Hi. I've just realised how rubbish my username now looks, it's like it's saying "20 Valve TurboDiesel reamer"...

Anyway, I've wanted a Fiat Coupe Turbo for some time now. I actually did own one, for a week, but only drove it once on the test drive. I had to let it go after the garage I was buying it off informed me they discovered, whilst replacing some front suspension components that I pointed out made it pull to the left and made loud noises, that it had actually been in a crash at some point. For all I know though they probably did it themselves pissing around doing wheelspins at lunchtime in it.. :yuck:

So the itch has been getting stronger again and I've noticed some nicely priced ones recently not tooooo far away. The ones I've seen are in the nearly-80,000 miles bracket though. I've read the buying guides and stuff, and nowhere seems to say anything about this age (apart from the timing belt obviously, but these are 1998-1999 cars so should have had that done anyway) that I should look for.

So what does tend to go wrong at these higher mileages, how long does the turbo last? And 'cos I can do a bit of mechanical stuff myself (and my dad is a mechanic), how big an annoyance is changing a cracked manifold? I always see £400+ figures thrown around for this, but if that is including labour, the parts themselves must be almost sanely-priced, and can't be THAT hard to change..? Can they..? Any replies appreciated, ta!

The buyer's guide on FCCUK is a great place to look for for stuff like this, but the main things to look for that might be going at that age are:
Cracked manifold
Corroded oil cooler pipes
Worn turbo oil seals
Worn wishbones
Bonnet stone chips
Crash damage!
Worn leather
Aircon needing regassing
Missing undertray
Cambelt not done

Changing the manifold is a PITA, particularly if you have aircon. The part is about £250. The basic process is:
Undertray off (Bolts will be seized)
Radiator fans out (Scrape skin off knuckles)
Radiator out (Bolts will snap)
Turbo off (Bolts will be seized)
Slacken auxilliary belt (Having made special tool from an allen key and a golf club!)
Partially remove air-con compressor (Round off bolt heads due to limited access)
Remove manifold (Studs will come out with the bolts!)
Reverse the process with the new part.

H

i'm sure most present and past coop owners would agree that spending a bit more on a cleaner one can pay dividends in the long term. not got one myself but for posts in the forum even well maintaned ones can drain a fair bit off cash in bits n bobs

I'm not going to add anything to H's excellent post, other than the 80K bracket is where you need to start spending a bit of dollar to keep your coupe in top nick.

Here's a little secret: Actually go for a higher mileage coupe No I'm serious I bought my coupe on 90K for an excellent price, and the previous owner had done the following around the 80K mark:

New turbo
New clutch
New cambelt
New radiator

Those 4 add up to over 2 grand. If I had bought my coupe 8 months earlier, I would have been faced with forking out.

The main thing is to buy a straight example, coupe's are costly if the owner is of the "drive it till it breaks and fix it" school of thought, preventative maintenance is the key.

There's loads of good coupe's on the fccuk forum at the mo, that's your best bet.

when you go to look at a coop and they tell you what work has been done, ask to see the service sheets, cos anyone can tell you anything, you should get proff if poss.

Cheers folks. Yeah I'd already looked at the fccuk and the buyer's guide there, but it seemed a bit sparse on some bits. First thing I was gonna do anyway was to see the service history, now I at least know what work to look for inside it!