2015 Fiat 500
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
These records cover every 2015 Fiat 500. To see whether one car still needs a recall repair, decode its VIN or check it with NHTSA.
4 recalls name the 2015 Fiat 500. Newest first.
Chrysler (FCA US, LLC) is recalling certain 2014-2019 Fiat 500 vehicles. The tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) warning light may not illuminate as intended. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 138, "Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems."
A TPMS warning light that fails to illuminate can result in the vehicle being driven with improperly inflated tires, increasing the risk of a crash.
Dealers will reprogram the TPMS electronic control unit module, free of charge. Owners were mailed July 11, 2024. Owners may contact FCA US, LLC customer service at 1-800-853-1403. FCA US, LLC's number for this recall is 80B.
DLT, LLC. is recalling certain CravenSpeed Fiat Short Shifter shafts sold for use in 2011-2019 Fiat 500 vehicles. The Shifter Shaft may have been improperly manufactured with a through hole for the set screw rather than a blind hole, which may lead to the breakage of the Shifter Shaft.
If the shifter breaks while the vehicle is in motion, it can increase the risk of a crash.
DLT has notified owners, and will provide a complete replacement shifter assembly with an updated shaft, free of charge. The recall began July 24, 2019. Owners may contact DLT customer service at 1-503-505-6886.
Chrysler (FCA US LLC) is recalling certain model year 2012-2016 Fiat 500 vehicles manufactured June 21, 2010, through January 12, 2016, equipped with a manual transmission. The clutch diaphragm spring may fracture and fail, causing an inability to switch gears.
If the clutch diaphragm spring fails, the driver may not be able to shift gears or the vehicle may lose motive power, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy for this recall will include the installation of a clutch pedal limiter and a clutch pedal switch. The recall began on November 10, 2016. Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is S34.
Chrysler (FCA US LLC) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Fiat 500 battery electric vehicles manufactured March 8, 2013, to March 7, 2015. The Electric Vehicle Control Unit (EVCU) of the affected vehicles may set a diagnostic trouble code (DTC) that may cause the transmission to unexpectedly shift to neutral.
If the vehicle unexpectedly shifts to neutral, the loss of drive could increase the risk of a crash.
Chrysler will notify owners, and dealers will reprogram the EVCU, free of charge. The recall began June 19, 2015. Owners may contact Chrysler customer service at 1-800-853-1403. Chrysler's number for this recall is R20.
The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500. The contact stated that while driving at 35 MPH and attempting to downshift, the vehicle failed to respond as intended while the RPM continued to rev. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the gear shifter was significantly difficult to move up or down, causing difficulty in engaging the brake as needed. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the manual transmission gear pin had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was contacted and confirmed that the VIN was not included in NHTSA Campaign Numbers: 16V302000(Power Train) nor 19E044000 (Power Train). The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 42,000.
The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the manual transmission was unable to shift into gear. The contact was able to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway, where the failure persisted. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic. The contact was informed that the clutch diaphragm spring and clutch assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 16V302000 (Power Train); but the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, a case was opened, and the contact was referred to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was 54,000.
A recall has been open on this vehicle for over 5 years. I have been waiting for a year and 2 Fiat dealerships cannot complete the recall because the manufacturer has failed to manufacture a spring part for the repair. The spring has been back ordered since May 2023 for my order, but according to the Madison dealership, owners before me were waiting for 8+ months with no parts available. Recall info: Manufacturer Recall NumberS34 NHTSA Recall Number16V-302 Recall Status: Recall Incomplete Summary THE CLUTCH COVER DIAPHRAGM SPRING MAY FATIGUE AND/OR FRACTURE. Safety Risk A FAILED CLUTCH COVER DIAPHRAGM SPRING MAY RESULT IN THE INABILITY TO DISENGAGE THE CLUTCH, SHIFT GEARS AND THE POTENTIAL FOR A LOSS OF MOTIVE POWER WHICH COULD CAUSE A CRASH WITHOUT WARNING.
