Service experience

[Alvon Elrod]

I changed the oil today.  Wasn't too bad:

1) Lift car front end with jacks and jack stands or wheel ramps.
2) Remove 6 screws so that engine under guard can be removed.
3) Remove engine top cover.
4) Remove 3 screws holding air intake plenum, loosen hose clamp from large hose that routes air from plenum to intake.  Wiggle 2 other hoses loose, and take water overflow hose out of clamp at rear of intake plenum.  Now, intake plenum can be taken out of the way.
5) Using 27mm socket, loosen oil filter cartridge.  I was able to put my ratchet down close to the socket to back the socket out (3/8" ratchet, 3/8 to 1/2 inch adapter to connect to socket).  Put paper towel around base of cartridge to catch any oil that might dribble out (only a few drops dribbled down the side).  It's important to take the oil filter cartridge off first before draining the oil pan.  If not, when you remove the cartridge later, the oil in the cartridge area will drain down into the oil pan.
6) Remove oil pan plug to drain the oil pan.
7) Clean out oil filter cartridge, then install new filter element (comes with new o-ring).
8) Reinstall oil plug.  Fill with 4 quarts 5W-30.
9) Reinstall air intake plenum, engine cover, and lower engine guard.

I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Alvon

[cogtooth]

Here's how some observers would tell me how to do it:  take the twist ties off the engine and remove the engine, then unsnap the top half of the engine off and take an eyedropper and add more oil, place the engine back inside making sure it is not upside down, use new twist tie to secure engine.

[Thad]

I'm still curious as to what the proper jack point locations are.

[Fiat500USA]

Alvon Elrod wrote

I changed the oil today.  Wasn't too bad:

1) Lift car front end with jacks and jack stands or wheel ramps.
2) Remove 6 screws so that engine under guard can be removed.
3) Remove engine top cover.
4) Remove 3 screws holding air intake plenum, loosen hose clamp from large hose that routes air from plenum to intake.  Wiggle 2 other hoses loose, and take water overflow hose out of clamp at rear of intake plenum.  Now, intake plenum can be taken out of the way.
5) Using 27mm socket, loosen oil filter cartridge.  I was able to put my ratchet down close to the socket to back the socket out (3/8" ratchet, 3/8 to 1/2 inch adapter to connect to socket).  Put paper towel around base of cartridge to catch any oil that might dribble out (only a few drops dribbled down the side).  It's important to take the oil filter cartridge off first before draining the oil pan.  If not, when you remove the cartridge later, the oil in the cartridge area will drain down into the oil pan.
6) Remove oil pan plug to drain the oil pan.
7) Clean out oil filter cartridge, then install new filter element (comes with new o-ring).
8) Reinstall oil plug.  Fill with 4 quarts 5W-30.
9) Reinstall air intake plenum, engine cover, and lower engine guard.

I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

Alvon

Nice write up on that. I forgot all about the air box coming off... Duh  

I hate crawling under the car, so I will extract it from the top. I'm just waiting on the filters.

[sketch]

Thad wrote

I'm still curious as to what the proper jack point locations are.

You don't mean the ones on the sides marked with arrows on the rocker panels?

[Alvon Elrod]

Here are some pictures of the oil change, as promised.

Top of the engine, with engine cover and air filter box removed, showing oil filter location:


Under the car, on jack stands, engine cover removed, showing location where I used a floor jack to lift (before removing lower engine cover).


The oil pan, draining:


A couple pictures of the air filter box (top and bottom), showing where 3 fasteners are.  
 

The bottom engine guard, showing the 6 faster locations.


Oil Filter manifold with canister removed, and canister with the old filter and the replacement filter.
     

[ciddyguy]

Alvon Elrod wrote

Here are some pictures of the oil change, as promised.

Top of the engine, with engine cover and air filter box removed, showing oil filter location:


Under the car, on jack stands, engine cover removed, showing location where I used a floor jack to lift (before removing lower engine cover).


The oil pan, draining:


A couple pictures of the air filter box (top and bottom), showing where 3 fasteners are.  
 

The bottom engine guard, showing the 6 faster locations.


Oil Filter manifold with canister removed, and canister with the old filter and the replacement filter.
   

Nicely done Alvon,

Looks like it's not too difficult, once you get the guards/shields off and the cross member looks like it is easily wiped off once the oil has stopped dripping onto it, nice.

Thanks for sharing the photos of your oil change.

[Thad]

Yea. Wouldn't wat to lift it up by the plastic rockers! I'll take a peek at Alvon's pics here....

