General A month on

Currently reading:
General A month on

icedup51

New member
Joined
Jul 28, 2017
Messages
20
Points
9
Have had the 2013 model Abarth 500, just over a month and in general most impressed with the car. I have a couple of questions which maybe some of you long term owners could assist me with.

It seems that the average consumption is showing about 39 mpg after some 500 miles, this is using between normal and sport mode. In normal mode it seems a bit sluggish and the question here is, do people leave it in sport mode all the time and what changes does it make over the 'normal mode' The other car is a Merc AMG, which has 4 settings from comfort to race and various mapping setups for engine, exhaust, suspension etc.

What readings should the turbo gauge be showing. It seems to rarely goes above 0.4bar, is this correct or do I need a garage visit?

The wipers seem to drag across the screen. I have had new blades put on and tried all manner of screen cleaning, last was vinegar and water but still not a lot of difference. Has anyone else had that issue and is there a fix?

Finally, noticed some rust on the exhaust back box and in one place the outer skin had a hole. The mileage in 25K, what is the expected life of the rear box. If I need to replace should I stick to standard or is there a recommended upgrade.

It is a great 'little car' and I say that endearingly, it gets as many comments as the AMG. Just those couple of niggles I would like to resolve. Thanks for your help.
 
Welcome to the forum! Non-Abarth owner here, but certainly a long-term owner - my 1.4 Sport will be 9 years old next month. My car still has its original back box at 45,000 miles and it seems to be holding out pretty well. Had the car up on a lift recently to see if replacement was needed following an MOT advisory of a hole in the outer skin but fitter said all was well with the inner skin and it didn't need to be changed.

I experienced occasional wiper drag with the original blades. Hasn't happened since fitting Valeo Silencio blades and regularly cleaning the blades with Autoglym glass polish - I recommend this combo!

That's all I can offer - hopefully the Abarth owners will come in with a lot more advice!
 
Welcome to the forum! Non-Abarth owner here, but certainly a long-term owner - my 1.4 Sport will be 9 years old next month. My car still has its original back box at 45,000 miles and it seems to be holding out pretty well. Had the car up on a lift recently to see if replacement was needed following an MOT advisory of a hole in the outer skin but fitter said all was well with the inner skin and it didn't need to be changed.

I experienced occasional wiper drag with the original blades. Hasn't happened since fitting Valeo Silencio blades and regularly cleaning the blades with Autoglym glass polish - I recommend this combo!

That's all I can offer - hopefully the Abarth owners will come in with a lot more advice!
Thanks for that. I try the wiper combo treatment. Guess the back box has gone early!!
 
Thanks for the info.

I will give the wiper combo a go. As for the back box, seems it may have a gone early!
 
One issue we had with our wipers, was they would catch on each other. There's not much room between the blades, and the long one sweeps part of the window that the smaller one does so there's a chance of a collision.

Happened two or three times in the three years we had it.

No issue at all at low speeds, but if you're whizzing along on motorway and/or it's windy and use the flick-wipe, the wind can catch on them and they collide a bit. When it first happened, I nearly jumped out of my skin and thought something had hit the screen. :eek:

Yes, the blades were aligned perfectly as per the marker positions on the screen so it wasn't that.

Other than them catching on each other, they worked well.

Best wishes,
Mick.
 
Last edited:
As for the back box, seems it may have a gone early!

The outer skin commonly fails after 2-4 years, but the inner skin can last at least the same length of time after that. Sometimes the outer skin comes loose and starts rattling; when that happens, you can peel off the outer skin and keep using it until the inner skin rusts through.

It'll still pass an MOT as long as the inner skin isn't holed, or the outer skin isn't in danger of falling off (which can be fixed by removing the outer skin).

I experienced occasional wiper drag with the original blades. Hasn't happened since fitting Valeo Silencio blades and regularly cleaning the blades with Autoglym glass polish - I recommend this combo!

Autoglym glass polish is great for fixing draggy wipers on any car. You need to use it on both the screen and the blades, and you need to use the proper glass polish, not the fast glass cleaner (though the latter is a good, if somewhat expensive, window cleaner).

The OEM wipers aren't the best; Bosch Aerotwins work pretty well also.
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys.

Seems the turbo gauge has sorted itself out, perhaps it was having a mid life crisis!

Seems as well it runs much better, in sport mode, so guess I will just leave it on.

The next consideration is the cam belt. As coming up to 4 years old will need to look to get changed in the next few months.
 
Back
Top