General Servicing

[The Panda Nut]

I noticed yesterday daffo is quite overdue for service. So today I piled in. Castro edge 5/40 and a new filter. I noticed the filter in now marked MOPAR and no longer FPT but it came in a Fiat box and this time it says made in France. The last few have been Chinese. Air cleaner removed and was so clean it really wasnt worth changing, so I didnt. The airbox was also clean maybe a product of being used on trips to work at night. Less pollen flies and dust??

I decided the throttle body looked pretty dirty and so removed that and cleaned it and while it was off I mopped out the manifold which had accumulated some oil. No mayo this time as the catch can collects that. I would say there was may be 2.5 - 5cc that was easily soaked up by some clean sheet. I also decided to remove and clean the VVT solenoid which was still clean since tha last clean when the cam belt was done recently. New plugs - a code in then ECU said there had been some misfiring on No2. No 2 was a vaguely different colour just on the elctrode ptherwise nothing to report. All plugs carefully refitted with fingers since the cross threading debacle and the whole thing cleaned with some degreaser now looking smart.

Result? My goodness me does the car feel better, cleaner tickover, instant pickup, and quieter by enough to notice. All the stuttering has been eliminated so well worth doing. My health is still not great and I ran out of steam before doing the pollen filter so hopefully tomorow will see that done. Hopefully good for another year Just front tyre wear to sort out. I think new arms and springs. Tyres are too expensive to put up with this! All I need now is for the driver to CLEAN THE B***** thing out!!

 

[The Panda Nut]

I noticed yesterday daffo is quite overdue for service. So today I piled in. Castro edge 5/40 and a new filter. I noticed the filter in now marked MOPAR and no longer FPT but it came in a Fiat box and this time it says made in France. The last few have been Chinese. Air cleaner removed and was so clean it really wasnt worth changing, so I didnt. The airbox was also clean maybe a product of being used on trips to work at night. Less pollen flies and dust??

I decided the throttle body looked pretty dirty and so removed that and cleaned it and while it was off I mopped out the manifold which had accumulated some oil. No mayo this time as the catch can collects that. I would say there was may be 2.5 - 5cc that was easily soaked up by some clean sheet. I also decided to remove and clean the VVT solenoid which was still clean since tha last clean when the cam belt was done recently. New plugs - a code in then ECU said there had been some misfiring on No2. No 2 was a vaguely different colour just on the elctrode ptherwise nothing to report. All plugs carefully refitted with fingers since the cross threading debacle and the whole thing cleaned with some degreaser now looking smart.

Result? My goodness me does the car feel better, cleaner tickover, instant pickup, and quieter by enough to notice. All the stuttering has been eliminated so well worth doing. My health is still not great and I ran out of steam before doing the pollen filter so hopefully tomorow will see that done. Hopefully good for another year Just front tyre wear to sort out. I think new arms and springs. Tyres are too expensive to put up with this! All I need now is for the driver to CLEAN THE B***** thing out!!

I noticed the small breather tube from the airbox to the manifol is totally perished. It looks like it will not be there at all in a few more weeks so time to go off to s4p and see if a replacement can be found, or maybe a suitable length of tube to allow this to be extended so the airbox could be removed without it disconnecting every single time. I have never seen a rubber hose disintegrate as badly!

 

[DaveMcT]

I'm not convinced about the fancy oil brands. The Fiat FIRE engines run happily on 10w40 semi synthetic just change it annually or every 10,000 miles. Oils meeting the manufacturer's spec are all they need.

My Yamaha 900 bike (airooled) was specced for 10w40 Semi synth. It made 90 bhp, revved a lot higher than a car engine and air-cooling works the oil harder. It had new oil every 6,000 miles with filter at alternate oil changes. That oil also lubricated the gearbox and the front worm & pinion for the shaft drive. At 70,000 miles the cams had no measurable wear and the bearings had the original machining marks. The clutch basket was also in equally good condition. I used oils that met manufacturer's spec and they clearly did a good job.

 

[The Panda Nut]

I think with the VVT system Ill stick with the recommended oil! Cleaning the silenoid filters has changed the sound of the engine when you rev it so that will be done annually as well. The other car had never had the VVT cleaned and itrs a slug by comparrison so I will have a look at what a 40,000 mile uncleaned VVT filter looks like and post a photo. It will be interesting to see if any change is seen. I think the motor is in much better order with sensible miles each year and a proper service record. where the 169 only did a few 000 on its first 5 years 4000 I I remember right. It was then driven a furthetr 30K on its 6th year by the previous owner.

 

[The Panda Nut]

We had a hell of a lot of knocking from the front of Daffo which I thought was suspension related. I now find its the air con condenser thats loose at the top. Does anyone know how its sipposed to be held in place? Should it be firmly fixed or is some movement normal. I have currently wedged it with pipe lagging and a lot of the rattling has gone.

