Hi again,
Got myself a marea now, its a weekend 2.0 elx, 1997 on an R plate, 63k on the clock.

Picked it up last night and had a blat up the m42(it bloody shifts!!)....liking it

So to the problems....
1) steering wheel not centered when driving straight......is this going to be a simple case of tracking? I'm not sure when it comes to PAS....I'm a modern car virgin.....used to driving sixties stuff!!

2) right rear brake appears to be dragging, squeaks when driving and is warmer than the other side afterwards.......any common problems to look out for on the fiat calipers?

3) air con not working.....any good tips for troubleshooting? it may just need gassing but it may not so any tips for pinpointing the problem welcomed.

that'll do me for now......i must go and spank my car

Steering wheel more likely to be fitted one spline out, be careful of air bag if you adjust it. Disconnect battery and DO NOT turn key to on or you will latch in a fault that can only be cleared by a dealer.

Floating pad may be fouled with dirt, rust etc. Give it a clean and grease. If more probs then let us know.

Air con needs gassing every year, not sure about anything else.

Good luck and welcome to our forum.

cheers polecat,
had it tracked this morning.....waaaaaaaayyy out. odd because it felt good but with the steering wheel centered the left front was toed in around 3 degrees and the right front didn't even make it onto the scale!!!!
feels much better now.

Had a look at the rear brakes and pads are very low so I'll change those and give it all a damn good clean up at the same time.

I'll try having the aircon gassed and see if it makes any odds.

Just got to sort the apparently non functioning tape player......preferably in a way which involves replacing it with a fully functional new head unit...

laters chaps....no doubt I'll be back for more chat and advice

Daz

if the tape player is the same as the bravo, then you can have my old one at just the cost of P & P

i reckon you adjust steering wheel the same as other airbag cars, from the bottom of the steering coloum.

that just adjust the height not the position of the actual wheel. Hs is the same it needs sorting, the tracking was out but the wheel needs repositioning

sammiboo said:

that just adjust the height not the position of the actual wheel. Hs is the same it needs sorting, the tracking was out but the wheel needs repositioning

Click to expand...

no not that bit, you un do a nut right at the botton of the shaft

sammiboo said:

if the tape player is the same as the bravo, then you can have my old one at just the cost of P & P

Click to expand...

Cheers chap, thats a great offer. I do seem to have sorted it though.....a couple of hundred cycles of tape in.....tape out....tape in.....tape out etc......seems to have sorted it, just the transport was a bit sticky I think.

I still want to replace it though!!! looking at one of the units with usb/sd card/hard drive to have all my music in there. Got my mp3 player through a tape adapter but it's not so easy to find what you want on the move.

toys toys toys.....

dave said:

no not that bit, you un do a nut right at the botton of the shaft

Click to expand...

it does seem to be sorted now....the wheel is straight and the tracking is good.......I think whoever did it last must have done all the adjustment on one side and not locked the wheel in the middle...