Hi folks

I've got 2 Lancia Y's (not the Y10s, but the Y or Ypsilon that they made from 1996 to 2003, that was basically drawn from lots of intersecting curves). They're great cars, but then they are just Puntos with a different suit of clothes (and actually the Punto is probably prettier). They were only made in LHD but I live in France.

I love mine and they drive brilliantly, but both of them have got one fault, and that's that the driver's (left side) seat backrest collapses backwards at the inner edge. I have removed the seats and looked, and I couldn't find anything in the backrest support broken (I had assumed it was a broken metal upright). However, then a friend of mine pointed out that there is a huge spring on both of them, whose job is to pull the backrest back straight. I didn't think that could be the problem, as I didn't think it would be strong enough. However, it does seem to be.

This causes a big problem for me - my kind of Ypsilon went out of production 14 years ago, so I can't get the parts off Fiat. Usually, if I have a seat problem on an LHD car, I simply fit a seat from an RHD car (or vice-versa), because of course the driver's seat is the passenger's and vice-versa, and so they tend to be less worn.

However, I can't do that with these seats, because they never made RHD Y's. But I need to sort something, because at the moment neither car is driveable.

And so my questions are (three of em):

a) does the Punto have the same big spring on the inner side (near the seat belt attachment)? I guess the seats are pretty similar, but I don't know for sure.

b) I have uploaded some pictures to a OneDrive folder:

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AoCJmOvXusCZzE3nqJwbh5Tw8VHh

Please could someone tell me if the floor mountings on Punto seats are the same? I think this is very likely, as I am pretty sure they shared a floor pan. The front mountings are vertical, mounted to the front of a crossmember, and the rear ones are horizontal and bolt flat to the floor. If this is the case, then the third question is...

c) Has anyone got a tidy Punto passenger (left side) seat that they could flog me? The colour doesn't matter because I have seat covers on it, but if I can get a Punto seat to use in the short to medium term, it buys me lots of time to work out how I am going to fix my Ypsilon seats. I don't need 2 Punto seats, as only one of the Ypsis is on the road at the moment...

Thanks in advance for any help received...

Cheers

Alan

I presume this is a 2 door car, What is actually broken? I have a seat but it's from a 4 door, you can have it free but I won't be in France till June! Pic look the same as seat brackets in Punto.

digger58 said:

I presume this is a 2 door car, What is actually broken? I have a seat but it's from a 4 door, you can have it free but I won't be in France till June! Pic look the same as seat brackets in Punto.

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I've spent 5 years trying to work out what's broken, and I've only just managed to work it out. It is the spring you can see in the pic - it doesn't look broken, but it has gone all slack, and the one on the other car is visibly broken! The seat offer is very kind and if I don't manage to find one before I will take you up on it (and I WILL give you something for it!), although I am coming to London in the car in 2 weeks. I drive it by folding the back seat and making sure it is holding the front seat up, but of course, that only works if there are no back seat passengers! The mountings look the same to me too - I googled some images of them, and they looked exactly the same. Does your seat have the seat belt anchorage on it? I suppose I need that... And yes, it's a 2-door car (they only made 2-doors), and no, I don't mind a 4-door seat - passengers can get in on the other side. If you are serious about the seat offer and live reasonably near the areas where I am going (Dover London Stafford Bristol Exeter), let me know and I will load up with wine before I leave (unless you are teetotal...).

Which spring? If you circle it in a pic and post I will be sure, there is the spring that holds the adjuster for forward travel on the runners. Is there a spring to throw the seat back forward in the 2 door? Let me know ASAP as I know where there are two 2 door cars going to be scrapped in the next few days, If its just those springs I will get them and put them in the post. I am in Ireland by the way.

digger58 said:

Which spring? If you circle it in a pic and post I will be sure, there is the spring that holds the adjuster for forward travel on the runners. Is there a spring to throw the seat back forward in the 2 door? Let me know ASAP as I know where there are two 2 door cars going to be scrapped in the next few days, If its just those springs I will get them and put them in the post. I am in Ireland by the way.

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Sorry - only just saw this (been out all day). I'll edit the pic in a minute. You can see the spring in the pic but it doesn't look like a spring! Thanks for your kindness - much appreciated!

There you go - I've amended the third picture with lots of little red arrows to show the spring. It's not just a simple coil - there is a coil bit, that goes round the seat belt bracket, but there is also a long bit with a hook on each end going in each direction.

OK I know what you're after, there is 1 LHD 2 door and 1 RHD so I should be able to get at least 1 good spring for you, I'll find out if they're still there and get them if possible at the weekend.

Hopefully getting those springs tomorrow.

digger58 said:

OK I know what you're after, there is 1 LHD 2 door and 1 RHD so I should be able to get at least 1 good spring for you, I'll find out if they're still there and get them if possible at the weekend.

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Thanks very much, and sorry I didn't get back to you earlier - no internet for a couple of days. Fingers are crossed!

Went to get them today, cars were removed yesterday evening! Missed them by less than a day! Sorry about that.

digger58 said:

Went to get them today, cars were removed yesterday evening! Missed them by less than a day! Sorry about that.

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No problem - thanks for trying! It's my silly fault for not getting back to you sooner! I'm going to Turin next week, so I am going to have a look round some scrapyards - but I will still have the LHD problem!

