1999 Fiat Seicento Citymatic from UK and Ireland - Comments

The gear actuator. My car has had 4 new gear actuators. The space between seems to be anything from 6-9 months. First 4 months (Jan 2001) after buying the car and constant adjustments in between. Second replacement was June 2001. At the third replacement, the garage had someone else who had the same problem. I do not have any other faults with my little car - it runs perfectly, good fuel consumption, maintenance cost repairs, except when the the gear seize up and I am unable to move the car, which on a couple of occasions has been in a dangerous place. My garage has been very helpful, but being without my car has been a problem for me. Fiat have only been able to let me have a replacement.

I would be grateful if someone out there could let me know why the gear actuator keeps going - even my garage is at a loss.

I am having the same problem with My Citymatic (1999 Model), Fiat denies having any problem.

I'm on the second actuator my local garage says that it's a common problem and is looking at ways to convert them to manuals.

Appreciate any further comments.

My e-mail address is kirk.wickens@ukonline.co.uk.

Thanks Kirk.

My Citymatic had just came back from the garage and after 20 miles the system had gone wrong again. The handbook writes about the battery-voltage: if it's under 8.5 V, that can cause a system failure at the clutch. Whether the mechanic (at a Fiat-dealer) had checked the voltage or not, I don' know, but I ask him tomorrow. He changed something, called BRACKET (?) in the car - it didn't help too much. I wonder, if it is the same thing what is called actuator?

László Kenderesi / scendemus@iolfree.ie.

24/5/2003 The clutch actuator failed last week on my Citymatic. Four years old, 28,000 miles only. Luckily it failed outside my house and not in the middle of a busy junction. The Fiat dealer told me that it is just one of those things that happen sometimes and it will cost over £500 to fix. I mentioned to them that I had heard of other people encountering this problem, but he said it was not a design fault, just a part that sometimes failed.

Billy.

I echo the comments of previous contributors. My Fiat Seicento Citymatic has broken down four times with seized gears owing to malfunction of the actuator. This clearly seems to be a design fault. JV.

My Citymatic also seizes up. The ACS warning light and the beeping noise come on and I can't change gear. This was rectified before when the whole system was changed (the diagnostic, incidentally, said that I had been starting the car every time in first gear!) but now is no longer under warranty. It is in the garage after going wrong again, and has done less than 7000 miles!

Luckily, as with the others, this happened not far from my home. The garage is puzzled, they have taken all of the connections apart, cleaned them and put them back together, but I suspect it won't be long before it's back in the garage.

Why won't Fiat admit there's a problem?

Same here - actuator AND ecu had to be changed after being stranded in local garbage dump with car full of rubbish. Total bill £750 after 3 weeks of mechanics scratching heads. I've rung fiat who took my comments down and then failed to get back to me. Can't sell this car for peanuts now either - the book price is very low, but people won't even offer that - not even a fiat dealer!

We bought a Citymatic for my young daughter as reward for her passing her test 1st time and for her accomplishments on a recent World Challenge adventure and soon after 1 week or so we have been experiencing exactly the same symptoms as all of the other Citymatic owners in this thread have described. The car is in with an Independent Fiat specialist at the moment (more convenient at the time of breakdown) - I don't hold out too much hope simply because they do not possess the diagnostics gear or have much experience with the Citymatic. The car is out of warranty and no doubt I will be faced with a significant bill for what appears to be a temporary fix judging by the persistent failures others have been commenting on. My real concern however is the severe danger both my daughter and I were put into by the car refusing to allow us to select a gear to get to safety. I can honestly say that we were so very nearly taken out by a huge truck because the car just 'seized' - have complained to FIAT UK via their website and have since been forced to speak to them directly due to their failure to respond within 48hours as stated on the website. Their reaction to my problem is nothing short of scandalous considering the safety issue. Would be interested to hear from others who have had this 'near death' experience due to the gearbox/clutch failure so that I make further approaches to FIAT to help rectify the problem or, at the very least, to warn owners NOT to drive the car if the ACS light comes on, but to be 'rescued' at FIATs expense to the nearest dealer. Thanks in advance.

Mdreehal@lineone.net.

