2012 Fiat 500: grinding or squealing brakes

Filed Aug 12, 2024 · Transmission · TX

Front Wheel hub bearings grinding, very fast wear and tear Transmission still not shifting right after recall shifter cable replaced not grabbing gears

Filed Feb 21, 2020 · Transmission · 113,048 miles · CA

On friday, december 6, 2019 my 2012 fiat 500 began to emit a strong odor. I thought the car would catch on fire. The car also made a loud, screeching and grinding noise. When I arrived safely to my destination, a few minutes away, I stopped and turned off the car. I had to cancel a hair appointment because I didn't feel comfortable driving the distance in the vehicle. On monday, december 9, 2019 I took my car into a fiat chrysler dodge ram jeep dealership for an oil change and free basic inspection. I was told by the dealership that they also heard the noise coming from the clutch area but needed to perform an official diagnostic. I didn't have the money at the time so I waited until january 2, 2020 to have the diagnostic performed. During the month of december and while my car was in the shop I took lyft rideshare for transportation as I did not feel safe driving the car. The car stayed in the shop over the weekend and I was able to pick it up on monday, january 6, 2020. The issue was related to a recall fca # s34, the federal safety agency# 16v‑302 that happened a couple years before. It was supposed to be resolved for this vehicle but I was having similar and worse problems, which are due to the previous faulty car part. The fiat has only $113k miles on it. I have owned manual transmission vehicles previously and never had this issue. I previously owned a honda civic (gained over 200k miles) and a chevy aveo and neither car had this issue. I believe this is a serious safety hazard and myself and my daughter could have been seriously injured had I continued to drive this vehicle. The clutch could have stopped all together and we could have hit another vehicle or been seriously injured on the interstate or street traffic. Even with the repairs I am no longer confident in the safety of this vehicle. It should be declared a lemon.

Filed Jan 24, 2019 · Transmission · 95,356 miles · NV

I drive a manual fiat, and I smelled a burning smell and my clutch wasn't engaging properly, I was losing torque,and theres a loud squeaking when I press on the clutch.

Filed Jan 18, 2017 · Transmission · 104,000 miles · MN

Stopped at a red light on the highway. When light changed, I let out the clutch to start driving, but the gear never engaged. Tried every gear. Only reverse would try, but it would only grind. No clutch engagement.

Filed Feb 1, 2016 · Transmission · 36,000 miles · CA

At about 36,000 miles it became difficult to change gears and then shifter suddenly became impossible to control while on the road. Got off the road and car would not go into first gear, and when trying to reverse it made a horrible grinding sound. Car was immobile. Turns out that some 2012 fiats have been reported to have faulty pressure plates installed. Dealership said it was my pressure plate and quoted a price of 1100+ as they said clutch is not covered under warranty. I fought that and fiat chrysler corporation ended up paying for the new clutch assembly. A photo of pressure plate were emailed by dealer with the note: as you can see here in the picture the fingers for the pressure plate are bent in 3 places causing the issue you are experiencing. The good news is I have spoken with ericka from fiat chrysler headquarters and this will be warrantied by them at no cost to you for the parts, labor or rental.

Filed Nov 30, 2015 · Transmission · 28,500 miles · OR

I was driving along at about 30 MPH and my clutch pedal became very difficult to push in and I could not shift. I was lucky enough to turn into a parking lot where I could not put the car into gear. Once the car was off I could move about the gears but once the car was on the pedal would not go down all the way and I could not get it into gear. There has been zero slipping or grinding of the gears and I have less than 30,000 miles. I am currently awaiting if my warranty will cover this issue. From what I have seen online the pressure plate has been cracked out warped so I plan to fight to have this covered under warranty. To think that a clutch would go out in 2.5 years and under 30,000 miles if crazy but when I spoke with fiat dealership he made it seem that they see it all the time and customer care at first said they have seen it multiple times....updated 7/19/16

Filed Feb 16, 2015 · Transmission · 59,000 miles · FL

Last night, while pulling onto the highway, my clutch locked up. My clutch has never shown any sign of wear/tear (no grinding, no slipping, no burning, etc.) and out of nowhere, it clamped shut. Thankfully, there was not much traffic and I pulled over without the hazard of hitting/being hit by another car. I got the car towed to fiat of orange park, and had to wait until they opened today to get a call from them. I was so confused by what could have caused my clutch to do that, last night I searched online and found fiat-owner forums of other people describing the exact same incident happening to them (one guy was in atlanta traffic and almost crashed, another guy was in nyc about to cross the manhattan bridge and almost got into a wreck). They all had, like myself, fiat's with low mileage. Some had 22k miles, some 28kmiles, some 50k, some 60k; hence adding to the bizarre nature of this incident. All incidents resulted in bent pressure plates as well as miscellaneous damage to clutch parts. Fiat of orange park called me today and told me that the damage is my fault, as a result of wear/tear. Despite me explaining to them that this has been an issue with other fiat-owners, they continued to say that I am responsible for the damage. Despite all of the evidence pointing towards a mechanical malfunction, they said I am responsible for repairing the clutch. This seems to be a manufacturer defect and I would like to report this in hope that there might be action taken by you, the federal safety agency, to help the victims of this defect from 1) potential hazard as a result of future incidents 2) paying the large amount for repairing the damage. Thank you for your consideration.