[Sujith1100]

Hi all,

Here are the pictures of a few strange things found in my Punto, and am not able to figure out for what they are used. You guys please help me in this.

1. Whats are these 2 plastic packets inside the bonnet on either side of the car, behind the Headlights ? They are attached to the body and Filled with water. I tried pulling but its held tight. My car's Left packet is with very little water and right one is swollen with water !





2. Water collected in the Battery tray ! I haven't pressure washed the hood nor poured water into it, but the water is collected here. I guess the rain water! BUT HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN ?.Will this not damage the bolts and washers seen in the picture ? Again a bad design ?




3. My PUNTO is an EMOTION model. The car has Seat-Belt warning light only. May I know what is the wire with a clip pin coming out of the Belt lock casing ? The wire was folded and attached to the belt-lock support with an rubber band. Is this supposed to be attached some where or let lose ?

[funkykar]

Originally Posted by Sujith1100

Hi all,

Here are the pictures of a few strange things found in my Punto, and am not able to figure out for what they are used. You guys please help me in this.

1. Whats are these 2 plastic packets inside the bonnet on either side of the car, behind the Headlights ? They are attached to the body and Filled with water. I tried pulling but its held tight. My car's Left packet is with very little water and right one is swollen with water !
Attachment 342556
Attachment 342557



2. Water collected in the Battery tray ! I haven't pressure washed the hood nor poured water into it, but the water is collected here. I guess the rain water! BUT HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN ?.Will this not damage the bolts and washers seen in the picture ? Again a bad design ?
Attachment 342558



3. My PUNTO is an EMOTION model. The car has Seat-Belt warning light only. May I know what is the wire with a clip pin coming out of the Belt lock casing ? The wire was folded and attached to the belt-lock support with an rubber band. Is this supposed to be attached some where or let lose ?
Attachment 342560

Phew!!! Cant believe water gets collected near the bolts?

I guess its the answer from Fiat for Rain Water harvesting

[Sujith1100]

Fellow Team-Bhpians,

Am waiting for your replies regarding the issues I posted. My PUNTO is only 2 weeks old from show-room. If they are really some serious issues then I don't want to be late to report them to the concerned authority

Regards

[sukrit7]

I can only address your third query.
the wire is probably connected to some sort of sensor which is used to sound an alarm/warning light if you're not wearing your belt. I will look at my punto and try to address your queries.
from your description,it doesn't seem like your wire is correctly in place.

[milestogo]

@Sujith - did you recently install seat covers? I think if you have, then the guys have screwed it up. The sensor you see in pic 2 needs to be inside the seat belt lock.
If this is not because of putting on new seat covers, then you have a bigger problem - your car seats have definitely been dismantled by someone. The sensor in pic 3, needs to go under the seat where there is a box inside which it fits neatly.

[Sujith1100]

Originally Posted by milestogo

@Sujith - did you recently install seat covers? I think if you have, then the guys have screwed it up. The sensor you see in pic 2 needs to be inside the seat belt lock.
If this is not because of putting on new seat covers, then you have a bigger problem - your car seats have definitely been dismantled by someone. The sensor in pic 3, needs to go under the seat where there is a box inside which it fits neatly.

We haven't opted for seat covers, they are the fabric covers from factory. This wire shown in the pictures was rubber-band to the seat-belt lock.
As you said that it should go into a box inside the seat, I will try finding it tomorrow.
Please also address my 1st and 2nd queries.

Now you scared me !

[arishi1]

@Sujith: 1st query is pretty surprising, I have not seen in any Punto with these water-filled plastic bags, have you checked with your car Dealer about these? There has to be some good reason for these to be there

[planet_rocker]

if your car is equipped with seat belt warning lights - then they need to be fixed to the belt lock casing. just see if you are wearing seat belts (Driver + Passenger) does the warning light on the dashboard console go off?

[NutsNBolts]

Water bags, very unusual. Something fishy. Water getting accumulated at battery terminals, can happen even with normal wash.

Seat belt warning connection removed: absolutely fishy. Either your car was offered for a test drive with seat belt warning disabled or some exec used the car for personal use but did not like to wear seat belt, hence removed the sensor connection. Get after them and demand explanation.