If you come across a Punto Cabrio in a yard, I am looking for the front seal for the roof, it is the one that is U shaped and has a small metal strip that holds it in It goes right across the front of the folding roof and seals on the windscreen surround. It's actually the metal strip I need more than the seal but they come together, Mine is a bit rusty. I did see a yellow cabrio in a scrap yard near Turin when passing 2 yrs ago in the camper.

digger58 said:

If you come across a Punto Cabrio in a yard, I am looking for the front seal for the roof, it is the one that is U shaped and has a small metal strip that holds it in It goes right across the front of the folding roof and seals on the windscreen surround. It's actually the metal strip I need more than the seal but they come together, Mine is a bit rusty. I did see a yellow cabrio in a scrap yard near Turin when passing 2 yrs ago in the camper.

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No problem - could you possibly send a pic? I am spending a whole day going round the scrapyards, but as they close for 2-3 hours at lunchtime it's always hard to get more than 2-3 in!

I will take pictures tomorrow and post.

This is very OT but can I attach picture to private message ?, Wanted to send pics to Westernancia but can't seem to do it.. I putting them up here as this is where we discussed thepart required. Admin please remove if necessary.

yeah you can.. you just can't attach them like in a post.

click the little image select button in the PM page



It will ask your for the URL, now if you have it on another website or your facebook or something you can just go there and right click the image and copy image address, then paste it in the dialog box... bear in mind if you do this the link to picture will be broken if the image is deleted from its original location or its moved etc.

alternatively or you can stick them in the misc pictures gallery of the forum which is here https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=1163, then once it uploaded do as before, right click, copy image location, paste in dialog box. then just press OK. That way the image link will never be broken ever, same goes for posts on the actual forum - you can link to images off the site somewhere else but if you attach it or upload to the gallery they will never become broken image links. To this end you are not supposed to link to external sites for images in the members motors section or in the guides section. Its not a rule elsewhere on the forum but is preferred that images are hosted on the forum for that reason.

Make sense?

digger58 said:

This is very OT but can I attach picture to private message ?, Wanted to send pics to Westernancia but can't seem to do it.. I putting them up here as this is where we discussed the part required. Admin please remove if necessary.

Click to expand...

Thanks - I don't mind if no-one else does, and it's in good faith! I've saved them and I will take them with me and see what I can do. I was looking at your thread without realising you were you - yours is the blue car, isn't it?

I managed to get to a local (French) scrapyard 2 days ago, and they had 3 S1 Puntos - 2 3-door ones parked on top of each other and a 5-door one with a Panda on top of it. Also an Uno 5-door, which I also have, so I will be going back for some bits from that.

Anyway, I got the driver's seats out of both the 3-doors, as it was a lot easier to take them than try to find them in the UK, although UK passenger seats would have been in better condition (WHY does no-one except me cover their seats?). These 2 are actually pretty O.K., with just a couple of threadbare bits, so they'll do.

And I found the source of the problem - although the 'chassis' of the seat is the same underneath, the seat design is different - Puntos don't have the big spring I need, because they have a nice, strong ratchet both sides. The Ypsilon only has a ratchet one side (outer), the other being held up by this spring, which is a silly and half-arsed idea and nowhere near strong enough. So I am going to run Punto driver's seats in both Ypsilons, with covers on so that the different colour isn't obvious, while I work out a fix for my Ypsilon seats. It's funny, because the Punto seat is slightly more comfortable and much stronger, and yet Lancia are (were...) supposed to be Fiat's 'premium' brand, like Audi to VW.

digger58 said:

This is very OT but can I attach picture to private message ?, Wanted to send pics to Westernancia but can't seem to do it.. I putting them up here as this is where we discussed the part required. Admin please remove if necessary.

Click to expand...

Alternatively, why not send them to me in an email? I won't put my email address here because of spam crawlers, but my website is:

oldcaraccessories.com

There's an email button on the first page, and you can email and attach pictures like that.

It might be a good idea, if you can, because I've just found that can't enlarge the thumbnails to save them.

blu73 said:

yeah you can.. you just can't attach them like in a post.

click the little image select button in the PM page
View attachment 176562


It will ask your for the URL, now if you have it on another website or your facebook or something you can just go there and right click the image and copy image address, then paste it in the dialog box... bear in mind if you do this the link to picture will be broken if the image is deleted from its original location or its moved etc.

alternatively or you can stick them in the misc pictures gallery of the forum which is here https://www.fiatforum.com/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=1163, then once it uploaded do as before, right click, copy image location, paste in dialog box. then just press OK. That way the image link will never be broken ever, same goes for posts on the actual forum - you can link to images off the site somewhere else but if you attach it or upload to the gallery they will never become broken image links. To this end you are not supposed to link to external sites for images in the members motors section or in the guides section. Its not a rule elsewhere on the forum but is preferred that images are hosted on the forum for that reason.

Make sense?

Click to expand...

Not really that au fait with all the techie stuff, I though I may be able to attach to PM like an email.I did find the "add URL" but no good as I have them on my computer. Thanks anway.

"Alternatively, why not send them to me in an email? I won't put my email address here because of spam crawlers, but my website is:

oldcaraccessories.com

There's an email button on the first page, and you can email and attach pictures like that."

Can open that link but the "email us" link won't work for me so I'll PM you here.