 

[koalar]

I'm not convinced about the fancy oil brands. The Fiat FIRE engines run happily on 10w40 semi synthetic just change it annually or every 10,000 miles. Oils meeting the manufacturer's spec are all they need.

It's VVT with very thin galleries built into the cam cover require nice clean thin oil

SAE 5W-40 ACEA C3. Is the correct oil

Fully synthetic designed for diesel yes I know it's a petrol

Put the wrong oil in its likely to give an occasional cam too advanced error when reved hard no big deal but will reduce power until its been restarted a few times

 

[jrkitching]

I'm not convinced about the fancy oil brands. The Fiat FIRE engines run happily on 10w40 semi synthetic just change it annually or every 10,000 miles. Oils meeting the manufacturer's spec are all they need.

On the 60HP non-VVT FIRE engines I'd agree. They'd also likely be just fine on a basic multigrade mineral oil if changed every 6000 miles; the big advantage of synthetics is that they stay closer to original spec for longer. The only thing to be careful of is that there aren't any additives in the oil which could adversely affect the emissions control components.

For later models with VVT I'd be less inclined to taking risks with an out of spec oil, and once we get onto the TA & diesel variants, correct oil is critical. With the diesels, the cam chain is the weak link (pardon the pun); with the TA, it's the valve actuating mechanism. Both are likely to give trouble if liberties are taken with the oil, and neither is a cheap fix.

The other thing I'd always do is to spend a little extra to buy a top quality filter. Most engine wear occurs in the first few minutes after firing up, and correct operation of the anti-drainback valve (built into the filter and sometimes not even present in very cheap ones) is important to ensure oil will reach the critical parts quickly one the engine is started.

 

[koalar]

We had a hell of a lot of knocking from the front of Daffo which I thought was suspension related. I now find its the air con condenser thats loose at the top. Does anyone know how its sipposed to be held in place? Should it be firmly fixed or is some movement normal. I have currently wedged it with pipe lagging and a lot of the rattling has gone.

3A not sure if all Panda's are the same

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I noticed yesterday daffo is quite overdue for service. So today I piled in. Castro edge 5/40 and a new filter. I noticed the filter in now marked MOPAR and no longer FPT but it came in a Fiat box and this time it says made in France. The last few have been Chinese. Air cleaner removed and was so clean it really wasnt worth changing, so I didnt. The airbox was also clean maybe a product of being used on trips to work at night. Less pollen flies and dust??

I decided the throttle body looked pretty dirty and so removed that and cleaned it and while it was off I mopped out the manifold which had accumulated some oil. No mayo this time as the catch can collects that. I would say there was may be 2.5 - 5cc that was easily soaked up by some clean sheet. I also decided to remove and clean the VVT solenoid which was still clean since tha last clean when the cam belt was done recently. New plugs - a code in then ECU said there had been some misfiring on No2. No 2 was a vaguely different colour just on the elctrode ptherwise nothing to report. All plugs carefully refitted with fingers since the cross threading debacle and the whole thing cleaned with some degreaser now looking smart.

Result? My goodness me does the car feel better, cleaner tickover, instant pickup, and quieter by enough to notice. All the stuttering has been eliminated so well worth doing. My health is still not great and I ran out of steam before doing the pollen filter so hopefully tomorow will see that done. Hopefully good for another year Just front tyre wear to sort out. I think new arms and springs. Tyres are too expensive to put up with this! All I need now is for the driver to CLEAN THE B***** thing out!!

New plugs fitted - wonder if the miss fire was a dodgy plug?

Oil filter manufacturers? I suspect there's some very big operators behind this. I used Mahle filters for many years when my friend had the motor factors, because that was what he sold. I was pleased to use them as they are well thought of - never thought to look at the packaging to see where they were made. Now getting most of my service items from SRS They give me a choice of filter manufacturer - NAPA, COMLINE, and another and BOSCH. The Bosch filters seem to get a good name, and they are not the cheap budget option, so I've been using them for some time. I've noticed they seem to be made both in China and France. In fact this time the two I bought, one for the Punto and the other for the Panda - I chose the "long" option for both - were made in China, whereas the Ibiza filter was produced in France:

Ibiza filter on the left.

I think with the VVT system Ill stick with the recommended oil! Cleaning the silenoid filters has changed the sound of the engine when you rev it so that will be done annually as well. The other car had never had the VVT cleaned and itrs a slug by comparrison so I will have a look at what a 40,000 mile uncleaned VVT filter looks like and post a photo. It will be interesting to see if any change is seen. I think the motor is in much better order with sensible miles each year and a proper service record. where the 169 only did a few 000 on its first 5 years 4000 I I remember right. It was then driven a furthetr 30K on its 6th year by the previous owner.