The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500 Pop Hatchback. The contact received notification NHTSA Campaign Number: 16V302000 (Power Train) however, the parts to repair were not available. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repairs. The local dealer was notified of the recall notice and confirmed that the parts were not available. The contact stated while driving 30 MPH, the manual clutch failed and the contact was unable to steer the vehicle. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was provided with a customer care case number 89214492. The failure mileage was approximately 48,000.
The quality of the exterior door handle is an issue. My passenger side door handle has snapped completely off and my drivers side door handle has partially broken, but still functions. The rear door hatch also stopped working. The arm rests both broke rather easily as well. My last car was a 2013 fiat 500 pop and the exterior door handles both broke, the rear latch stopped working, and both arm rests broke. I live in Iowa and it gets extremely cold, but I'm unsure if that's related. I have not been aggressive with any of these parts so I don't know what the issue is.
In March 2023 my wife was driving our Fiat 500 on the freeway and the sunroof exploded with a loud bang. Small pieces of glass shattered everywhere and fell all over here. The sound and glass caused her to swerve, luckily no other cars were around. We got insurance involved and sent the car to a body shop to get fixed. No one really knew what caused the problem, though they all suspected a pebble. There was no other evidence to suggest a pebble. In August 2023 when entering the freeway (speed was less than 45 mph) the sunroof exploded again with a loud bang. My wife and I were both in the car. Once again we got insurance involved and the car was sent to a different body shop. The body shop did not find and evidence that a rock or pebble did the damage and were not sure how it could have been caused. This is our family car and we need to drive it daily. It puts everyone’s safety at risk when driving since the shock of falling glass and the sound of the sunroof exploding can cause knee jerk reactions. Therefore, not only is our safety at risk but also the other drivers were we to swerve unintentionally into someone. This happened twice in a span of 6 months.
The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500. The contact stated that upon having the vehicle inspected, the mechanic noticed that the front driver’s and passenger’s side headlamps had failed to operate. The brake warning light and the headlamp warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that the mechanic reconnected the front driver’s and passenger’s side headlamp connector. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The contact stated that after the vehicle was started, the contact noticed that the headlamps failed to illuminate. The contact then stated that the rear driver’s and passenger’s side brake lights failed to operate as needed. The vehicle was taken back the independent mechanic where it was diagnosed that the lighting wirings had burned out and the connectors needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was advised to call the NHTSA Hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 52,000.
The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500. The contact stated that after driving at low speeds, upon parking the vehicle, the brake pedal was depressed, but the vehicle was slow to respond while stopping. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer where it was diagnosed and determined that the clutch needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer again to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the clutch and clutch cord needed to be replaced. The dealer informed the contact that the failure was due to her driving style. On another occasion while driving at an undisclosed speed, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 48,204.
Driver side seat belt has worn prematurely, no longer retractable or locking in place. Seat belt is often wet during rainy weather, the vehicle is only 6yrs old to already have a safety belt malfunction. It is unknown to me why the seat belt has malfunctioned.
After bringing vehicle to a complete stop at a traffic light, it died and gave a propulsion system warning. After about 20 attempts to turn off and reboot the vehicle, it restarted and behaved as if nothing had happened. This was a very dangerous situation with the vehicle stuck in the middle of the road. There have been two recalls on this very specific issue (and this vehicle has had that related software updates). Vehicle did the exact same behavior for no reason. (NHTSA campaign: 16V303000 & 15V179000). And because the vehicle wasn't sold in Georgia, no local dealers know how to work on it.
