Hello all

I have just purchased a Brava 1.2 80 SX to drive the 8000 miles or so from Goodwood to Ulan Batur in Mongolia. It is a charity rally this summer called the Mongol Rally. More info about it if you google (I can't post URLs yet)

It has done 61k and apart from some central locking issues and the fact that I have only one blue key seems to be a good enough car for its age.

I have to get this car in much better shape however if I want to get this thing through Mongolia where there are no roads, however. I would like any advice anyone here has to offer me as I've not owned a fiat before. There's also some specific questions I'm wondering about...

- Is it possible to increase the ground clearance cheaply?
- What are the biggest wheels you can fit without modifying the suspension/bodywork
- What part of the car if any is most likely to fail catastrophically in the middle of nowhere, and what can I do now to try and prevent that
- My clutch seems to judder when I move off in first gear. Is that due to oil contamination on the clutch or is it a quirk affecting old Bravas?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom!

Mongol said:

- What part of the car if any is most likely to fail catastrophically in the middle of nowhere, and what can I do now to try and prevent that
- My clutch seems to judder when I move off in first gear. Is that due to oil contamination on the clutch or is it a quirk affecting old Bravas?

Click to expand...

only thing that springs to mind is the final drive on the diff. it is bonded instead of bolted for some reason. managed to break one on my mates brava doing a J turn, it was fine whilst it was spinning the wheels but once one of them gripped again - BAM. no drive. Prevention.. get a gearbox and diff that isn't bonded.

Clutch shouldn't do that. It might be on its way, if you're taking the box off you'll be changing it anyway tho.

Not sure the budget will stretch to a new gearbox/diff!

https://www.fiatforum.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=13764&cat=63

£60

but thats just me.. i'm not a brava person. dont let me scare you. wait till someone who knows these cars better than me comes along !!

I thought the cars had to be LHD for the Mongol Rally??

My car has juddered in 1st gear for a good few thousand miles - just waiting for the clutch to go pop!! Luckily for me it's not likely to be too far from home!!

Wishing you the best of luck on your journey.

Stay Safe. Duggers.

Thanks Duggers.

So anyway - my most pressing question is with regards to the tyres and fluids:

- What are the biggest wheels you can fit without modifying the suspension/bodywork?
- What's the best sort of oil to use in the engine/gearbox?

as said its the gearbox's on 1.2's that seem to be an issue, not sure on the oil aspect. As for the wheels you can put 17's on without a problem with bodywork or suspension issues, however they will probaby be a pcd of 100 rather than the OE 98, so these would require wobbly bolts.

what's this bonded diff rubish there's no such fastening system in place on fiat gearboxes
yes the joins are glued with flange sealer to seal in the oil but there all bolted together

now what actually happened is on earlier bravos fiat had differential problems were the diff it's self would fail or the bearings this only affected a small number of gearboxes and fiat toughtened them up solving the problem and restoring the usual fiat style of indistructable boxes so i wouldn't wory there if it's done this many miles it'll be fine aspecialy the fiat 514 witch is what yours is one of the best gearboxes i know

as far as fluids i would change all of them including gearbox oil

and i can only recomend fiats own selenia for the engine and gearbox

others over a short period are not so important

a new clutch would see you throu 8k miles so well worth doing i'f it's showing the signs of age

as for jacking the suspension cheaply you'd need to completly replace it trying to jack the standard shock higher on just springs alone would destroy them totaly very early on in the event

wheels and tyres i would try not to fucus on sise of rim and more so large profile tyres this would have a small effeect on ride height depending on the rim sise and go for some nice semi off road depends what you can get your hands on that way you will put much less strain and shock on the suspension

i think a sensible sise to go for would be 15inch and a 60 or 70 profile

engine i would change cambelt/tentioners and water pump service as you would any other car air filters plugs and leads axuiliary belts

rear wheel cylinders could be changed they can fail and all the brakes given an overhall the front calipers normaly remain reliable for years and bleed all brakes

due to shock loading on the shell i would short out the fuel cut off switch so that it does not triger as your driving they have been known to trigger very easily but i think it may be best to think about that if it happens not before maybe leve it in place and have a backup circuit for it as it is a safety feature after all i dont wana see you go up in flames

now as far as reliability goes the 1.2s being towards the end of bravo manufacture most of the niggles were solved and the engines with a new cambelt in place are dead reliable and rev for fun

i hope you have fun with the car and rally

The Sultan said:

what's this bonded diff rubish there's no such fastening system in place on fiat gearboxes
yes the joins are glued with flange sealer to seal in the oil but there all bolted together

Click to expand...

yeah.. erm.. no.



now you've seen one.

and here is on that is bolted;

https://www.fiatforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=57124&d=1233228321

'ave a read; https://www.fiatforum.com/group-buys/177875-quaife-atb-lsd-cinq-sei-gp-panda-4.html

yes the box itself is stong (though 3rd gear is syncrho is a weak it isnt really worth mentioning) but there are some rogue diffs out there that don't have the crownwheel bolted on.

For rough roads you want maximum tyre sidewall - 14" wheels with 185/60R14tyres - mud and snow grade.

Thanks for all the advice Sultan. Coming back to the wheels - I'm not really bothered about getting new rims, only tyres themselves. At present I have 175/65 on 14" rims and intend to put 80 aspect van tyres (nice and strong) onto them. Would that fit in the arches?

if go to this page; http://www.carbibles.com/tyre_bible_pg2.html

and scroll down to; "A tyre size calculator "

stick the values in there, and see how much larger the rolling radius is going to be. measure the gap in your arches and make a call

Can't imagine many people have run 80 profiles under there. Drop to 165 if the rims are narrow enough.

Ironically i have posted a couple of ..posts about a Hillman Imp tonight on site as it caught my eye!!
Now this Mongol Rally...I do know someone who has enterered a Hillman Imp successfully. Don't know how as the regs state a vehicle within a certain period. Something to do with their government not wanting a batch of dumped cars in their country after the event (?)!
Frank is quite a character in that his personal car(also an Imp ) is ledgendary in problems.
Being a student i think that most of the Imp Club fraternity have donated parts such as cylinder heads, transaxles and such like to help him out..
Now he insists on doing this adventure!!!
Anyhow his name is Frank (cannot remember his friends name)so if you see him on route ...
Best wishes to you anyhow!
David L.

I shall look out for him! Need all the friends you can get in things like this...

I like the idea of people donating stuff! Anyone here got any spare parts or fiat specific tools they'd like to be relieved of in the name of charity? (Epilepsy Research UK in this case, our chosen cause)