General Not a Panda (Marbella)

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General Not a Panda (Marbella)

Daymo1985

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Newbie to the forum here. Picked up a wee Marbella (843cc) the other day with the intention to drive it to Greece via eastern Europe this summer.

Thought I would start a thread here of the trip and but first I would really appreciate the help with a few questions:

  • Any recommendations for roof racks? (type, fittings, sizes...anyone selling??)
  • Know a good mechanic in the Manchester area to give her a service? It seems to be running well at the moment but would like the peace of mind to give it the once over by someone in the know.
  • Any tips on what spare parts or tools we would need to take with us?
  • Finally, are there any common problems to look out for with the Marbella?

Cheers lads,

D
 
Welcome :)

  • Roof racks have been discussed a lot before as you'll see in various previous threads. Most the original stuff is rare so lots of people are making their own roof racks now.
  • I don't know of mechanics in the area but Phiz might.
  • Other people will have a better idea on spare parts that may be needed. Tools wise I know a few screwdrivers always come in handy, if you want to go all out then socket sets and spanners etc too...
  • If the car is running as expected then the most common problem that may still be there will be rust!
 
Welcome and if your on a trip like that get out the Hayes manual and get servicing it your self . Then finding what tools are required to do small on route fixes
Or even major ones .pandas don't normally break they just get neglected
19 17 13 10 8 spanners
X2 ,Socket set ,jack ,plugs ,timing screw drivers (various ) stoplock !! belt altetenator belt , get the battery checked rubber exhaust hangers tyres given the once over ,an inflated spare. Tyreweld
gaffa tape !!!

A good route keep off the autoroutes and tolls
 
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Welcome, all looks well covered in the responses above!

I'm also in Manchester, guessing by your user name am the same age and have bought a 93 Panda to drive to Russia in (next year) though we are driving it to Scotland next week and hopefully Spain end of July (couple of warm up runs staying within the range of our breakdown cover (y)

Roof rack wise, I just picked one up off here for my Panda which someone in the past had welded up and made it fit my Panda (I'm a welder so that helps!). As has been mentioned the original ones are rare, hold their value and tend to be rusty, might just be a matter of making something else fit or making one up. How much stuff do you intend to carry? I needed mine for Kayaks (just for the Scotland trip, they are not going to Russia. I was actually sorting the roof rack out yesterday, will probably have more on my thread on it in the next couple of days but the result can be seen below.:D

O5- Kayaks on Roof.jpg

As for mechnics I've done pretty well all the work myself and mine has the Fire engine so quite different from yours. R&S autos are always friendly and helpful (they are on our industrial estate in Failsworth so I borrow tools off them sometimes!) and would probably roll their eyes if another Panda or Marbella turned up! As SJ said though you really need to do the work yourself before a long trip, that way if/when things go wrong you have it under control. Since buying mine I've done timing belt, water pump, radiator, thermostat, welded up the rust, trailing arms, rear axle top hats, rebuilt rear brakes, put new brake pipes on and made new tank straps (along with a load of stuff I've forgotten about). They are brilliantly easy little cars to work on so get a manual and get oily!

In terms of parts and problems I only started work on mine this year and have only been on the road a couple of months so I'll let the more experienced Panda whisperers answer that.

Where abouts in Manchester are you?

Phiz

Oh yeah and in addition to the normal spare bulb kit, high viz jackets and warning triangles lot of european countries want matching tyre patterns on each axle, something I need to sort pretty quickly for the Spain trip!
 
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Welcome to the forum. i had a seat marbella too and wished we never sold it!

pretty much everything has been mentioned... our one never had any faults. one thing to check over is the CV boots and gearbox oil. they always get forgotten about.

the CV boots hold the gearbox oil in so if they split you loose pretty much all of the gearbox oil.

this was ours when we got it..


this is it when we sold it..


and this is it in "bed mode"..
 
So to give a bit of an update:

The Marbella did a solid job and made it to Athens in one piece...just. It was tough going for 3 weeks of driving and she struggled with any sort of a hill (would completely kill the momentum and have us down around 20mph) which was fun going over the Bulgarian mountains.

Water pump failed on us in Poland and we blew the head gasket. Managed to get this fixed within 2 days. One thing that started to happen towards the end was the car would almost clunk out in first gear as the clutch was being lifted..I am guessing it's something to do with fuel/air intake..suggestions welcome. It was kinda dangerous as we would pull out into traffic and then almost completely stop before she would kick into action.

And for any of you that think we are killing pandas or whatever, we are keeping this car in storage in Athens and it will be used next year to travel around europe before being put back in storage in the next destination. It's a roadtrip car. It's by no means in a graveyard in mongolia!
 

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