I am afraid to say that I too have suffered the same fate as all of the above with my 40,000 mile 1999 Seicento Citymatic, which is now on its third clutch actuator! The first failure was due to a short circuit in the clutch ECU, which prevented me from even starting the car! the whole unit had to be replaced however, as it is all one piece (£500). The second failure was in stop-start traffic (Exactly the environment the car is marketed at!), leaving me stranded, and having to arrange recovery of the car to Fiat dealer, who said that this was a common problem with the Citymatics. They replaced the whole actuator again, at a cost of another £500. If Fiat's own dealers are saying this is a common problem, then there must be some comeback on Fiat themselves? I previously owned a 1995 Punto that had 2 or 3 safety recalls for airbag ECU, brakes etc. even when it was 6 yrs old, so why is this not happening with the Seicento??

Adding to previous comments my citymatic has an actuator problem again costing £500 parts only car only done 7,000 miles. Fiat dealership identified problem, but even though car is within warranty company are saying this part is not covered. just wonder if others have been able to claim on their warranty?

December 27th 2003

My 1999 Citymatic has been having the same problem ever since I bought it 4 years ago: ACS warning light goes on, the gears seize and I´m stuck. It´s happened at least 3 times on busy city intersections and it had to be towed away to the repair shop. Mostly it happens during cold weather (like right now - temperatures have been down to below 0°C these past several days) and my car is stuck again. This has been happening every winter and I´m fed up! Only two weeks ago I had it towed to the repair shop because the gears seized on my way to the airport (my husband almost missed his flight because of this). During the past 4 years the actuator has been exchanged several times, but the same problem persists. I don´t feel safe in this car any more and on Monday I will bring it to the repair shop again and demand that they contact FIAT and request a recall on this car.

My Fiat Seicento Citimatic refused to get into gear after the car was used to jump start a friend's Fiat Punto.

After reading the seicento hand book, it was revealed that the car (seicento) battery should not be taken off the car while the engine is running.

The car starts okay, but it won't get into gear.

I got this car towed to Fiat Dealer, I paid just over £78.00 for the car be diagnosed of it's fault.

Eventually I was told that the actuator was faulty. Over £675.00 was quoted for the the repairs. Alas I haven't got that sum to ditch out, as I am still in University, school of nursing.

Please could any one show me contact (s) of garages who can fix my car at a resonable price.

My wife has a x reg 2ooo citymatic guess what it has broken

down 7 times, the acs light comes on and you cannot put it

in gear. in 3 years it has had 4 new units, we paid for an

extended warranty at the time we bought the car so it has

not cost any hard cash just time. we love the car, but are not prepared to suffer any longer, so as we owe more than the car is worth we are handing it back to the finance company and cutting our losses. have just ordered a new fiat panda (manual)

Yet another citymatic owner with problems.

It's broken down twice in the middle of traffic and the last time I was lucky not to hit from behind.

The first two times it happened the gears started to work after 15-20 minutes, but last week it happened again and the gears wouldn't work and then the engine wouldn't even start.

The car is in the garage now and I'm wondering what to do with the thing.

I don't think I want to risk driving this car again and have to keep throwing good money after bad to get it fixed.

so i think i will save the £700+ it's gonna cost to get it fixed and put it towards a new car,one with normal gears.

My daughter couldn't get her Seicento into gear the other morning. A mechanic from a local garage came round, checked the fuse, generally looked at it and told her that she needed a new actuator at a cost of £800. Her friends husband, also a mechanic, came round, looked at it, said it was stuck and unstuck it. She is now back driving it! The temperature was -1 C and the car is left outside so that may have a bearing on the problem. I will find out how he unstuck it and post the info here. Hope this info will be of some use.

It all sounds too familiar.

This is the 3rd time my Seicento Citymatic (2000) has broken down. First time in October 2002 it was the actuator that caused the problem, costing me £500 to have it replaced. In January 2003 the ECU was to blame, which cost me another £300. Now the actuator has gone again, and the garage has estimated the costs to be £700 due to the risen cost of parts. I've had enough of the ACS warning light with the horrible beeping noise and bought a manual VW Polo. I would love get some money from my Seicento, but it seems that I would have to invest over £700 to get it back on the road. Please let us know if there's a cheaper way to fix the actuator or how to "unstuck it".