I was driving our Fiat 500e (31K miles) in late June, when suddenly the HV Battery System (and primarily the PIM/Power Inverter Module that controls the HV battery system and propulsion system) failed, causing my moving vehicle to lose it's ability to use power steering. I was on a steep hill and was barely able to control the car. I contacted my local Fiat dealer, had the car towed there, and it has sat there for 3.5 months, while the dealership and Fiat USA have argued over how to repair it. In the meantime, the 8 year warranty on the HV battery system has winnowed down and will go out of warranty this month. It is my belief that Fiat USA has purposely delayed a resolution so they could not have to pay to repair the car under warranty. The PIM controls the HV system and propulsion and yet Fiat claims that the PIM is not their responsibility to repair. This is an otherwise perfect car with only 31K miles and the idea that it would be junked and sent to landfill over a bad PIM controller (a small component the size of a football) is a tragedy. Via online messaging boards, I have spoken to numerous other owners of Fiat 500e autos who have suffered a similar PIM failure and whom Fiat also refused to help. Fiat should stand behind the cars they sold to us and should pay to repair the PIM controller so the car runs. Barring that, they should pay the market value of the car. I have specific engine error codes and reports that I would be happy to provide. Thank you in advance for your help.
Rear end car crash. Seat back collapsed and threw me into back seat where I sufferred brain injury.
Bought the vehicle used and it had zero issues. I bought 4 new tires and immediately after the RBS and ESC warning lights appeared but disappeared one day later. Fives days after the new tires the RBS & ESC warning lights reappeared but remained. I took it to the FIAT Dealership for a diagnostic and they stated that after following the flow chart it states to replace ABS Module due to internal failure. I held off on replacing the ABS module because a separate mechanic stated that it’s common with Fiats for the RBS & ECA warnings to appear after changing all tires. One month later the BRAKE warning light turned on (without the emergency brake in use) and the car began to jerk when in drive or when using the brakes (as I was driving). I had to drive slow with little pressure on the gas so that I would not have to use the brakes as every time I did the car would jerk very roughly and felt as if it was going to break.
Our FIAT was rear-ended on October 20. My wife suffered multiple critical injuries. The accident occurred in Manatee County Florida. I have the accident report, a picture of the vehicle, and a reported recall of the vehicle for a seat problem that took place in Australia. There has been no recall in the U.S. I will upload the relevant documents. The company reports the front seat’s guide tracks may not comply to safety standards do to a manufacturing fault. If the guide tracks are faulty, the seat could suddenly shift backwards or forwards during a crash, which poses an increased risk of injury.
The contact owns a 2015 Fiat 500. The contact stated that the interior door handles on the driver’s and passenger’s side front doors fractured making it difficult to open the door from the inside or outside of the vehicle. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 55,000. Consumer stated handles break too often causing allot of inconvenience and expense. Appointment to get both handles on the car fixed again for Jan 3, 2022.
Fiat made their 500e vehicles (electric) and sold them off as a tax relief. Unfortunately, many who have purchased this vehicles are experiencing similar issues. The car dies and the main battery is dead (not the small battery that you can replace/charge - the big one). Upon calling Fiat, they said it was covered under warranty - BUT- there is one part that is crucial to the install and the part costs $7,000. Our car is not worth 7k. We bought it for 10k four years ago and it has depreciated value. When we appealed with Fiat - they would not budge. We filed a claim for loss damages and it goes denied - twice. This is a known problem - many insurance companies and mechanics do not know how to process electric vehicles.
Fiat 500E vehicle braking behavior IS unexpectedly hard, sudden, or unpredictable until the user uses an obd scan tool with appropriate diagnostic software- and initiates brake controller sensor re-calibration. This option IS found under the diagnostic menu under: abs>renenerative brake controller>active diagnostics, and then selecting the procedure to start (rbc sensor calibration). Online forum users (please see link below) are currently using 3RD party software, at their own expense, to correct the braking deficiency (approximately $49). My personal vehicle was purchased used and was exhibiting sudden and unexpected braking issues at approximately 8,500 miles; this IS in my opinion a very low number of miles to be experiencing regenerate braking and control issues. Please reference the ongoing discussion thread at fiat 500E online forums: https://www.fiat500owners.com/threads/fix-grabby-brakes-for-70.149282/#post-1292483
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request: High voltage battery system, the vehicle is available for viewing. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk?: Long time garage storage of vehicle and limited owners manual description on procedure to maintain high voltage battery during extended non use of vehicle. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center?: The problem has been reproduced and the vehicle is currently at a Fiat/Chrysler dealership. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others?: The component is currently under inspection, the vehicle has been at the Fiat/Chrysler since 8/11/2021, it is now 9/18/2021. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear?: Error message display on cluster stating HV battery unable to be charged. General Description: Fiat 500e parked in closed garage for a year after following Fiat's Vehicle Storage instructions instruction shown pages 321 & 322 of the owners manual for the Fiat's electrical system. Returned after one year found Fiat's electric system a car went in fail mode. The instructions are limited and do not long term issues of fire danger in a enclosed space like a garage and power outages or brown outs. Fiat will not honor the vehicles warranty as the milage is a 42,625 and the warranty is only good up to 40,000 miles. The California Lemon Law does not cover this as well as it's as well. I need help!
