Okay, further to: https://www.fiatforum.com/bravo-brava/109424-what-look-out-buying-used.html. I bought the following:

Fiat Bravo.
2001 - Y plate
1.2 16v 80sx
31k miles on the clock
Bodywork in good condition (one or two small blemishes)
Mechanical, the engine is good, but suspension needs some work, and the car needs a good service. All to be done my me.

Price: £850.

Had one moment when I got the car back, and thought I'd bought a dodgy one (still can't get over the price of these decent cars). When I noticed a small drip of oil being left behind. Did some investigation, and found the leak was coming from the oil filter seal. Although the oil filter appears quite tight, I still managed to move it slightly tighter, without even a strap wrench. My guess is that the last mech didn't oil the seal on the the filter, and also because the filter is difficult to get at with your hands, was prob just lazy with the fitting.

The other problems I knew of when I bought it were:

2 worn front shocks, 2 tired (but not overly worn) front wishbones, The rest (after driving it for a while now) is sound.

This weekend she's getting.

Service:

Sparks,
Oil,
Oil Filter (hopefully will stop the leak at the same time)
Air Filter,

New Front Shocks,
New Wishbones,
New Rear Shocks - these were special offer at £5.75 each, so I thought "why not".

When would the cambelt be due on this? I've cambelt changed on the Uno before, is the 1.2 Bravo as easy?

Overall, for the money, very pleased with her.

You got it for a really good price!! I had to replace the the front wishbones..had it done in a garage and it cost a bit..so i'd advise you to do it yourself. I would just get the timing belt done for piece of mind anyway. i haven't had any problems other than the wishbones (that i remember), pretty good cars!happy motoring

Thanks!

I'm doing all the work myself, so the wishbones will be included in that.

Is the cambelt relatively easy?

On the Punto & Uno, it was just a point of getting the drivers side wheel off, then removing some of the inspection covers, etc. And finally making sure the timing marks were all correct and lined up. Tensioning was the old "quarter twist" on the longest loose part of the belt technique.

Job was done in around an hour - similar scenario for the Bravo 1.2?

congrats, sounds like a real bargain

circolo said:

Overall, for the money, very pleased with her.

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so you should be

circolo said:

On the Punto & Uno, it was just a point of getting the drivers side wheel off, then removing some of the inspection covers, etc. And finally making sure the timing marks were all correct and lined up. Tensioning was the old "quarter twist" on the longest loose part of the belt technique.

Job was done in around an hour - similar scenario for the Bravo 1.2?

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exactly, its childs play. and as far as twin cams go its the easiest to do because the cams are connected with a gear and can not go out of sync.

Thanks, Jug!

You seem to the man in the know, when it comes to Bravo's.

Does 31/32k sound about right for the front shocks to start showing signs of wear? (One is just beginning to leak, the other is feeling like it's about to leak).

Sounds quite young for the shocks to go. But then I'm used to the lighter Fiats like the Uno's who'd last 60k before blowing their seals.

I'll get the cambelt & tensioners on order from Desira, probably do this the weekend after the service, and other repairs.

circolo said:

Does 31/32k sound about right for the front shocks to start showing signs of wear? (One is just beginning to leak, the other is feeling like it's about to leak).

Sounds quite young for the shocks to go. But then I'm used to the lighter Fiats like the Uno's who'd last 60k before blowing their seals.

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it is very early, suspiciously early to be honest. either the car has been clocked or it has had something happen that would make the shocks fail early, such as a crash or a couple of very fat owners (i'm talking 30stone beasts here) which would also mean the chairs and brakes are severely worn.

check the pedals, steering wheel and drivers seat. at 32k there should be virtualy no signs of any wear at all. also check the front discs, they should be still mint. then check the rear shoes, they should have a plenty of mm left. then look at the exhaust, if any of it has been replaced, or any of it is original and looks like it'll need replacing soonish, then i'd be suspicous.

