAT 500 - Transmission failure - bazza

I would just add to the above that it may be worth seeking out an independant gearbox specialist and talk to them. A neighbour has an auto Mini with the notoriously bad CVT box and he was able fix the thing at much more reasonable cost. As GB says, awful things, to be avoided at all cost. May well be much cheaper for you to change the car.

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