I bought a Fiat about three weeks ago... Late 1999 Marea Weekend 2 litre 20v (vis) HLX in white. One previous owner, full service history (and reciepts for anything, and I mean anything, it's ever needed). There's not a mark on it anywhere, immaculate inside and out, and underneath too! It's like driving a new car to be honest. So far it's still completely standard aside from my Pheonix Gold component speakers in the front to replace the standard items. 15cm units in the doors, and the tweeters in the standard Fiat tweeter location on the dash. I'm planning on adding a compact sub of some kind to one of the rear "pockets" on either side of the car in the rear load bay, and I'm looking around for an amp a little smaller than my Rockford Fosgate 4 channel unit as it seems that behind the passenger side rear load area at the rear there is room for a slightly slimmer amp for a complete stealth install. Alpine head unit is in, with iPod unit behind the passenger glove box. Must say it's a little busy behind the Marea dash, but it's all neat, and it's all very well built. I owned Audi's for years before this Fiat, and the build quality has really surprised me, they're built pretty solid, and everything is neat and fairly easy to work on.

Originally by trade I was a chassis dynamacist... I've built and tuned engines since I was 8 years old, restore Mini's, and build race engines for Mini's when I get time. I'm not planning on tinkering with the engine just yet, but the simplest trick of "easier in, easier out, gives more clout" will be my first port of call for a little extra ooomph. So I'll be looking at the inlet tract, and the exhaust system some time before christmas, and I'll post my thoughts and rants in here for you all to have a giggle at

Anyway... Time to scoot... Oh, and... Hi all!

Paul Smith
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http://www.smithpic.com

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum. Enjoy your Fiat.

Looking forward to more.

All the best

Rich

Hi Paul and welcome to our forum

Sounds like you're getting the Fiat bug already

Don't forget to post some pics.

De-badged this evening...
Now, a quick question. Do all Fiat Marea (or all Fiat) air filters have the thin grey foam glued onto the standard filter element? All flow tests I've done in the past show a brand new "paper" filter to flow almost identical to the so called "hi-flow" filters from the big name brands. They block up and flow reduces quite quickly though, but for now I'm planning on running new and clean standard air filters changed every 3000 mile (along with the oil and filter)... But having not bought a new air filter yet, I was just pondering about the thin grey extra bit glued onto the standard filter.

I'll be taking a peek at tricking the mass air flow meter into thinking the air is colder tomorrow

And looking into the possibility of a larger catalytic converter (for a little more waste gas speed) as comapared to my last Audi, the Marea one appears to be tiny!

Paul
--
http://www.smithpic.com

Paul,

Car looks good.

Not sure but I think my air filter had a rubber surround. The K&N certainly does. Just a comment though at 3k changes a K&N panel filter will pay for itself in about 30k. Have you seen this? https://www.fiatforum.com/showthread.php?t=7540

The ECU will compensate for the mass air mod in about 300 miles, the only way to make this mod worthwhile is to fit it to a switch, e.g. like a kick down. Many threads and posts on this subject in forum. Do a search for 'resistor'.