I am a retired master certified automotive technician. Ever since I bought this 2015 Fiat 500e [it is battery electric] in 2017 with NO warning all kinds of trouble/service lights will go on as the car shuts down & stops as if it was thrown into Park, & most of the time it does this it is at highway speeds on crowded L.A. freeways, which has become very close to getting me killed several times I have taken it to local dealers for this problem since shortly after I bought it in 2017, long before the bumper to bumper warranty expired. Most of the time the dealer reads/clears the codes, then parks it in a back lot for days, weeks, & months, then after a while tells me it's done & I can pick it up, but normally within 100 miles the exact same thing happens so I have to take it back to the dealer. Most recently it did not even make it off the dealers lot before it did it. The latest dealer I have been taking it to for this problems, [5 times in a few months] clearly doesn't know the car or what they are doing & is now brazenly lying on repair orders. They have also been claiming it had no problems or trouble codes when I brought it in, after the service writer read & printed out dozens of codes, which they promised to give me a copy of but then refused to give to me. Because this is the exact same problem covered by previous recalls on this car I believe dealers have charged for services & doing recalls that they did not do, because I marked the parts & see NO indication they changed the parts required or did the procedures required to perform the services claimed. This car has had the exact same dangerous problems covered by the recalls since I bought it & I must now pay dealers to service it even though the propulsion system is under warranty. At this point I believe this is brazen dangerous widespread fraud with the factories participation
2 Recalls R20 and S26
the problem is: I can not charging, light indicator is red plug , charger indicate (charging) I can not shift gear to D or R , just accept shift to P and N message warning : 1-service electric vehicle system , (yellow car) indicator lamp 2-service charging system (red plug) 3-service propulsion system
Began losing clutch, clutch/brake assembly had the 2 connecting bolts broken in half. Have pictures. Clutch interlock arrived bad, bypassed it; now the power steering, engine light and eos lights stay on. car engine died then cranked up on its own while driving 60mph stating high temp (pull over, turn engine off) - had been in the car less than 1 minute, just long enough to get to 60 on the highway. Now clutch interlock, and brake interlock must be replaced.
While using cruise control and resuming or increasing the speed to a higher speed, the transmission slams into gear instead of transitioning.
My vehicle has 37,000 miles when driving on the freeway vehicle got stuck in gear causing a safety concern, luckily I was able to make it home safely with the vehicle stuck in gear. There IS a recall on my vehicle that says vehicle may get stuck in gear, I was never notified of the recall by fiat, took vehicle to fiat dealership and was told it has an internal gear failure inside the transmission that IS not associated with the recall and they will not repair it even though in the recall it states vehicle can become stuck in gear, failure to take care of the recall can cause transmission failure and the dealership IS aware of this however they will not repair the vehicle that still runs but IS stuck in gear.
I work at an independent auto repair facility. We have seen several headlight bulb connector failures where the connector melts. When the connector melts, the light stops functioning. The repair requires replacement of the connector and the bulb.
NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened these reviews into vehicles including this one.
