Sourcing parts.

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Sourcing parts.

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Edinburgh Scotland
A few years ago an acquaintance, actually I'd call him a friend as I'd known him in a work capacity for probably over 40 years, had a serious stroke. This, of course, was utterly devastating for his family and very sad for those of us who knew him less intimately. He owned one of the local motor factors but was unable to continue after this and shut up shop. He was my first port of call for all my generic spares and service parts and I knew I could rely on anything he supplied to be of high quality and, well, just work!

Well, since that sad event, I've been "flirting" with a few different local suppliers and, although I've now settled down with one I like, I don't yet have that feeling of being able to rely on them as I had with my friend.

This all brings me to the point of this post. If you've been following my posts about "Becky", our Panda Dynamic Eco, (in the Panda section) you'll know I've been assembling parts and making a flywheel locking tool in preparation for doing a timing belt change. I like Gates brand belts which are widely sold, so it was just a case of finding a reliable vendor who was doing a good deal - relatively easy, job done. The car has done 62,000 miles and is 8+ years old so I also decided to renew the cam cover gasket and oil seals at crank and cam pulleys as they are rubber/synthetic material which degrades with age and, I thought (silly me), they wouldn't cost much! Well, did I get a shock at my local Fiat dealer's parts desk! I also thought, at that age and mileage, that a gearbox oil change would be a good idea. So how about a couple of litres of TUTELA TECHNYX? Sorry, we only keep gear oil in bulk. He was a very pleasant chap so I pushed him a bit. Seems they don't use TUTELA TECHNYX but he couldn't say what they did use??! He could get the TUTELA for me but it comes by the case load! He seemed to be implying that I should take the case! Expensive too! Rang two other main dealers in the general area, no they can't supply either! Is it possible that no-one in the central belt of Scotland ever buys genuine Fiat oil?

Anyway, after recovering from this shock with a nice cup of tea at home, I rang my new factor. He could supply the cam cover gasket for £9.50 +vat (£23.13p Inc vat from the dealer) so Ok that looks great, I'll have one. But the seals were actually more expensive than the dealer and no gearbox oil which matches the Fiat spec!

Tried several local and not so local suppliers without success then remembered Shop4parts advert on the FF - gave them a ring, twice, and on both occasions I spoke to a very helpful and knowledgeable chap who quickly sorted me out with the gearbox oil, at a very reasonable price and a cam cover gasket, which I didn't really need for the Panda but is the same one on my Boy's Punto and it needs a belt too so I'll need a gasket for it. The gasket was an absolute bargain at £5.94p +vat. They don't keep the seals in stock, could get them for me but on special order so not much cheaper than the dealer price. I went with the oil and gasket. Ordered Thursday mid morning, arrived Friday early evening, no shipping charge as over £25.00p in total. The gasket is a far superior product when compared to the one I bought locally - and cheaper too if you don't have to pay shipping!

What to do about the seals then. Well, Ricambio's website promises great things so I gave them a ring too. (Our phone package gives us free calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers) Another very pleasant and knowledgeable chap answered! Supplied him with the full vehicle details. They don't hold the seals on the shelf as they deal mainly with older vehicle parts (classic 500 etc) but he can get them. So, expensive? Well no actually! Both seals and a small shipping charge for what I would pay the local dealer for just the crank (oil pump) seal alone! They are due to arrive on Monday. Grandchildren on Tuesday, further "bonding" with Becky on Wednesday.

So I feel that I've made two very useful contacts here and, although this is my only contact with them so far I'm glad to be able to add my positive comments to those of others on this site and I will definitely be using them again.

Regards
Jock
 
A few years ago an acquaintance, actually I'd call him a friend as I'd known him in a work capacity for probably over 40 years, had a serious stroke. This, of course, was utterly devastating for his family and very sad for those of us who knew him less intimately. He owned one of the local motor factors but was unable to continue after this and shut up shop. He was my first port of call for all my generic spares and service parts and I knew I could rely on anything he supplied to be of high quality and, well, just work!

Well, since that sad event, I've been "flirting" with a few different local suppliers and, although I've now settled down with one I like, I don't yet have that feeling of being able to rely on them as I had with my friend.

