INEVITABILITY......

after almost a year (filled with obstacles..) of attempting/ contemplating
to get my TwinAir serviced.

I started it today and got a
'Service coupon expired' message..

Tbh..thats far further./ longer than I'd anticipated.

All Ive got to do now is..;
Move house 3 times..
Sell another FIAT

Find a garage capable of doing the job conveniently..without messing it up..
(Been 50% of the delay..)

varesecrazy said:

INEVITABILITY......

after almost a year (filled with obstacles..) of attempting/ contemplating
to get my TwinAir serviced.

I started it today and got a
'Service coupon expired' message..

Tbh..thats far further./ longer than I'd anticipated.

All Ive got to do now is..;
Move house 3 times..
Sell another FIAT

Find a garage capable of doing the job conveniently..without messing it up..
(Been 50% of the delay..)

Click to expand...

Is it like buying a Ferrari. Do you have to receive an invitation to service your Twin Air? Maybe you haven't done enough to be considered 'worthy' yet?

JCarp16 said:

Is it like buying a Ferrari. Do you have to receive an invitation to service your Twin Air? Maybe you haven't done enough to be considered 'worthy' yet?

Click to expand...

The 2 places that have done the services over the last 4 years. Have both been pushed from the FIAT network.

Local shinyshowroom.. will NOT be getting the work.

Bloke in Citroen overalls crawling from beneath a Transit. Do do my 'Specialist Service...'

I'd rather pay my son to do it...

But of course. He. Me and the car all have to be in the same country at the same time.

varesecrazy said:

The 2 places that have done the services over the last 4 years. Have both been pushed from the FIAT network.

Local shinyshowroom.. will NOT be getting the work.

Bloke in Citroen overalls crawling from beneath a Transit. Do do my 'Specialist Service...'

I'd rather pay my son to do it...

But of course. He. Me and the car all have to be in the same country at the same time.

Click to expand...

Is there a good independent near you? My main concern around getting my twin air serviced is whether they use the correct oil and, of course, maintaining the value for resale.

Exact problem.

Fiat-alfa specialist shut.

Ex Lancia dealer is now just a village garage..

Did warranty work before..

Might need a day trip to burrowsdeano..

Tried to go in November.. but got a season ticket to A+E instead.. changing my oil..not the TA's

varesecrazy said:

Exact problem.

Fiat-alfa specialist shut.

Ex Lancia dealer is now just a village garage..

Did warranty work before..

Might need a day trip to burrowsdeano..

Tried to go in November.. but got a season ticket to A+E instead.. changing my oil..not the TA's

Click to expand...

Is it still under warranty?
Did you want a hand to do it yourself?
Fiat dealer in Swindon, TH White, are part of large organisation of garages around the area, but group also includes agricultural supplies and machinery sales and servicing. They have been around for a long time in the agricultural fields, and are well respected. Just made a small purchase for some caliper mounting bolts, and although trivial, was treated very well.
If that works for you, can help if you don't wish to wait.
http://www.motors.thwhite.co.uk/fiat/
There's a Fiat specialist in Swindon, Weenie Fiats, http://www.weeniefiats.co.uk/contact.php
Specialise in original 500s, but also new 500, so could do Punto.

Warranty is out.. but at 30k. Any major failures will be worth keeping a paper trail...multiair unit..or dmf as £800 examples.

All my servicing tools are now packed away..
And bigger stuff is sold / selling.

Im going to call MELLORS GARAGE later today..as IF the service staff have remained I will have confidence in the job.. even if the FIAT suppport has finished.

varesecrazy;4285084 All my servicing tools are now packed away.. [COLOR="Magenta" said:

And bigger stuff is sold / selling.[/COLOR]

Click to expand...

What you selling?
Might find a home in my garage for stuff.

If you need a hand/tools for anything before the move, just squeak.

Saw a guy today at the petrol station. Audi A5 or A6, 3 door. All black. Dark alloys. Tinted Windows. It was quite nice, even I admit. He walked away from the pump .. I took a look. He put £5 in. £5.. in a car that must have cost a bloody fortune to buy and maintain.

Made me wonder how many other nice cars have their owners living on a shoestring budget and if they think it's a worthy sacrifice.

Okay, lots of judgement made as to whether or not the situation is as tragic as I make it sound. But if I had to bet on it I'd say yes.. probably is that bad.

£5 petrol doesn't get me impressively far in the Panda so god knows what a 2.7 engine can achieve

SB1500 said:

Saw a guy today at the petrol station. Audi A5 or A6, 3 door. All black. Dark alloys. Tinted Windows. It was quite nice, even I admit. He walked away from the pump .. I took a look. He put £5 in. £5.. in a car that must have cost a bloody fortune to buy and maintain.

Made me wonder how many other nice cars have their owners living on a shoestring budget and if they think it's a worthy sacrifice.

Okay, lots of judgement made as to whether or not the situation is as tragic as I make it sound. But if I had to bet on it I'd say yes.. probably is that bad.