[Thad]

Very Good Alvon. How hard was it to get the canister out of there? Also, why did you do it yourself since your maintenance is free for the first several years?

[Alvon Elrod]

The cannister came out fairly easy.  Once the air filter housing is out of the way, there is fairly good access to the engine.  To torque back up to the recommended 25 NM (18 ft-lbs), I used extensions up through the opening around the headlight, and put my torque wrench outside of the engine bay (sorry that I didn't get a picture of that).  To loosen it, though, I just put my ratchet down close to the 27mm socket, that fits conveniently on the top of the cannister.

I chose to change the oil myself for several reasons:
1)  Dealer stresses that it isn't necessary or a good idea until the 8000 mile interval (or 6 months)
2)  Dealer says that they cover maintenance only at the recommended intervals.  I could have them change it for free at the earlier interval, but that would 'use up' one of my 6 freebies.
3)  I wanted to send the oil to a lab to have it analyzed, just for the heck of it.  If I had 'Chrysler' change it, they wouldn't be as careful to save the oil as I did.  I poured it into a clean gallon jug for now, and will pour off the top and send a portion of the stuff that settles out to a lab for evaluation.  I probably won't do that until June, but I'll keep you posted when I do.
4)  I wanted to become a little more familiar with the nuts and bolts of this car.

[sketch]

I GOT MY CAR BACK!

As I said, the car had been hard to start from the beginning, the check engine light was on and off and then on again, and coolant was disappearing from the canister.

Mon 18 April: On the way home from Virginia, after an overnight stop in Trussville, AL, I brought the car to FIAT of Birmingham to see if their service department was up and running.  The tech discovered it was a head gasket problem, etc.  I went home in a Chrysler 300, provided by Enterprise, covered entirely by FIAT/Chrysler.

~Wed 20 April: The service manager of Benchmark Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge (the dealer associated with FIAT of Birmingham) calls to let me know that FIAT wants to put an entirely new engine in the car and to take mine back for quality control purposes.  They say the engine will take 5-7 days to arrive and 48 hours to install and test.

~Thurs 28 April: The dealer calls me to let me know that the engine is in and that they are waiting on coolant to install it.  The MultiAir engine takes a special type of coolant which is not readily available and for which no one really makes an alternative.

Mon 2 May: The engine is installed.  The coolant is shipped straight from the supplier in a 55 gallon drum.  The delay occurred because they were unable to find an appropriate shipping container quickly enough.

Wed 4 May: The coolant arrives and is inserted into the engine.  I learn that some gear oil was lost when the axle was removed, so an order was placed with the factory for more, in order to ensure that all fluids were topped off before delivery.

Thurs 5 May: The gear oil arrives and is added.  The car is test driven for 18 miles.  The service manager tells me that they can ship the car to me Monday, because the two trucks they have for this purpose are out of state (one on the far side of Georgia, the other in South Dakota) and wouldn't be back in time to ship it the next day.  I tell him I appreciate the offer but I'm gonna have to come for it.  He asked whether I'd prefer to pick it up at Chrysler or FIAT.  I said FIAT.

Fri 6 May: I wake at 5am to pilot the massive Chrysler up 59 to ol' Birmingham.  I pull into the FIAT studio lot around 10:15 and noted that there weren't any white Prima Ediziones in the lot, so after speaking to one of the gentlemen there I went over to the Chrysler dealer.  The service manager called someone and asked why he hadn't brought the car over to FIAT like he'd asked him and why he hadn't filled the tank with gas to get me home.  I moved all my stuff out from the rental, the service tech filled the tank for me, we rode over to FIAT to pick up some paperwork, and that was just about that.


There were a few foibles here and there, which are to be expected with the start of a new brand and a new dealership—a number of things I suspect won't be problems once the FIAT Studio is fully operational, service department and all.  Everyone I dealt with at FIAT of Birmingham (and Benchmark Chrysler &c.) was very helpful and willing to accommodate me.  The rental was completely covered and they offered to ship my car back to me free of charge (I just couldn't wait that long, you understand).

It's so good to be back!



Alvon: Out of curiosity, why do you think it's necessary to change the oil more than once every 8000 miles or six months?

[Fiat500USA]

Sketch,

Glad you got your car back! I wonder what happened at the factory. I bet they are really pissed at someone!

[Fiat500USA]

Alvon,

Do you have the part number for the filter? I am wondering if I can cross it over to a readily available filter at a local parts store.