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened this investigation to determine if the failure of airbags to deploy during severe crashes, in certain vehicles, was the result of a safety related defect. During the investigation a complex failure was studied that can result in non-deployment of subject vehicle air bags and other restraint system devices in severe crash events. The subject vehicles may be equipped with an airbag control unit (ACU) for the supplemental restraint system (SRS) Electronic Control Unit (ECU) manufactured by ZF-TRW. The ECU receives signals from crash sensors mounted in the vehicle and deploys the vehicle air bags and seat belt pretensioners in accordance with manufacturer design specifications. The ECU in the subject vehicles contains a model DS84 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which controls the communication of the crash sensor signal, firing commands (i.e., when to deploy the airbag(s) and/or pretensioners), and fault information (e.g., diagnostic trouble codes). In September 2016, FCA announced recall 16V-668 for certain model year (MY) 2010 to 2014 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep products manufactured with the subject ZF-TRW ACU. In this recall, FCA discussed an EOS condition that resulted in a failure of the subject DS84 ASIC, which caused air bag non-deployment. FCA noted that the defect condition had only been observed in vehicles equipped with sensor harnessing routed across the front of the vehicle. Other FCA vehicles that also used the subject ACU, but were not equipped with cross-car harnessing, had not experienced EOS failures, despite similar time in service. During the course of this investigation, ODI sent two separate Information Request (IR) letters to six vehicle manufactures (including FCA, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, Mitsubishi, and Toyota) and one IR letter to ZF-TRW. These IR letters resulted in ODI receiving comprehensive data from these manufacturers and suppliers. Studies of this data found that the DS84 ASIC does not have sufficient protection against negative electrical transients or electrical overstress (“EOS”) that can be generated in certain severe crashes. An electrical transient occurs when the electrical power supplied to a circuit changes momentarily over a short duration of time. In these severe crash cases, the crash sensors and other powered wiring can be damaged and short circuited so as to create a negative electrical transient of sufficient intensity and duration (that are outside the vehicle manufacturer's specification) to damage the ASIC before the restraint device deployment signal is received by the SRS ECU. This damaged signal can lead to incomplete or nondeployment of the air bags and/or pretensioners. Airbag non-deployment and/or lack of pretensioner operation can increase the risk or severity of injury in a crash.A total of 8 fatalities and 14 injuries were associated with known EOS events. The common element in all investigated manufacturers vehicles is the SRS ECU containing a DS84 ASIC manufactured by ZF-TRW. The risk associated with the ASIC is equally shared among all OEMS involved in the investigation. The actual real-world risk can be mitigated by other factors which were assessed by ODI during this investigation. The first mitigating factor involves protections built into the ACU design which protect the DS84 ASIC from damage. There are multiple strategies and levels of protection employed by different OEMs that provide effective EOS mitigation. The two most common strategies at the ACU level are circuit protection diodes on the remote senor signal lines, and current limiting resistors that protect critical components. The second mitigating factor is found at the vehicle level and involves the location and routing of the wires leading from the crash sensors to the SRS ECU. If the wires are well protected in a crash and are not routed with other power wires carrying large currents, the risk for an EOS event is significantly reduced or eliminated. These design specific factors combine to produce a spectrum of risk for the vehicles equipped with ACUs using the DS84 ASIC. Given the many of years of field exposure, it is possible to divide the subject population into two groups; vehicles which have experienced EOS events, and vehicles which have not experienced EOS field events. Four of the six OEMs involved in this investigation have experienced EOS field events on at least one of their models equipped with a DS84 ASIC. All vehicle models (including the Toyota models identified in the Failure Report Summary of the opening resume for this investigation) with field events have been recalled. In an abundance of caution, ODI kept this investigation open five years to monitor field performance and did not identify any field events on vehicles not included in existing safety recalls. Given the spectrum of risk identified in this investigation and that all vehicles with a demonstrated unreasonable risk have been recalled, ODI is closing this investigation. ODI is closing this investigation with the following manufacturer safety recalls: 16V-668, 18E-043, 18V-137, 18V-363, and 20V-024. With the recall actions taken by the subject vehicle and equipment manufacturers, this investigation is closed. The closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exists on other model or model year vehicles outside of the recall scopes. The agency reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances.
Technical service bulletins and other communications the manufacturer sent dealers about this vehicle. Ask a dealer for the full document by its number.
Bars are owner complaints, dots mark years with recalls. Select a year to open its report.