£5 petrol doesn't get me impressively far in the Panda so god knows what a 2.7 engine can achieve

Click to expand...

I couldn't do it...I put 3 quid in a car I was selling once to make sure it got 8 miles up the road to the buyer...woman behind the desk actually laughed and asked if times were hard...

One of my mates ran a 2.5 V6 galant on tenners worth of vpower for about 18 months. He would fill it for trips but was convinced less fuel made it faster and more economical...

I've always seen it as 400 miles of fuel is 400 miles of fuel regardless of whether you brim it or drive back to the fuel station and pick it up in instalments...10 gallons of petrol weighs the same as half an adult passenger (about 39kg) so running round on half a tank saves a whole er...20kg...yeah you'll really notice that in a car that weighs 1500kg+ but you know it's frowned upon to call bullpoos.

I would of thought it weighed more.

Plenty of experience trying to carry 50 litres of red for the tractors... 25 litre drums are about 30kg minimum each... a typical mid weigh adult weighs around 70kg. 2.2lbs a kilo. 14lbs a stone.

dtimmins1985 said:

I would of thought it weighed more.

Plenty of experience trying to carry 50 litres of red for the tractors... 25 litre drums are about 30kg minimum each... a typical mid weigh adult weighs around 70kg. 2.2lbs a kilo. 14lbs a stone.

Click to expand...

25 litres of diesel weights about 20kg and a 25 litre drum doesn't weigh 10kg when empty.

Thought it was more... saying that i was in my prime and hitting the gym... im 32 now and can feel it now lol.

10 gallons of fuel actually weighs less than 39kg. 10galUK = 45l, density of petrol is 0.71-0.77 say 0.75 = 33.75kg. even at .77 its less than 35kg.
Diesel is denser at 0.84 so 25l = 21kg so drum would have to weigh 9kg to get to 30kg.
33kg will make a difference to acceleration and fuel consumption. Its about 2% of the weight of a car. Some Audis had aluminium jacks to save weight.

Robert G8RPI.

SB1500 said:

Saw a guy today at the petrol station. Audi A5 or A6, 3 door. All black. Dark alloys. Tinted Windows. It was quite nice, even I admit. He walked away from the pump .. I took a look. He put £5 in. £5.. in a car that must have cost a bloody fortune to buy and maintain.

Made me wonder how many other nice cars have their owners living on a shoestring budget and if they think it's a worthy sacrifice.

Okay, lots of judgement made as to whether or not the situation is as tragic as I make it sound. But if I had to bet on it I'd say yes.. probably is that bad.

£5 petrol doesn't get me impressively far in the Panda so god knows what a 2.7 engine can achieve

Click to expand...

Have done this many times in the past when selling cars, returning a rental or loan car as well as for work cars to give it enough juice for a test drive. I have also seen plenty of people driving flash cars put only a few quid in to last them to pay day. If it was a 2 door then it's likely to be an A5 lots of these about cheap now and being snapped up by youngsters, one of our neighbours round here has an old A5 with a private plate and tinted windows after market wheels and debadged grill.
And I've seen them down the fuel station put minimal amounts in, they also drive everywhere in it, even to the shop a few hundred yards down the road.

g8rpi said:

10 gallons of fuel actually weighs less than 39kg. 10galUK = 45l, density of petrol is 0.71-0.77 say 0.75 = 33.75kg. even at .77 its less than 35kg.
Diesel is denser at 0.84 so 25l = 21kg so drum would have to weigh 9kg to get to 30kg.
33kg will make a difference to acceleration and fuel consumption. Its about 2% of the weight of a car. Some Audis had aluminium jacks to save weight.

Robert G8RPI.

Click to expand...

While the principle is sound if you drove identical 3 cars back to back with the fuel gauges disconnected you'd have the devil's own job figuring out which one had more fuel in it.

Should point out the same lad who had this car was a sparky so always kept a full tool box, a selection of ppe and various other things in the boot at all times. So if that was the actual reason well there were several more obvious places to lose weight!

I can't comment on the drivers reasoning, but the laws of physics and thermodynamics don't change. accerertion is force/mass so all else being equal reducing mass by 2% increases the acceleration by the same percentage. Drag, rolling resistance etc all reduce the force but even some of these reduce with reduced weight. While you could not tellthe difference between two cars, if you did a 30-50 MPH, full throttle no gear change, acceleration test (using Torque or similar) down a road near a filling station with a near empty tank, then added 10 gallons of fuel and did the same test I'm confident you would see a difference.

Robert G8RPI.

Nope, I don't notice any change in performance if I have a full tank or down to a quarter tank, lol!

puntofan01 said:

Nope, I don't notice any change in performance if I have a full tank or down to a quarter tank, lol!

Click to expand...

Maybe it's more noticeable at high speeds and when the mass of the fuel is a greater proportion of the overall mass of the vehicle. E.g in Formula 1 cars.

It's one of those things it will actually make a difference but the difference in a road car is so marginal that without measuring gear and controlled conditions it'd be impossible to determine from the drivers seat.