[smilyinblue]

My few cents on FIAT INDIA; Hope somebody from FIAT read this and do something:
Disclaimer: These are my personal views.
It is a well known fact that Indians while purchasing an expensive item like CAR, definitely take suggestions from peers, relatives, colleagues etc.. Often this process involves taking suggestion from Maruti or Hyundai car owners who are very much satisfied with respective services. Thus they will say, "pata nahin Fiat ka service kaisa hai, but i am sure it cannot beat my maruti service" or "More than a lakh Maruti customers can not be fool". There goes one potential customer of Fiat!

The crux is, if FIAT wants to survive in India and do real business, they have to build their own dedicated FIAT showrooms & service centres. (Now i donno if the business contract between TATA and FIAT allow this). Agreed that 100+ sales & service network cannot be established in a single day. but at least they can start with metros and big cities. More than numbers of service centers, they should look at the quality of service these centers provide. Gradual but surely this number should be increased to smaller towns depending on sales volume.

I sincerely hope fiat do this at least for 4 metros and see the results for themselves.

Fiat is giving good thrust on advertising these days. We keep seeing more and more number of it in televisions and newspapers. I think this is a move by FIAT which will definitely bring potential customers to showrooms but it will help only upto that point. Lousy sales teams/Bad attitute/not showing interest in selling Fiat cars shown at the showroom will drive the customers away. Thus the percent rise in Ad spent may not be converting into Percent rise in sales volume.

Fiat is happy selling 2000 odd Cars a month saying a whopping YOY growth rate. I believe a brand like Fiat can do much better than this. Anyway with a low base compared to peers the concept of YOY growth rate is nonsense.

Quality issue: Can be solved inhouse and with better suppliers. IF other car manufacturers can source better plastics/parts from within India, fiat too can. Instead of offering 50K discounts on cars they can very well spend 20K out of it and give better plastics/parts. Heard that recent batches of cars are having less of these issues. Still fiat has to catch up to the competitions.


-- A true fiat lover.

[better4worse]

Sujith1100 - I think the plastic covering is probably to cover some electricals related aspects of the engine from getting damaged esp during the car wash, the water around the Battery brackets too confirms the same. As for the wire, its obvious it isn't where it should be and someone has clearly not done a good job putting things back.

- B4W

[milestogo]

@sujith, I dont have the bags in pic 1 in my punto. There are 2 different sensors- one needs to go into the seat belt lock casing. Thats where you lock your seat belt. The other needs to go under the driver seat. But I think you should go to the dealership and give them a piece of your mind. I think you've not been sold a brand new car. How many kms did the odo have when you saw it first?

[Sujith1100]

Thanks all for your replies.

1. Please note that I never wash my car with a pipe or mug. I always clean it with damp cloth only, as I own a Padmini and well aware of the rusting and rubber life-range.

2. Then how can water collect in the battery tray and the 2 strange plastic covers stuck in the body ? The car was in the rain for 2 weeks, but water reaching the upper section of the hood is a very suspicious case.

3. Regarding the seat belt wire, I tried finding a socket under the seat as said by a fellow Bhpian, but failed.

Am thinking of visiting the showroom from where I took delivery, ie "K.H.T MOTORS" on ITPL road, near CMRIT College, on 9th MAY. Hope all goes well and the faults are corrected. I request FCB officials to assist me in this process.

Regards

[Sujith1100]

Originally Posted by milestogo

@sujith, I dont have the bags in pic 1 in my punto. There are 2 different sensors- one needs to go into the seat belt lock casing. Thats where you lock your seat belt. The other needs to go under the driver seat. But I think you should go to the dealership and give them a piece of your mind. I think you've not been sold a brand new car. How many kms did the odo have when you saw it first?

It was 56KM on the ODOMETER. As said in the PDI checklist on Team-BHP, it should be less than 100KM. So I too din't bother.

[arun1100]

Sad to hear this Sujith. But, don't worry I have spoken to Fiat officials through FCB about the problems in your Punto.

P.S: On the ODO it was 56kms during delivery of Sujith's Punto. During PDI, the car was pretty dirty and did not look like it was used as a test drive car or something. 90% sure that the showroom guys have not tried to cheat us as we have a good relationship with them from long.