Fiat's automobile production has been hit at five of its major factories around Europe as production of the 1.3 Multijet 16v engine grids to a halt due to a faulty component.

Fiat's automobile production has been hit at five of its major factories around Europe as production of the widely used 1.3 Multijet 16v engine grids to a halt due to faults found with an externally supplied component.

The factory in southern Poland that builds the engine has suspended production of a power unit that is a key engine in the Fiat Group Automobiles range, being used in an array of models including Fiat's 500, Panda, Grande Punto and Idea, and Lancia's Ypsilon and Musa, as well as in Fiat Professional's Fiorino and Doblò vans.

"As a result of the constant quality controls carried out on all the components of Fiat Group Automobiles cars, a number of anomalies have emerged with regard to an externally-supplied component for the 1.3 Multijet engine," read a statement issued by the Fiat Group.

"In order to verify that this supply of components meets the quality standards requested by Fiat, the Company has decided to suspend production of the engines and cars on which they are mounted," the statement continued. "This decision has led to the suspension of production in the Bielsko Biala plant, where these engines are manufactured, as well as at certain production lines of the Mirafiori, Melfi, Termini Imerese, Tychy and Bursa plants, where models equipped with 1.3 Multijet engines are produced.

"The Company is making every possible effort to speed up controls and adaptations that could become necessary, so as to reduce delays in delivery to customers to the minimum. Although Fiat is aware that this suspension of production will have repercussions on its delivery volumes for the month of February, it has nonetheless decided to adopt an uncompromising and rigorous approach so as to guarantee the highest levels of product quality to its customers," the press release concluded.