Technical Sei Oil Change

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Technical Sei Oil Change

NiMMo

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Hi, i have a fiat sei sporting 99. The oil is is desperate need of a change! Can anyone tell me how i can do this? or do i have to send it to a garage? Thanks a lot (i'm new here by the way)
 
welcome to the forum :)

Oil change is easy enough to do. Get yourself a new oil filter and the oil of your choice (i use magnatec GTX). If you look under the car, on the bottom of the engine you'll see the sump. In the middle of that (facing toward the back of the car if i remember correctly) you'll see a stubbt bolt. You'll need an alun key to remove this. I can't remeber the size of it, but its big!

Warm the car up, and then leave it stand for a while (so all the oil collects in the sump). Then just stick something to collect the oil under the sump, and preferably some cardboard under that as oil destroys tarmac. Loosen the sump plug, but don't remove it totally as it'll spray oil everywhere!

Once its finished dripping, unscrew the old oil filter (its on the front of the engine, below the exhaust manifold) and spin the new one on. Don't tigthen it too much. Some people say smear a bit of oil onto the seal on the new filter to help it seal.. i forgot to do that on mine! Then just tightn up the sump plug, and refil the engine with oil.

Thats it :)
 
hi

simple job. just get the car up in the air on some ramps. I make mine out of a couple of peices of wood and some bricks.
next, you need to pop to your local motor factor and get a sump plug key. off the top of my head, its 12 or 13mm.
the rest is simple, just get underneith with a bowl and undo the sump plug, let all the oil drain out and pop the plug back in. While your doing it, you should change the oil filter. there easy to get, i get mine from the local halfrauds. quite easy to remove, its at the front of the engine, behind the radiator. you'll probably need a filter remover tool to get it off. a simple task with this, un screw the old one, and screw the new one on

bobs your uncle, just fill up with new oil and thats the job done

joe
 
Be very careful filling it up. I was surprised how slowly it would take the new oil without overflowing and then it would all go down the back of the engine! That's using a funnel too!
 
CAREFULL JACKING TOO (you don't want your mum the catch ya, lol, Nah) Lol, use the correct Jacking points and do not use a jack to support the car use axel stands.. V. dangerous on such a low car.. If i where u i'd buy my Oil From halfrauds ( :rolleyes: ) & pick up a haynes Sei book it'll have all the info you'll probly ever need - inclues detailed pages on Oil change and oil Type.. :p
 
hi, if the oil is quite old it might be best to use some engine flush first. you simply add this to the old oil, then run the engine at high idle for 10 mins. then drain the oil. this removes any sludge in your engine.

for some cheap oil at the moment get down to your local woolworths cos they have castrolgtx magnetec on 100% extra free. so you get 2 litres for £5. which is much cheaper than £7.99 a liter from halfords!

i think a sei only takes something like 3.8L including an oil change but it might be worth looking in your manul first.

Matt

P.s. (CinqueCento)

Haynes dont make Seicento manuals yet. as far as i no.
 
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Wow Realli? lol.. Tossers.. i live right near the museum i must complain if i ever go there.. Yea i'm a Cinq driver too, didn't kno they wasn't a sei haynes.. WoooopSie!
Chrz Scott..
 
OK, I changed my oil last week, so it's all fresh in my mind. Firstly, my car is the 899cc version, so it may be slightly different. While I remember the sump plug is 12mm.

I found it very hard and time consuming, most of the time was spent on silly things (eg. finding tools) and clearing up though. I did an engine flush, although from what I've heard I think it may be best not to do it. The engine flush can flush away carbon etc that holds the engine, or block oilways with the stuff that it's flushing. I think frequent changes are probably better than flushing. If you do a flush, then I found that putting my feeler guages in the throttle stop holds the revs nicely (spent ages trying to find something to put in there).

I don't mess around with ramps or anything, I put the wheels on full lock, and stretch past the wheel to the filter, and sump plug. It's very awkward though, and I suspect that it may be harder on a sporting because they are slightly lower. I also don't let the engine cool, so that it's nice and runny when the plug comes out.

When the plug comes loose I pull it out quick, and hope that I don't get soaked. The first time I did it I was completely dry, but this week my glove was soaked (oh, and make sure you wear good gloves, you don't want hot oil all over your hands). When the new filter goes in you should put oil around the rubber seal, it stops it from buckling or twisting out of shape.

The engine's supposed to take 3.8l with a filter change, or 3.4l without a filter change. I put about 3.0l in my one, checked the level, and it was just over max :eek:. I ran the engine for a moment, and then it settled at just below max. I left it overnight, and checked it in the morning. In the morning it was on exactly max. So I was very lucky, but it's probably best to check it after 2.5l. I left it to drain for quite a while too (while I had my food).
 
Got Castrol GTX 4.5 litres (if that's the size they come in) for £2.17 or similar from Tesco a few weeks ago ;)

Doubt they are stilling selling it at that price though.

Remember to screw in the sump plug before refilling.....I wonder how many times people have forgotten that lol.
 
thanks for your help, it seems a bit of a fiddly job. I think il just top the oil up for now. I didnt realise how un-user friendly an oil change is!
 
if its in need of a change.. change it.. really. It is an easy job, loosen plug, drain oil, replace plug, loosen filter, replace filter, refill system, replace filler cap. Everyone was just covering it in more detail.
 
I would agree, change it! Ignore stuff about engine flush, oilman who comes on here sometimes knows his stuff and says "don't".
 
well...actually... flushing the engine with diesel helps quieten down tappets.. he may know about oil, but how much does he know about fiat engines ;)

flushing is worth doing imo if u dont know when the oil was last done - but after that, theres no need
 
Sorry, I said that badly. What I meant to say is "if engine flushing and the like is putting you off forget it, it's not exactly compulsary" - I was assuming that this was worrying him and thought I would say that it's not necessary as such. Maybe:

Oil with flush > oil >>>>> topping up.
 
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