Soot in Alloys - New Punto MJD 2012. EDIT - It's brake dust!

Did you try setting the air circulation to recirculation mode? I've found that on really hot days, the ACC has some difficulty keeping the car chilled on fresh air mode.

 

The temp setting was "Lo" minimum setting possible to maximize cooling..and was driving in 35'C external climate with no sun film and the blower setting was High in Re-cirulation mode. the A/c system took a very lonnnnng time to make the cabin pleasent. i remember my bro-in-law's santro when t was new, cooled the cabin instantly when taken in hot sun.

Evening time when i drove back the cooling was more effective, please provide your inputs..

 

The 2012 punto /Linea is supposed to be having a new better A/C. I remember a top Fiat official really praising the A/C on the 2012 launch date and he was mentioning that the new A/C's cooling effect was tested in 43 C soaring heat of Rajasthan. So as Gurjinder suggested, kindly go through the manual once more & if you still feel that there is any issue, take it to the TASS at the earliest. The sunfilm does reduce heat, but it is not that you get the best cooling only if there is sunfilm.

 

That is surprising for me.. I had brake dust all through my ownership. Changed the original pads at 22k, now have gone past 34k and still see brake dust every day.

 

During my initial ownership days the rim used to become black in a days time, now for 2 weeks it stays neat, avg distance will be 500kms.


Sent from my iPhone

 

Its bit tricky here roy. Cause till 6k kms i used to notice massive break dust but now its very less. I can see break dust but not the way it used to be.
Specially i noticed that if taken a long ride of say 200kms then only massive amount of break dust can be seen. May be my watchman is cleaning my alloys daily so i can't find that much of soot now a days.

 

My car is 150 kms driven and i can see black dust on alloy wheel , but very easily cleaned by cloth .
I find my car ACC to be very effective , better than swift and it dont blow air to your face . The cooling is very uniform . Vents under seat are effective , person sitting behind always feel that cool air is coming from somewhere and get amazed by the feature .
When i turn ACC to full auto and if i turn on RECIRCULATION mode than Full auto goes off and just Auto remains on screen .
I dont know if it is normal with all ACC on punto or i need to learn something as to how it works .
Vents are very noisy above 60% level (level 7 or above).

 

Sorry for the late replies sir, this is with reference to the low A/c effect i had been complaining here ever since i took delivery of my 2012 MJD punto. The issue finally aggravated to a point of Zero cooling last saturday. Many subsequent tries resulted to no improvement.

Marched to Concorde ECR (Chennai Dealer/service center for FIAT and TATA) and addressed the issue, Service coordinator was kind of enough of taking it under warranty and asked for 2 days time as being monday morning already vehicles in bay left over on Saturday.

I was told later to expect even more prompt attention from SVC as the vehicle is brand new and also is in warranty period compared to vehicles brought in for free and paid services.

Today (tuesday evening) got a SMS stating vehicle to be ready and there was a O-Ring Seal breach holding up one of the components in the A/c system and that has been replaced,

Questions:
1. Can a O Ring breach cause the refrigerant to leak out entirely. the doubt here is the cooling was moderate Saturday morning and faded to Zero Saturday Afternoon flat.
2. Would they have re-filled the refrigerant once after installing the O ring ? Please consider my novice questions and give your feedback.

I did ask the coordinator he assumingly said they would have recharged the refrigerant as well. Not sure though.


Prospective Punto owners 2012, Check your A/c system thoroughly during PDI and please take a temperature guage (digital available) and check it with full blast and consistency in maintaining the temp. i think the temp guage should dip to atleats 10 degrees when kept the blower in full blast.