The g/f has recently got a cinq sporting on a '97

Had a quick butchers in the manual but can't find the answers to this. Some basic/stupid questions :

where do you put the coolant, the oil & the washer water?

Not knowing a great deal about motors myself, on my cars, the containers have all stuck out like a sore thumb. On the latest car, the Escort, the water has a water symbol on the cap, oil has an oil symbol & washers a washer symbol. Perfecto.
On my old Citroen ZX, the dipstick had to come out & the cap clipped off for you to put oil directly into where the dipstick went.


Now, i've just had a look under her bonnet. There's some black container on the left with a cap. I'm thinking this is the coolant. I see the dipstick geniusly positioned right at the bottom. There's some container over on the right which i'm taking a wild guess at being brake fluid.

So wondering if someone could sort us out with an explination of what goes where Diagrams would be even better if some things are hidden away under things. Cheers.

okay looking at this image
View attachment 23164

The big black/clear container is the expansion tank, you unscrew the cap, partially obscured, and top up the coolant in there. The dipstick is the red hook you can see just above the hose coming from the top expansion tank, just below that and a little to the right is a black cover on the engine that's the oil filler cap.

Now this is on a Mk1 Sei so might not be the same but I think it is. Behind the drivers headlight there's a plastic cap coming out of the arch skin (just below the pipe coming out of the expansion tank), that is the washer bottle.

cheers fella. that setup looks pretty much like hers. I'm going to edit & upload your pic for you to double check i've understood it right.

think i've the jist of the coolant container. I already knew where the dipstick was, because i know she's currently running pretty low on oil, which is why i went out to put some in, but then couldn't see where to put it.

Now see, a bit to the right of the dipstick is the oil filler cap? I can't see it in this pic. I'd have to go out again & look, but i tried looking for caps & i couldn't see any around there if i'm perfectly honest.

i saw the clear tubing running up front & down the side which i was guessing to be the washer tubing. I'd have to have a better look for a cap

tiz the oil that'll be the more important of things at the mo as it's just a taj above minimum really.

This show you where the filler cap is

Where the arrow points to for the dipstick, go straight down and there is a plastic / rubber rectangle on top of the rocker cover, right next to the jubilee clip in your photo, lift this up and its where you put the oil in.

this might help



brake fluid cap on master cylinder is partially obscured by my alarm box, but you get the picture.

Cheers lads.
With the oil thing, i was looking for some metal/plastic cap. Turns out to be a rubber cover, lol. Now, it's kinda dark & there's dirt on the cap that says "OILIO" on it. lol. Missed it totally. Seen the washer cap too, so job all sorted.

Just stuck about 1/2litre in there. Don't know how much it takes to send it from minimum to maximum, so shall see how it goes.

levemir said:

brake fluid cap on master cylinder is partially obscured by my alarm box,

Click to expand...

Do they all have alarms or only later models?

The g/f has just said that hers doesn't have an alarm, but the fella that got her it, said that it does
Had a butchers in the manual & there's pics of keys with buttons on & what not. She has a blue key & a brownish key which i'm guessing is the master key. Neither have buttons on it.
As i said earlier, hers is a '97. Is it supposed to have an alarm on as standard, or no?

I went out and took that pic just for you kev, then added the text/arrows to it!!

My cinq from the pic above, is a '97 too, but i think that the standard immobiliser has been disabled as it just has a normal black key. The alarm works [ie, connected] but has no fob so i cant actually use it, it is a scorpion therefore aftermarket unit. I have no idea if the cinq has alarm as standard

A stock 'cento of that age should have an immobiliser, but not an alarm.

cheers lads. & thanks for that levemir appreciated. everything sorted now. She just needs to stick new wipers on it over the weekend as what it came with are total crap. They don't wipe a thing, but do a great job at smearing everything.

