well convinced the Mrs to get a fiat as well as most know im fairly handy with a set of spanners and know my way round a Grande..

so was supprised when she wanted to go view a mk2 she saw on Facestalk local selling page...

anyways to cut a long story short guy buys car for son for christmas spends thick end of £300 on it £170 in repairs plus new exhaust (cat back) and 4 budget tyres, saw the invoices.. know the mechanic that did the work personally (old drinking buddy ) so he confirmed the car was half decent

took another mechanic mate to view second time round drove it away for £400 (was up at £480)

nb say drove it away got another mate to put it on his recovery truck and drop it on our drive as currently sorn and not insured £20 well spent to avoid any legal issues ....


so i begin full service (had cambelt 40k ago so ignoring that for now)

Oil filter had seen better days..




trying to get the air box off proved more hassle as the steel bolt had cold welded to the coil pack bracket (aluminium) so had to make a new bracket..



then use a broken screw remover on all 14ish very rusty self tapping air box screws :bang:






spark plugs had paid for themselves





whole car washed and steam cleaned top to bottom all loose underseal removed wire brushed and any bad rust treated with bilt hamber hydrate left to dry then got busy with the old but cheap waxoil cavity wax and waxoil under body with a schultz gun / cavity lance on the compressor






found one bit of perforation near the N/s workshop jack point where some muppet had jacked it up wrong a while back leaving a delve in the rear foot well and a hole has formed with rust :bang:


so insides stripped and hammered back flat



patch made ready to be welded....


flashed over with weld through paint to keep it clean till i get my hands on a welder...



at this point she needed a good clean

clay mitt and glaze later







also found the servo vac hose had worn through due to the inlet manifold loom rubbing on it £1 local scrap yard fixed that

just need some rear break shoes as they are almost down to the metal £20 ish


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NOW for some questions

any special precautions prior to welding bar removing the battery negative?




and how the hell do i get the rest of the air out the heater matrix after changing the coolant? run it in cycles of revs with the stat open and fan running squeezed the hoses and opened and been scalled by the coolent coming from the bleed points?

nice oil filter and spark plugs, this car hasnt been serviced in years, probably just topped up with oil

flisko said:

nice oil filter and spark plugs, this car hasnt been serviced in years, probably just topped up with oil

Click to expand...

it sounded sweet enough when we viewed it .. it sounds and ticks over even better now its got fresh oil / sparks/ clean air filter on it

proably change the oil in a couple of months once its on the road to freshen it up.. very dubious about engine flushes on old engines dont want to dislodge any crud thats actually doing some "good"


coolant was very weak when we viewed but very clean (got called a dirty barseward by Mrs when i dipped my finger in to taste it)

you could tell how old and to what -C was antifreeze by having a lick?

flisko said:

you could tell how old and to what -C was antifreeze by having a lick?

Click to expand...

was old pink stuff but very very weak the taste test revealed it was about -5 at most.. least no smell or taste of oil or fuel

I've welded a few vehicles - only prep is obviously interior removal of affected area

But the negative termianl is removed and yet to have no major issues tbh

-----

The ass the punto is to bleed
Its a sod....

Thing is though - it could be an air leak letting air back in
I'd certainly do a pressure test of the cooling system to ensure its not leaking anywhere

But bleeding often is helped by having the nose as high as possible (steep drive / hill / jacked up securly )

Ziggy

Ziggy122 said:

I've welded a few vehicles - only prep is obviously interior removal of affected area

But the negative termianl is removed and yet to have no major issues tbh

-----

The ass the punto is to bleed
Its a sod....

Thing is though - it could be an air leak letting air back in
I'd certainly do a pressure test of the cooling system to ensure its not leaking anywhere

But bleeding often is helped by having the nose as high as possible (steep drive / hill / jacked up securly )

Ziggy

Click to expand...

Was fine before I drained the coolant will get it nose high and see what happens blowers are getting hot and radiator so its circulation is OK just the gurgle on start up will give it a try tonight once I've put some more fuel in it

Cheers

Andy Monty said:

Was fine before I drained the coolant will get it nose high and see what happens blowers are getting hot and radiator so its circulation is OK just the gurgle on start up will give it a try tonight once I've put some more fuel in it

Cheers

Click to expand...

I've success once with this

Overfill the filler neck to the max with the nose high
Leave REAR bleeder open
Start the car - I find that revving the engine slightly (Pulling throttle cable)
Catching the drain off and reusing it to bleed the sucker works

its a pain
Espcially when you dont realise that the HG is causing the air in the first place

Ziggy

Ziggy122 said:

I've success once with this

Overfill the filler neck to the max with the nose high
Leave REAR bleeder open
Start the car - I find that revving the engine slightly (Pulling throttle cable)
Catching the drain off and reusing it to bleed the sucker works

its a pain
Espcially when you dont realise that the HG is causing the air in the first place

Ziggy

Click to expand...

is this a new bleeding technique to be added to bleeding brochure?

flisko said:

is this a new bleeding technique to be added to bleeding brochure?

Click to expand...

Anything could work when it comes to bleeding the punto lol

Ziggy

Looks like a good little car after some TLC....

Those plugs look well sooty... I'd suspect it hasn't been running right. Presumably there's no ECU lights on the dash or messages about bad lambda or temp sensors? Could it be just the clogged air filter, or maybe low coolant?

Personally I'd change the gearbox oil and all the brake / clutch fluid too.

If you want to do a gentle engine oil flush, add a pint of Diesel fuel to the engine oil before the next change... run it at a light fast idle for 10 - 15 mins and then drain. Diesel is a lubricant and a solvent, it should sympathetically lift mild crud from the various corners of the engine and sump.

Just finished bleeding mine, took 2 days of driving to do it fully. Relief, and proper warm air, when I heard running water through the heater matrix. And at that point, finally, coolant coming from the rad bleed nipple.

I've had no joy with the various bleeding magic found on the forum, or in Haynes. Next time, I'm going to modify an old filler cap with a tyre valve, then pressurise the system with a bike pump to try and force it out. If I'm bored. For sure I found the air in the heater matrix the worst to get out

Check out the gap on those old plugs !

andy monthy, is there any ticket around the engine bay which tells you when were the plugs last changed, is this another myth busted that spark plugs need to be changed every 30-60k?

bluejohn125 said:

Looks like a good little car after some TLC....

Those plugs look well sooty... I'd suspect it hasn't been running right. Presumably there's no ECU lights on the dash or messages about bad lambda or temp sensors? Could it be just the clogged air filter, or maybe low coolant?

Personally I'd change the gearbox oil and all the brake / clutch fluid too.

Click to expand...

IM assuming the sooting is due to the gap and needing some TLC they were all equal in contamination so not overly worried there was one P0301 stored but it had been stored to memory and EML was not lit...




Im on with both have the dot4 ready.. rear nipples were lathered in plus gas yesterday when i discovered the shoes were down to the metal.... :bang: fronts coming apart next weekend although they have been done recently (in daylight) going to bleed it up after ive done the rear shoes... will do the clutch at the same time..

Clutch fluid is already on order from shop4parts as nothing the correct grade in our local factors...

flisko said:

andy monthy, is there any ticket around the engine bay which tells you when were the plugs last changed, is this another myth busted that spark plugs need to be changed every 30-60k?

Click to expand...

no sticker at a guess last time it was showed real TLC was about 40k mile ago when the cam belt was changed.. so your guess is as good as mine as as to how long they have been in...

what brand of plugs

flisko said:

what brand of plugs

Click to expand...

OEM equivalents (NGK)

yea no wonder they lasted that long