Brakedown paranoia

Since I've been a member and looking through the posts and general chat,I've noticed that every now and then a coupe owner acts surprised that their car has done a 500 mile or 1000mile round trip with no problems expecting it to break down at any moment.
Is this because it's a fiat?or does it have a reputation for brakingdown?

So the question goes out to all
HAVE YOU EVER BROKEDOWN?
And was it serious or something minor.

Never, I have had 14 and never ever broken down ... (touch wood quickly) though I once could not start one of them on my drive ..... it ran out of petrol

I have never had a breakdown as such, but I did decide not to drive it once. The warning light came on and I didn't want to risk it.
I keep the code reader in the car and it turned out to be an injector. I got a friend to pick me up, get a spare injector from home, back to the car, changed the injector in the car park and drove home.
This is the only issue since 1997 with the car from new.
Last week I drove about 800 miles from southern Spain to mid France. No problem.

Only had a coupe breakdown and require a tow once and that was directly caused by incompetent work carried out by the Fiat dealer during a service the previous day.

Almost required a tow on a 2nd occasion when the alternator wasn't charging the battery and that was also directly caused by incompetence by my local Fiat dealer.

They also managed to kill the original engine while working on it and had to replace it with a new one from Fiat, so I guess that also counts as a breakdown even though the car was in their possession at the time.

My first coupe, the clutch cable snapped. Wasn't the best example to be fair.

That made for an interesting drive home - getting the revs just right so as it engage gears and starting the car in 1st.

Hahahah, I remember the call that day and you saying "It's not fuel"

In over 170k miles and over twenty years, it's only left me at the side of the road three times, I think: once for a poor contact on the ignition amplifier, once for a broken cambelt (a fortnight before it was booked in to be replaced) and once for a dead engine; it ran a bottom end bearing as a result of the cambelt failure.

I have no worries about getting into and driving to the north of Scotland, or round Norway, or to Turin or Berlin, or...

Only had to get recovered in 80,000 miles in mine, one was a battery giving up the ghost and not being able to restart after *cough* running out of fuel!
Second was it managed to lose an engine mount bolt, god knows how.

Apart from that, the end of the exhaust fell off once (good excuse for a stainless one!), and the bracket that holds all the gearstick linkage fell apart...changing gear was a bit like fishing after that.....

In 7 years of ownership and 60k I've had 2 "breakdowns", the exhaust fell off due to rust and a coolant pipe come off.

Other than that it's the odd flat battery in winter months after a week or two of not being use and the old frozen handbrake cable.

Only the 1 breakdown. Aux belt failure which lead to a cambelt incident.

Hmmm - several....

Stuck thermostat
Faulty ECU
Failed engine mount
Coolant hose of death (x3...)
Broken differential (x 2)
Holed sump
Loose driveshaft
split braided brake hose (x2)
Cambelt failure

So - that's at least a dozen trips on a recovery wagon and I have a feeling there are some I've forgotten. To be fair to the car, most of the failures are down to the modding - trying new ideas or simply abusing the car will always cause more failures than running a standard car

patch- have you really had 14??!

None to date in the Coupe, though ownership is a little over a year now.

How dare you!

It makes me laugh the reputation Fiat has for unreliability. People seems to think it's still the 1970s.

My guess is these days Fiat are more reliable than Jaguar, Mercedes, and all of the French manufacturers.

So far neither of my Coupes have let me down.

I had that problem on a Suzuki GSXR. Problem is many bikes don't allow you to start them without your hand on the clutch (as was the case on the Gixer). I was lucky to make it home without having to stop. Took some planning ahead.

My "best" breakdown was when my inlet manifold blew clean off... Turns out the previous owner decided he knew better than to attach the support bracket, and re-use the old (rather knackered) hose clips as well. I also had the battery explode on me due to a dodgy aftermarket alternator. Not broken down at all since the rebuild though! Trucking on as reliably as anything else I've owned!

Uh, a few....

My 16v n/a - I drove through a puddle, water got into alarm/immobiliser gubbins and car refused to re-start after I had parked it up. It got recovered on a low-loader

My LE - Refused to start one evening after work. Had to abandon it. Next day investigation found the yellow box connector of death and burnt out, killing power to fuel pump. Diagnosed and fixed it myself

My LE (again) - one night noticed the temp gauge on the widget begin to climb past 100 degrees. Pulled over and found a slight leak in Coolant Hose of Death. No water to be found anywhere (middle of the night) so I sat there, only 2 miles from home for about an hour to allow the engine to cool down enough to limp on to a water supply

My LE (yet again)- Pulled into a petrol station to get milk, came out and car refused to start. Turned out to be a failing cam phase sensor. Left it overnight and it started next day from cold. Took it to a garage for repairs.