The g/f came back tonight & said that the fuel light keeps coming on and off. :|

Now, i think i read somewher ein the book that it comes on when there's 5-7.5ltr in the tank
But the fricken guage is at a quarter mark or maybe just above. I'm sure it's no less than a quarter. It was doing this on me last Friday when it was at a quarter. If that's the case, then it's saying there's only a 20-30litre tank.
Why's the light coming on when the guage is as high as it is?

& what should she be going off? The light, or the guage?

Dunno bout th Cinq, but i had a dodgy guage that was all over the place on my first car. But then i've ran my Escort so that it's barely even on the red & no light has come on & when i've brimmed it, it's still been a good way off its capacity, so i dunno.

The refresh rate on the fiat fuel gauges seem to be much higher than other manufacturers. As you go round a corner the fuel goes to one side, the reading will go down. Something we all have to get used to

my cinq warning light for the fuel flickers on and off at just over 1/4 tank, then about 1/4 maybe slightly less it stays on permanent.

I wondered about removing the bulb as its annoying, I havent had the car long enough to trust the gauge yet though, perhaps by the summer I may well remove the bulb.

The fuel gauge doesn't so much gave a refresh rate but a damping period (the period it takes to go from the previous level to the new level), fiat like a low damping period so it reacts quickly to changes in the fuel level. I don't think the float is in the middle of the tank in either direction so as you corner, brake or accelerate the fuel level will wander about a bit. The 'reserve' light seems to use a different sensor in a different position on the punto not noticed anything like that yet on the Sei. Anyway I tended to find the 'reserve' light more reliable than the fuel gauge on my Punto.

hmm, i'll tell her to fuel up at the weekend. I've heard about fuel tank leaks so i think it'd be a bit dodgy filling the tank???

Anyway, 1 day i'll finish with the questions .....

she needs new wipers. Only last night did i notice how badly. The drivers rubber is peeling away, the passengers isn't in good condition & the rear wiper is awful, rubber totally peeling away.


Front wipers isn't a problem. Couple of 19 inchers, job done.

Just tried googling the size on the rear wiper (as she's taken the car to work & i can't measure it obviously) but nothing is returning.

What size should i be looking for with the rear wiper?

I replaced the rubber on its own on my rear wiper, it looks like the wiper is part of the arm and unique to the car, and therefore you just know it will command a higher price!

I was kakking myself when i came to fill mine up for the first time, more so as it looked like there was a stain under the tank, luckily it was fine and I have been under it many times since then and there really is no problem. I think I was kakking myself more before I filled it as there was lots of old reciepts for petrol in the car in £5 quantities!! leading you to think there may be a problem if it was filled.

As for your questions, keep firing away when you need to, thats what I do, you wont know if you dont ask.

cheers mate. Unfortunately, there were no replies in the thread by the time i got to going to town

Got down to the g/f's motor to measure up the rear wiper. Notice that it doesn't look standard, and having already seen wipers with arms on eBay, begin thinking that this isn't just a quick and easy Halfords pick up job. Inside the arm is loads of like bug eggs, cobwebs n all that sort of cr@p. Disgusting.

Measured up the windscreen wipers .... 17".

Get down to Halfords, as there's no local motor shop where i live to check for cheaper blades. Double check the chart .... cinquecento windscreen blades are quoted at being 19".

So either the charting is wrong, or the wrong wipers were fitted on her motor. Pick up the 19"/19"S for £17.49. Under the rear wiper column, there's a no entry, so this confirms that there's a lame wiper on the back of her car.


What's this with the 17" / 19" thing though. Has the fella she got it off had small wipers fitted? I picked up the 19"'s cos that's what the charting said.

Their both 19 inch

The rear wiper you can get just the blade from Shop4parts.co.uk, doesn't cost much. I bought a rubber refill I could cut to size, absolutely crap. The proper refill from shop4parts works much better.

cheers

here's one i never asked before... valuation of her car

'97 P Yellow 11 Cinq Sporting
approx 5700 miles. Tisn't a mistype, it has only done just over 5+half thousand miles.
Only 1 previous owner, all MOT certificates. 1 blue key & 1 brown (i'm guessing master) key.

What'd you call the valuation at?