[sketch]

Yeah, for sure.  The service manager said he had people calling from Michigan, Mexico, and everywhere in between asking about the car.

[Alvon Elrod]

The filter part number is 68102241AA.  I tried to get it or cross reference at local parts stores, with no success.  I ordered from Motor Village of LA.  The price quoted over the phone was about 7.00 or so, but they invoiced me for $11.25 each for the 2 filters + $6.00 freight + $2.19 sales tax = $30.69 for 2 filters.

[Fiat500USA]

Alvon Elrod wrote

The filter part number is 68102241AA.  I tried to get it or cross reference at local parts stores, with no success.  I ordered from Motor Village of LA.  The price quoted over the phone was about 7.00 or so, but they invoiced me for $11.25 each for the 2 filters + $6.00 freight + $2.19 sales tax = $30.69 for 2 filters.

Awesome info, thanks.  As we go along, I'm sure we'll have some more options.

[ciddyguy]

sketch wrote

I GOT MY CAR BACK!

As I said, the car had been hard to start from the beginning, the check engine light was on and off and then on again, and coolant was disappearing from the canister.

Mon 18 April: On the way home from Virginia, after an overnight stop in Trussville, AL, I brought the car to FIAT of Birmingham to see if their service department was up and running.  The tech discovered it was a head gasket problem, etc.  I went home in a Chrysler 300, provided by Enterprise, covered entirely by FIAT/Chrysler.

~Wed 20 April: The service manager of Benchmark Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge (the dealer associated with FIAT of Birmingham) calls to let me know that FIAT wants to put an entirely new engine in the car and to take mine back for quality control purposes.  They say the engine will take 5-7 days to arrive and 48 hours to install and test.

~Thurs 28 April: The dealer calls me to let me know that the engine is in and that they are waiting on coolant to install it.  The MultiAir engine takes a special type of coolant which is not readily available and for which no one really makes an alternative.

Mon 2 May: The engine is installed.  The coolant is shipped straight from the supplier in a 55 gallon drum.  The delay occurred because they were unable to find an appropriate shipping container quickly enough.

Wed 4 May: The coolant arrives and is inserted into the engine.  I learn that some gear oil was lost when the axle was removed, so an order was placed with the factory for more, in order to ensure that all fluids were topped off before delivery.

Thurs 5 May: The gear oil arrives and is added.  The car is test driven for 18 miles.  The service manager tells me that they can ship the car to me Monday, because the two trucks they have for this purpose are out of state (one on the far side of Georgia, the other in South Dakota) and wouldn't be back in time to ship it the next day.  I tell him I appreciate the offer but I'm gonna have to come for it.  He asked whether I'd prefer to pick it up at Chrysler or FIAT.  I said FIAT.

Fri 6 May: I wake at 5am to pilot the massive Chrysler up 59 to ol' Birmingham.  I pull into the FIAT studio lot around 10:15 and noted that there weren't any white Prima Ediziones in the lot, so after speaking to one of the gentlemen there I went over to the Chrysler dealer.  The service manager called someone and asked why he hadn't brought the car over to FIAT like he'd asked him and why he hadn't filled the tank with gas to get me home.  I moved all my stuff out from the rental, the service tech filled the tank for me, we rode over to FIAT to pick up some paperwork, and that was just about that.


There were a few foibles here and there, which are to be expected with the start of a new brand and a new dealership—a number of things I suspect won't be problems once the FIAT Studio is fully operational, service department and all.  Everyone I dealt with at FIAT of Birmingham (and Benchmark Chrysler &c.) was very helpful and willing to accommodate me.  The rental was completely covered and they offered to ship my car back to me free of charge (I just couldn't wait that long, you understand).

It's so good to be back!



Alvon: Out of curiosity, why do you think it's necessary to change the oil more than once every 8000 miles or six months?

That's awesome sketch!

Glad the outcome was as one would have hoped, or perhaps a bit better than that.

This bodes well for both the dealer(s) and Chrysler.

This makes me even more confident in diving in with a Fiat and I would agree with Chris that as time goes on, like by year's end, we'll begin to see alternatives from 3rd party suppliers for things like filters, coolant etc.

Speaking of automotive fluids/oil, I had to add 2 quarts of oil to my old Ranger truck and instead of 5W-30 oil, to use 10W-30 oil due to the excessive mileage (233, 600+) to help reduce losses due to wear, especially during the warmer months and it DOES seem to be using a bit more oil these days, which isn't surprising, given that kind of mileage. :-)