Hi

Need some advise from members as today I have just received a letter from Fiat requesting that I book my car in to have the Fiat Coupe Airbag Control Unit replaced free of charge.

1/ Has anybody else received this letter: The title of the letter is Product Monitoring Survey (A03/ECU) Fiat Coupe Airbag Control Unit

2/ Send my car to Fiat Garage


Feedback would be helpful please

Graham

Yes, lots have had the letter as the airbag life is 10 years. I see no problem letting fiat change the bag, it has to be done by a qualified mech anyways. Just make sure the airbag light is off when you leave

How do Fiat know who owns the car, or have you had it since new?

WOuld this apply to all coupes? I.e mines a 1997 so should I be going to see them?

They can pull lists of who ownes what from the DVLA, thats how recalls work. I would think most people would get a letter at some point, just don't hold your breath

Mine's stamped for a check this year,but my car is not ten years old until next year

Can you just book into a Fiat garage then for a free change even if you haven't had a letter?!

Mark

prolly through dvla

This seems odd, the airbags themselves have a "use by" date, but the title of the ltter refers to the airbag control unit.

Even if it was the airbag itself, surely manufacturers don't have a responsibility to change airbags that have reached the end of their lives for nothing, epsecialy with the car so far outside warranty?

If the control module is being changed on a recall, it would seem reasonable to assume that there have been an unnaceptable number of faults that either cause the bag not to deploy when it should, or much worse to deploy unexpectedly.

Yes they do have the responsibility. They will call back a car for any major safety work, no matter the age or warranty

So those of us with no letter go see Fiat?

well im putting on a richbrook steering wheel so there won b no need for me to go!

Agreed if it's a major safety isse such as a fautly control module that could inadvertantly fire the airbag, but not for the airbag itself just because it's reached replacement time.

There must be hundreds of thousands of cars on the road with airbags older than 10 years, surely dealers would be having hundreds of cars in per week to change airbags by now?

IMO just like other safety related equipment with a finite life, e.g. brakes and tyres, the airbag will be down to the onwer to get replaced when it reaches the end of it's useful life.

They've probably just figured out they don't work

but they do work Thankfully and they are actually quite comfy

I've heard nothing yet, and I've had the car from new.

Daughter's punto was also the subject of a recall, which we discovered when it failed an MOT on brake line corrosion at 12 years; we had heard nothing in spite of the car being owned either by my ex or myself or sprog all that time. However, I rolled up at a fiat place, they checked with Fiat UK, and replaced all the brake lines for free (except the flex pipes which weren't in the recall but I asked them to change anyway).

Neil

so should people who havn't received the letter wait or go to the fiat dealer and enquire.It must be very important due to the airbag ecu being the brains of the airbags,crash sensors and seatbelt pretensioners

Why not phone the dealer?

The vosa website does not even list the coupe so it does not appear to be an offical recall. Maybe its a specific batch of sensors that are faulty.

Did the invite letter come from fiat head office or the local dealer ?

I wonder if TAX import coupés would get a recall. I think not.

Right I have done that. Phoned the local Fiat dealership and they know nothing of a recall for the Fiat Coupe. In fact they have looked back through the records and not one recall has been ordered for the Coupe.

At this precise moment the Boss at the service Centre is trying to find out were this letter came from, who wrote it and WTF is going on.

When I have more details I will post on here

Right I have no had an update on what this thing is all about.

After several phone calls the Manager of my local Fiat garage has found out that there is nothing wrong with The Airbag ECU. What they have done is selected my one to be replaced so they can have the old one back to monitor the data inside the ECU.
In other words its a product monitoring survey. Bloody thing got me all worried. If they had made it clear in the first place then I wouldn't have posted on here.

Anyway. Panic over, nothing to worry about

Graham

That's what they say

I've just got this letter through and it says they want to replace the airbag so they can send the old one to the manufacturers for testing.

Looks like its a random selection so they can see how they've held up after 10 years. P.S. My car is now 10 years old so wonder if its us on 97 and below...

That will still be a costly exercise for a company that makes no money - and I wouldn't have thought that the supplier would pay for the work!

Dave

Seeing as I have a 1998 model which was imported from Germany, I thought I'd call FIAT to see if they're going to do the same for 1998 models next year (especially as my airbag light is on!)

Fiat now use a central number for all customer services, regardless of country - I wasn't too hopeful. Still, I didn't get put through to India (but neither was I speaking to a UK call centre)

At first, I had to convince the idiot on the phone that Fiat actually made a Coupe. He kept asking what model it was -

"IT'S A COUPE!!!"

"yes, but what car?" he kept saying

In the end, he asked for my registration number

I told him he wouldn't be able to trace the car from the reg number as it was an import - he still said he needed it.

After a couple of minutes silence he came back and said he could't trace the car from the reg number, probably because it was an import

I gave him the chassis number, at which point he said that there was no such number on his database

Eventually, he managed to work out that Fiat DID indeed make a Coupe and he then spent two minutes telling me about the oil pump recall, but he couldn't tell me when it was recalled or whether it was ever done

When I reminded him that I'd called about the airbag survey, he just said that he "didn't know anything about that"

I've just called a dealer in the vain hope of extracting some sense (I know, should have known better)

he gave me a UK number to call saying that I should get more sense from them - it went straight through to the central number

I hung up................

Service with a smile Sir

You're a glutton for punishment Nigel

Was there an oil pump recall,or is this just the numpty you had on the phone Nigel ?

AFAIK the Coop hasn`t had any recalls other than these airbags ones just now .

Baz

I heard some other car manufacturers tried to recall it because they all felt they couldn't build something quite as stylish. Fortunately that one didn't go through though.