This all brings me to the point of this post. If you've been following my posts about "Becky", our Panda Dynamic Eco, (in the Panda section) you'll know I've been assembling parts and making a flywheel locking tool in preparation for doing a timing belt change. I like Gates brand belts which are widely sold, so it was just a case of finding a reliable vendor who was doing a good deal - relatively easy, job done. The car has done 62,000 miles and is 8+ years old so I also decided to renew the cam cover gasket and oil seals at crank and cam pulleys as they are rubber/synthetic material which degrades with age and, I thought (silly me), they wouldn't cost much! Well, did I get a shock at my local Fiat dealer's parts desk! I also thought, at that age and mileage, that a gearbox oil change would be a good idea. So how about a couple of litres of TUTELA TECHNYX? Sorry, we only keep gear oil in bulk. He was a very pleasant chap so I pushed him a bit. Seems they don't use TUTELA TECHNYX but he couldn't say what they did use??! He could get the TUTELA for me but it comes by the case load! He seemed to be implying that I should take the case! Expensive too! Rang two other main dealers in the general area, no they can't supply either! Is it possible that no-one in the central belt of Scotland ever buys genuine Fiat oil?

Anyway, after recovering from this shock with a nice cup of tea at home, I rang my new factor. He could supply the cam cover gasket for £9.50 +vat (£23.13p Inc vat from the dealer) so Ok that looks great, I'll have one. But the seals were actually more expensive than the dealer and no gearbox oil which matches the Fiat spec!

Tried several local and not so local suppliers without success then remembered Shop4parts advert on the FF - gave them a ring, twice, and on both occasions I spoke to a very helpful and knowledgeable chap who quickly sorted me out with the gearbox oil, at a very reasonable price and a cam cover gasket, which I didn't really need for the Panda but is the same one on my Boy's Punto and it needs a belt too so I'll need a gasket for it. The gasket was an absolute bargain at £5.94p +vat. They don't keep the seals in stock, could get them for me but on special order so not much cheaper than the dealer price. I went with the oil and gasket. Ordered Thursday mid morning, arrived Friday early evening, no shipping charge as over £25.00p in total. The gasket is a far superior product when compared to the one I bought locally - and cheaper too if you don't have to pay shipping!

What to do about the seals then. Well, Ricambio's website promises great things so I gave them a ring too. (Our phone package gives us free calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers) Another very pleasant and knowledgeable chap answered! Supplied him with the full vehicle details. They don't hold the seals on the shelf as they deal mainly with older vehicle parts (classic 500 etc) but he can get them. So, expensive? Well no actually! Both seals and a small shipping charge for what I would pay the local dealer for just the crank (oil pump) seal alone! They are due to arrive on Monday. Grandchildren on Tuesday, further "bonding" with Becky on Wednesday.

So I feel that I've made two very useful contacts here and, although this is my only contact with them so far I'm glad to be able to add my positive comments to those of others on this site and I will definitely be using them again.

Regards
Jock
Just a wee additional word to say Ricambio came through too. Seals delivered lunchtime post today, exactly as promised! I'm very impressed! As with Shop4parts, I got a really good feeling, when I was talking to them on the phone, that these folk really knew what they were talking about.

I'm always just a little nervous ordering by post as you never really know if the part that turns up is going to be correct. So I'm relieved to say that the crank (oil pump) seal looks very like the one I did all those years ago on "Felicity" (our '92 Panda Parade) so is likely correct. The cam seal outer diameter is quite large which worries me a wee bit, but as I haven't seen the one on the engine yet, I'm happy to believe it's the right one.

So, all in all, looking good at this time - Exhausted Grandson (after a busy weekend) handed back to Mum and Dad late last night and Mrs Jock is off to her bridge club this afternoon so I've got the next couple of hours to myself. Armed with your advice, PB, and other "stuff" I've been reading on the Forum, I'm going to get stuck into getting my Computer, Multiecuscan, that expensive multiplexed interface I bought and Becky all talking to each other. It must be almost 6 months since I bought this MES package so it's really quite rediculous that I still haven't taken the time to set it all up properly and I would like to know if there are any engine DTC's stored before I get stuck into the cam belt change on Wednesday. Old and a bit "slow" I may be but I'm not stupid? I can do this. It's going to be all sorted by bedtime tonight! Maybe?

If, no when! I get it working I'll do a wee post detailing what I did. OK. Coming up on half two now. Going to make a cup of strong coffee to stimulate the "little (miniscule, maybe?) grey cells" and have at it!
 
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