I don't agree with Jug's doom and gloom scenario, I think it's extremely common for Fiat shocks on these sort of cars to go at 30K miles. I think they are one case where Fiat "ricambi originali" seem to be inferior to aftermarket replacements. Plus comfortable ride and handling come at the price of the shocks doing more work than on sportier setups.

bluejohn125 said:

comfortable ride and handling come at the price of the shocks doing more work than on sportier setups

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a common complaint about the bravo is that it has poor ride over rough surfaces due to the firmer than average suspension setup, so i dont know where you get the 'comfortable ride' idea from.

either way, regardless of the bound and rebound properties of a shock absorber, it should still have an expected life of more than 60k, usually closer to 80k+, and often more than 100k in reality. 30k is a very short life for any shock absorber.

what milage have other people had to replace their shocks at? i'd like to get an idea of what is a 'normal' milage on a bravo/a. mine are still good as new at 77k, on my previous bravo i replaced them at 90something thousand, but that was an upgrade, they still worked fine. obviously i can not be certain they had not been changed in the past, hover the bolts were untouched and the parts were all original. tbh its usually obvious if something has been changed before.

has anyone changed there shocks (when they actually needed changing, not because you fancied an upgrade ), if so post the approx milage.

my rears were changed at 98k and the fronts at 96k they were the original ones from factory as far as i am aware the previous owner never changed them and he was the first owner.

Hmm,

Thanks for the info.

The clocking scenario did cross my mind. But there appears no other sign of that kind of mileage on the car.

The steering will is not shiny, the seats are both still firm and supportive, no thread is showing at all. The pedals, show a little wear, but nothing really, just a little dusty. Really, the interior is like new.

The engine also feels like a 31/32k engine. Still very tight feeling, although I'm not sure what a higher mileage 1.2 engine would feel like, but my experience of other cars, is the engines do loosen up. The exhaust is the OE one, and looks fine as well. There's only one stone chip on the bonnet too.

And the mileage does seem to add up - looking at each MOT, etc, although with corrupt stations I know that can be dubious.

But what does add up to me, is that it was owned by a Mother, then sold to her Daughter, who in turn has sold the car to me. They lived in London, Holloway, where there are loads of speed bumps, and really crappy roads. I think it's had a pretty rough life on those bumpy roads - and maybe that's what's knackered the shock absorbers...

I do know it was used to cart the kids to and from school - a full load each time.

bravos don't like rough roads. I got my bravo with 35k on the clock..i've put 10k on it in a year and the shocks are still good.

I think you might be on to something with the rough road scenario.

I've just had to replace the shocks on my HGT. They were the original shocks and had covered 64k before I blew the front passenger shock out on a pot hole.

I decided to do all of them at once because they were all showing signs of wear and tear - Not helped by the poorly maintained roads around Reading plus the -40mm drop that the suspension received a few months back.

I would say on average most shocks should last in excess of 70k miles however every car/driver/road is individual and accounts for wear at different rates.

If the roads where really bad where the previous owner lived and she had to cover a lot of speed bumps with a fully loaded car (probably taking them too quickly as well) then that could easily account for the very early wear on your shocks.

yeah heavy loads and bad road surfaces will severely shortern the life of shocks, if there's no other evidence to suggest it has been clocked i wouldnt worry about it.

jug said:

yeah heavy loads and bad road surfaces will severely shortern the life of shocks, if there's no other evidence to suggest it has been clocked i wouldnt worry about it.

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im about to change my shocks at 65k, although drivers side has been leaky for a month :S (oops)

i replaced the front shocks on my Uno 1.0 at 66,000 miles.
but i also think that car was clocked.

even with the extra work, looks like you got a bargain there! you think the london holloway roads at bad...you should see some of the back lanes in devon!! lol

Well having the car a full once over (underneath), I'm now sure it's genuine mileage on the clocks.

I'm also sure that the previous two owners (two ladies, a Mother, then her Daughter), enjoyed bumping the Bravo up kerbs to park, and weren't the best of drivers in that respect.

The main wear on this car has been suspension components, and the two front wheels have hit a kerb on more than one occasion. But the rest of the car is in near new condition, with the engine feeling tight still.

As I've (a) replaced the majority of the supension components now - wishbones, droplinks, shocks. And (b) have a set of unmarked Coupe 20vt alloys which should go on a treat on the Bravo, I guess I've done quite well.

Just bloody hard work! Particularly the wishbone on the driver side!

When I got my JTD at 33k (Brava) I had to put new rear shocks on