I've never cleaned the VVT filter on my boy's Punto and it is a bit sluggish - although I know the 1.4 8 valve is no ball of fire. I'll be doing a service on it once I'm finished with Twinkle (the Ibiza) and I'm very tempted to clean the valve filter while I'm about it. Are there any O rings etc which need renewing. I ask because I had the solenoids out of my younger boy's Astra a few years back when I was investigating a problem - turned out to be the VVT pulleys themselves - I put the solenoid valves back in with the existing seals and they leaked very slightly thereafter. I was later told by a chap who works on Vauxhalls that they always renew the seals.

I use Fuchs Titan GT1 Flex 3 5w-40 fully synth in the Punto, which is also recommended by Fuchs for use in the Panda - Fiat 9.55535-S2:



So I use it in both cars. The thing about "approval" vs "recommendation" is interesting: https://www.fuchs.com/dk/en/product...specifications-approvals-and-recommendations/

Many manufacturers of good quality oils quote "approvals" but it's not common to find "recommendations" so I've been looking into it and I think it basically boils down to this. The approvals are manufacturer approvals. This means the vehicle manufacturer approves/licences the particular oil for use in a particular engine/vehicle. This process involves the oil manufacturer in very considerable expense. A Fuchs recommendation is where they know the oil meets the specification quoted but have not gone through the expense of licencing it with the manufacturer. As an official first fill provider to VAG I'm happy to take a Fuchs recommendation at face value.

PS. I notice'd a NAPA oil which complies with FIAT 9.55535-s2: https://www.napa-oil.co.uk/product/pd-5w-40-ls/ while I was waiting for my order to come through from the warehouse at SRS - They've got shelves full of the product in the sales room - I inquired about it and it looks like I could make a considerable saving over the Fuchs - food for thought I think.

 

[MrMagoo]

I use the cheapest SAE oil specific to the vehicle because I'm a tight ar$e.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Are there any O rings etc which need renewing.

There is certainly one O ring but I did not renew, it was removed a while back by the man who did the cam belt and no sign of leaks. It would not be hard to change as it just seals the end that pushes into the cam cover. I amy act on your suggestion that leaks could occur and get a new one sometime soon but there are other places oil is appearing from the breather pipes so as long as its only a weep its not a mega concern,

 

[The Panda Nut]

3A not sure if all Panda's are the same

View attachment 427102

Looks like I need to loose the bumper to tighten things up. Garage that did the new condenser may not bhave done things quite as right as I would hope!
!

 

[The Panda Nut]

I have a had plenty of experience using different oils and had a few happenings thrown in along the wat to suggest that there are substantial differnced between oils. I had a meltdown of the main and big ends with a Renault 16 using cheap oil back in the late 80's. Staggering to hear all the bearings fail at full chat in 3rd gear! Rapid declutching saved the engine and we plodded 150 miles home before replacing all the bearing shells with thankfiully no other damage. Many years before thatI had an engine rebuilt and subsequently had little oil pressure. Rernewing the oil pump a second time at hiuge cost in time and effort produced about 15psi and experimenting with available oils at the time convertedme to Duqhams Q which brought the pressure rigt up to where you would expect and kept it there. Castrol GTX was hopeless and I didn't touch Castrol again for 50 years! Their loss in view of the huge milage I have driven and my insistence for many years on 3000 mile changes. I am now convinced now that modern oils can do extended stints having had a Vectra which was on a flexible service, high miles service arrangement. The service light came on after 30,000 miles and I took it in, the garage said it was the longest service interval they had ever seen. (moral of this pat of the story is thrash it as hard as is possible from start to finish, every journey). The oil still felt and looked good when it was drained and although you could tell it had been changed as it was a little smoother, it was nothing more than I have noticed with standard 12 or 18000 change intervals over the years. I used to use mobil 1 in everything (of mine) prior to the Twinair but now use exactly what is specified in that. The castrol edge drained from Daffo (169) after 16K last week was still fairly clean and when I emptied my drain tin it was clinging on to the tin gamely suggesting it was far from finished. Castrol seem to have improved.... Well done! I shall use some in my general oil can and some for oiling garden tools after use,

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Strange how experiences can influence how you view things for a very long time. Anyone remember the hullabaloo over the valve damage attributed to shell petrol quite some years ago. It took me a very long time to risk putting that brand in my tank again - and yet today their performance fuel is rated by many as the best you can buy.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Strange how experiences can influence how you view things for a very long time. Anyone remember the hullabaloo over the valve damage attributed to shell petrol quite some years ago. It took me a very long time to risk putting that brand in my tank again - and yet today their performance fuel is rated by many as the best you can buy.

Me too. I made sure I ran the company cars on the stuff for a good long while before putting it in mine!