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Technical Wishbone bolts.

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Technical Wishbone bolts.

Prilliant03

Prilliant03

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The Bravo is currently off the road waiting for a new MOT. I have wishbones, drop links and track rod ends waiting to go on, but I know that many of the bolts holding the wishbones in place are going to be heavily corroded and may need heir heads grinding off and replacing. So I called my local dealer for a replacement price. £45!! For 8 bolts!!! I don't think they were impressed when I asked if Fiat were making them from titanium nowadays to stop future corrosion:p

Anyway, does anybody know the spec of the bolts that hold the wishbones to the subframe? I'm tempted to try a local fasteners supplier instead.

Finally, a little advance notice. We'll probably be selling the car in the near future. Rapidly expanding dogs and frequent long journeys mean we need something a bit bigger and newer. Got our eyes on a couple of Alfa 159 Sportwagons. So if anybody might be looking for a decent little 105 JTD watch this space.
 
Amazing what a week soaking in ACF50 can do. Managed to free off all but 2 of the bolts (offside front ones both rounded). So they are on order at the local dealer and will be fitted on saturday, weather permitting.

Now I'm left wondering what's the best way to remove the two remaining bolts. Angle grinder perhaps?
 
Hi,
is it a long bolt going through - with a nut in the other end..??,:confused:

if so , and access is ok , try playing the grinder along the mangled heads to form a couple of new flats on the NUT , the heat of the grinding may well boil out the last plus-gas and free things off, then use stillsons / bahco to grip on the new flats,

have fun..,
Charlie
 
People that sell wishbones should put bolts in with them I feel.

If you check ePer, its actually one of the bolts fiat give a thread size for. They are M10 and they are varying thread lengths depending on where they go. Check using your VIN in eper to be sure but

My car uses,
4x M10X30
2x M10X62
2x M10X81

heres a link;
http://eper.fiatforum.com/eper/navi...INT_MODE=0&EPER_CAT=SP&GUI_LANG=3&WINDOW_ID=1

Maybe you could try one of these 1/2 damaged nut removers.
IRW-53904-2.jpg
 
Last edited:
Cheers Adrian, I did wonder about using a special extractor, but to be honest it would probably cost as much as the 2 new bolts. I've ordered them now anyway so too late to worry :)

And I agree, the bolts should be supplied with the new wishbone.
 
When I changed the wishbones, I picked up spare bolts from local shop for under 10e even with some spares.
8.8 grade, but should be good enough, torque to 70Nm.
Also note that the bolts are M10x1.25 fine pitch.
A week beforehand I had the front tires off and put some penetrating oil on top of the bolts. No problems removing/reusing them. The long "spare" bolts were good for locating the wishbone in the first place.

I've never had a bolt round off using 6point sockets.
One time a 13mm head on exhaust was rusted and somewhat round.
Nothing a 12mm socket and a big hammer couldn't fix.
Imperial set is sometimes useful for those aswell.
 
Neverth said:
A week beforehand I had the front tires off and put some penetrating oil on top of the bolts. No problems removing/reusing them.

One time a 13mm head on exhaust was rusted and somewhat round.
Nothing a 12mm socket and a big hammer couldn't fix.:slayer:
Imperial set is sometimes useful for those aswell.
Click to expand...

Plan my jobs ahead and always give it a blast with some penetrator before hand...been lucky so far.....even managed wish bones and manifold without getting into trouble.

Thats the thing with a slightly older car...you may be the first person to undo something since it left the factory.:(
 
Pretty sure I am the first person to remove these wishbones. The car has quite a low mileage for its age (70,000). I passed the last MOT with an advisory on the ball joints. I reckon that's quite a good service life.

I'll be sad to see this little car go. After an initial headache with the MAF sensor and crank sensor it's been faultlessly reliable. My head keeps telling me to replace it with something Japanese, but then I see a 159 Sportwagon advertised and I'm instantly smitten.
 
If you can tell let us know if the thread pitch is fine or coarse. Ive seen eper list fine pitch on other items but it shows just M10 in this case and Neverth says they are a fine 1.25 pitch which I did expect before checking ePer.

Regards to Japaneese cars I think ever brand has its own little issues. My girlfriend had a Mazda 2 from new full dealer service and im un-impressed by the problems she had. The worst being valve steam oil seals letting oil escape after around 50,000 miles. Its a nice car but I think the 1.3 engine is a bad one maybe the 1.5 engine is better? It might even be a Ford engine I dont know.

These are problems i can remember 100% on her first; wheel bearings being a relativly minor design fault that was iorned out eventually.

5k Rear wheel bearings.
10k Rear wheel bearings.
15k Rear wheel bearings.
shorty after 4th set of rear wheel bearings to rectify fault.
25k Clutch went. Exhaust started to rattled.
30k Fuel pump failed.
50k noticed oil level dropping and smoke out of the exhaust.
60k Fuel pump failed.

