Hey, just joined so hi all!


I just bought a 1999 Fiat Brava and have a few queries about some minor problems with it. Hopefully I'll be able to fix them myself (though I'm no mechanic/electrician by a long shot!)...

- The interior fan only comes on at setting '4'. 1, 2 and 3 don't function. How simple would it be to diagnose the problem and fix this?

- There are two lights that won't go out on the dashboard - 'Airbag Failure' and 'Injection System Failure' - should I be concerned or could they come on in error with the car at this age? Can I fix the problems causing them to come on myself?

And a few aesthetics issues:
- Is it possible to remove the metal side panels on which the wing mirrors are mounted? The black paint has peeled off mine and I want to take them of to repaint them properly - I can't find an easy way to do this though.

- How easy is it to replace the door handles? The rubber coatings have perished and peeled off so I want to replace them with new(ish) handles. Also where's the best place to get new ones? A breaker? Or are there suppliers selling new ones?


Only little problems I know, but they're niggling at me! Any help would be much appreciated

-interior fan problem suggests the speed controller is faulty. to fix it i tihnk you need to replace the bit that the knobs are attached to.

- airbag light is common, a dealer can diagnose the problem, then fix it, then switch the light off, realistically you cant do anything yourself on the airbag sysmet. i'll be honest, dealers dont have a very good succes rate at fixing the airbag system, and they arent cheap, but its worth a try and there is on one else who can do it. i just pulled the LED out to swithc the light of.
the injection fault light means the ecu is currently detecting a fault, it could be nothing or it could be very searious indeed. a diagnostic will tell you why it is illuminated, if you get the fault code(s) post them here and we can help you to fix it. buying a car with this light on is a big risk, plenty of people sell their car when they find out the fault is going to be very expensive to fix, i hope you havent bought an expensive problem.

- black paint on the wing mirror is a common problem, they are easily removed and painted.

- door handle rubber is another very common problem. fit marea handles, they are hard plastic so they last forever and look better. there are many previous threads describing how to do this.

a haynes manual will be very helpful.

if the fan is only functioning on setting 4, the resistor pack could also be faulty. its mounted in the air duct from the fan, under the dash on the passenger side. you will see a few thick wires going into it. replace with one from a breakers. if the old one has failed, check if there is a pollen filter fitted in case it is blocked. this can cause the resistors to overheat and fail..

yeah thats the bit you replace when the fan fault occurs

Cheers guys, I'll have a butchers!

I've actually got another problem I forgot to add to this, and can't find another thread covering it - The windscreen washers are really weak and don't really squirt with much force. Any remedies?

pull the pipe off the washer pump and see if the water is blasting out of it when operated. if its ok, there is probably a blockage somewhere. there are small non return valves fitted in line with the pipes, somewhere around the engine bay fuse box and possibly the far side. pull these off and make sure you can blow through them. if they are totally blocked (not uncommon), just join up the pipes with small diameter tubing. use a compressed air line with air gun to blow air through the pipes to clear any other blockages. but you might want to disconnect the nozzles before you do in case any crap gets trapped in them and blocks them up too.

Just had similar low pressure on my washers which was caused by the washer additive "festering" and changing to a lump of goo. A complete strip down of the bottle and flush out was the only answer. The annoying thing is that the garage had to remove bumper etc to do it. Couldn't face it myself.
-£120.