And finally - Then there was the time the car went in for a basic service, the garage forgot to put new oil in, test drove it, damaged the big end, car got taken from garage to the docks on a low-loader, put on a ship to Holyhead and then recovered to Birmingham for a replacement engine. That service required my car, a courtesy car (for 3 weeks), 2 recovery vehicles, 2 ships(IRL-UK, UK-IRL), an aeroplane (IRL-UK to collect) and a taxi. Oh and a spare engine aswell

Yup, the joys of coupe ownership.

Still, I could complain and say now that I've left the Coupé fold, all such sagas are now behind me. That said, should I be concerned that my Peugeot has never used a drop of oil between services over the last 60,000 miles but has consumed 1.5 litres over the last 10,000 miles?

Arrggghhhh

I've had:
Cambelt jump so failed start, diff explode and chod. 2 were break downs chod I got home.
Err that's it on same car in 6 years and 50k.

It's had the odd issue, boost leak, 2 injectors and some weird hydro lock on the brakes which was resolved with a quick bleed. It's had a clutch, custom downpipe, alternator, battery, turbo refurbished, eibach / bilsteins but none of those were breakdowns but could have been if not sorted.

The coupe is an old car now, love it and it'll love you mistreat it ignore it's whines and it'll show you what a big dint in your finances looks like.

Never had a single issue with my old 16V NA.
Only once in 30k on the LE - earth strap has come loose on the gearbox. Easily sorted.
As has been mentioned you have to remind yourself Coupes are getting on now. Hard to believe mines 18 years now.
I can remember looking at the first X1/9 I went to look at with a view to buying. It was totally knackered - big holes in the floorpan and moss growing inside - looking back that car must have been no more than 9 years old then!

I have the breakdown paranoia ever since my first day of ownership when it dropped a valve on no3 and destroyed itself within seconds leaving me stranded on the m1.
Crank sensor failure a few years later is the only other incident that lead to a breakdown in kings cross London.

Had mine 8 months in that time CHOD on M4 requiriing AA recovery home. I was lucky as I was looking in the rear view all I saw was a cloud of steam.

Inertia switch causing intermittent starting it would start after 10-20 mins diagnosed it with FiatECU and used a paper clip to bridge it. Looking for brand new inertia switch.

Lambada Sensor causing intermittent jerky/ kangaroo driving again diagnosed with FiatECU ( Delta OEM replacement on eBay 7 quid (:

Only the CHOD stopped me reaching my destination.

Fiat's coupes were built for driving a absolutly brilliant car..

good articles on this site re maintaining them.

Cambelt and belts done with good quality belts. Oil change engine
Gearbox power steering .. replace the CHOD it's reliable as any modern car... Oops mealy forgot the Coupe is a modern car

This is the sole reason I sold my coupes. Being constantly paranoid that something was going break. Posts on the forum can be very negative. They ain't cheap cars to fix

In ten years - about 60,000 miles

2 x CHOD - Had to be recovered
Small plastic pipe below header tank - happened after a service, got car home steam everywhere!
1 x Coil Pack - Frist thought was that I had holed a piston at 150mph on the Autobahn, racing an A6 Limped the car through Germany to a mates garage.
Loose Brembo pad guide - on way back from Turin - limped it home across Europe.

What he doesn't say is that he then drove a couple of thousand miles around Norway...

If you're referring to my 500 mile trip - it was not a surprise, but a pleasure!
My previous N Reg 16V carried me for 175K and 17 years. In it's last few years it did have a fair number of issues that left me at the roadside. Clutch went in Birmingham, alternator on M25. Both tow -home. Ongoing electrical problems - with damp - meant the local AA man was a frequent visitor!!

Mine drove over 200 miles yesterday through one national park and two aonb s..... I m still not (really \ very) surprised.....

Drove a 1000 mile round trip to France last summer and will be doing it again next month, plus I commute 36 miles a day be it in the middle of the Summer or darkest coldest Winter time. Only covered 18000 miles or so in the 18 months of ownership but no breakdown (let me find some wood to touch).

Personally, I feel that if you drive a car regularly and have regular check ups by someone who knows what to check, then the risk of breakdown is reduced. There's nothing worse than just saving a car for a sunny day twice a year. Cars need to be used! It just means your wallet suffers a bit.

Just think about those (newish) cars you see broken down on the hard shoulder on a bank holiday weekend? It's usually because Mildred and Derek etc have only used the car to drive a mile to the shop once a week then the poor thing can't handle the yearly trip to Morecambe!