I have a fiat Palio 1.2 el 2002 model. And for the love of God can't seem to find a mechanic who actually knows what he is doing in this part of the world. The car makes a lot of noise (almost as if something is hitting the body from underneath) over potholes and also squeaks after driving 100km/hr speed the squeak stays but in the morning its fine again. Showed on mechanic and he asked me to change the bushing and get a startup kit plus cam shaft. I go around and find another mechanic (who is supposed to be good) he didnt even drive the car he just assumed it needed bushing, the startup kit was fine he said and then he asked me to get a steering boltzen and some tyre end (or whatever its called). saying that those were the ones making noise. So after I bought those I took it to him, opened the wheel and found out that the "arm is fixed" and that the ball joint in the arm is bad and because its fixed I have to get a new arm, the other stuff dont need to be replaced. now I am stuck with these parts which I dont need and I have to buy a car arm on top of it. Before it goes all out of control I wanted your opinion on what maybe going wrong with the car before I give it to someone to fix something that doesnt need fixing and waste more money.. I dont know what is a fixed arm here.. it didnt look like fixed..

Welcome to Fiat Forum!


Are you talking about front or rear suspension?

Knocking at the front is most likely to be the links that connect to the anti-roll bar. These are cheap and easy to replace.

Squeaking is more likely to be the bottom arm joint or bushes, requiring replacement of the arm.

Not much else there really.

Peter Pick-Up said:

Welcome to Fiat Forum!


Are you talking about front or rear suspension?

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Its the front suspension. Now as I opened it the ball joint in the front control arms seemed to be damaged. and since its a riveted system the mechanic told me to buy a new one.. and that is what making me crazy now. I ordered a new one which was riveted but turned out that it won't fit. and then ordered another (some "Sona" company) and found out that its not riveted so I returned it saying its not genuine. So today I went to a shop to order and hopefully get a genuine control arm and they said that fiat later changed the palio control arm to be a nut and bolt system.. is that true? I checked a website 99rpm.com and I can't make out if its riveted or nut and bolt system.

hmm the anti roll bar.. will look into it.. yes the ball joint in the control arm is damaged so trying to find a new one but confused between riveted and nut/bolt system. The genuine one is riveted but the shops are saying that palio later had nut/bolt system. no idea here if I should just buy a new control arm with a nut/bolt system or get the rivets out on this one and make it a nut/bolt system or should I just wait for someone to bring me a riveted control arm for palio.. sigh

You can look up the original Fiat part number on ePER on top of this page.
With this number you can search the internet for substitutes, www.ebay.com for instance.
No need for original parts here.

Peter Pick-Up said:

You can look up the original Fiat part number on ePER on top of this page.
With this number you can search the internet for substitutes, for instance.
No need for original parts here.

Click to expand...

err.. its not showing or maybe am doing something wrong..My car is a Fiat Palio 1.2EL 2002 model. cant find it there. Help please :bang:

You can search for a 2002 Palio 1,2 on ePER, they are European models, but I doubt there is any difference in suspension part numbers for non European models......

http://www.99rpm.com/fiat/parts/suspensions/lower-control-arm-palio-stile-adventure-petra.html



Rivet or nut/bolt system..??
Who can help here..??

A common state from the 1980s and after is that the original arm has a riveted joint, but the joint can be replaced by drilling out the rivets and fitting a bolt-on joint. So buy the joint(s), carefully drill out the rivets, taking care not to damage the holes, and bolt in the new joint. Usually the bolt heads are towards the joint, so that the threads cannot interfere with the joint movement.