We worked out after topping up it was using one liter of oil per 2500 miles. A main dealer mechanic actually tired to tell us this was a normal rate of oil loss.

She traded it in for another 1.3 with just 4k on the clock full dealer service and it looks like that one is going the same way using oil again, its around 20k and the clutch has started going again, she just had another exhaust rattle fixed.
 
Funny how it's the cars with supposedly bad reputations that often chalk up the massive mileages. Last year I was bopping about in a 175,000 mile Citroen Xantia HDi 110. I've always had a soft spot for real Citroens with fluid suspension. When I took it for MOT it failed on one thing. A tiny patch of welding needed where some muppet had jacked the car up in the wrong place. Did the job myself. Cost me a tenner for the sheet steel and underseal.

Replaced the Xantia with a BMW engined MG ZT-T which has been nothing but trouble. I hadn't realised just how much a dual mass flywheel costs :eek:

Anyway, in a fit of madness, I've decided to got to uni aged 42 and take a cardiac physiology degree starting this September, so we're becoming a one car and one bike family for the next 3 years. The Bravo and MG will have to go :(
 
Adrian Bravo said:
If you can tell let us know if the thread pitch is fine or coarse. Ive seen eper list fine pitch on other items but it shows just M10 in this case and Neverth says they are a fine 1.25 pitch which I did expect before checking ePer.

Regards to Japaneese cars I think ever brand has its own little issues. My girlfriend had a Mazda 2 from new full dealer service and im un-impressed by the problems she had. The worst being valve steam oil seals letting oil escape after around 50,000 miles. Its a nice car but I think the 1.3 engine is a bad one maybe the 1.5 engine is better? It might even be a Ford engine I dont know.

These are problems i can remember 100% on her first; wheel bearings being a relativly minor design fault that was iorned out eventually.

5k Rear wheel bearings.
10k Rear wheel bearings.
15k Rear wheel bearings.
shorty after 4th set of rear wheel bearings to rectify fault.
25k Clutch went. Exhaust started to rattled.
30k Fuel pump failed.
50k noticed oil level dropping and smoke out of the exhaust.
60k Fuel pump failed.

We worked out after topping up it was using one liter of oil per 2500 miles. A main dealer mechanic actually tired to tell us this was a normal rate of oil loss.

She traded it in for another 1.3 with just 4k on the clock full dealer service and it looks like that one is going the same way using oil again, its around 20k and the clutch has started going again, she just had another exhaust rattle fixed.
Click to expand...


the Across / Flats size of the nut / bolt will tell you if it's fine of Coarse metric,
17mm = Coarse , 15mm / 16mm = the 2 x finer series

Mazda = Ford

most handbooks say oil consuption of up to 1 litre per 1,000KM so your consumption is actaually WELL within this..,

poor or not..!!

Charlie
 
varesecrazy said:
...
most handbooks say oil consuption of up to 1 litre per 1,000KM so your consumption is actaually WELL within this..,

poor or not..!!

Charlie
Click to expand...
Charlie what are you reading to get those figures?

Looking at my Bravo handbook it says.
Maximum allowance 0.30 Liters of oil per 1000km of driving.
Though a diesel has an allowance of 0.80 Liter per 1000km.

Based on 0.30 liter oil usage per 1000km Ive worked it out that her car would have been using 0.21 liter under the allowance so as you say it is within.

Still the car ran like a dog since the spark plugs where fouled constantly and putting in oil that often ontop of its scheduled dealer service isnt cheap. No one will convicnce me that that kind of consumption is acceptable even if it is within a given tollerance.

If my car ran to the upper limit of its tollerance I should be topping up a total of 6 liters of oil per 20,000km or 12,427miles (One scheduled oil service). Not a chance id put up with that. Or it would work out at topping up 1 liter every 2071 miles.
 
Hi,
it was actually form my pre JTD Diesel (TD 75 / TD100 era). the car never used a drop - but the handbook "acceptable figures" we that bad,

I've ordered a Twinair and apparently the consumption on them CAN be alarmingly high.

Charlie
 
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Well that was a pig of a job, not helped by having to work in the street outside my house. Lining those bolts up is a total lottery, but I finally found a good technique. The offside took 3 hours to get fitted, but the nearside was only 15 mins.

Only bummer is I didn't manage to get the new drop links fitted. It seems I'll need to release the track rod ends from the hub to allow the ARB to rotate upwards enough to get the new drop links on. And now it seems the nut securing the TRE to the hub is happy to spin round and round but not actually unfasten. I'll have to order a new one but I'm wondering is there any way to get the new drop ling on without disturbing the TREs?
 
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