Easiest car for the home mechanic?

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Easiest car for the home mechanic?

Steve145

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Lost my temper with my Croma today - couldn't get the **** oil filter off.

So, what, in your experience, is the best larger Fiat (2 adults, 1 child, 1 dog) from the home mechanic's point of view?

Palio?

Doblo?


What I mean by that is for the routine maintenance items to be easily accessible without putting the car on a lift or removing half the engine.

In short, I've had it with spannering for "fun", I just want something that is quick and easy to work on.

Non fiat suggestions may also be considered...
 
Maybe not big enough but I used to do an oil change on my old 1.3 multijet diesel in 15mins with the car on the ground.

You could reach the sump plug without having to Jack it and the oil filter was at the front of the engine on the front. Paper filter so now having to be careful of the oil pouring out.
 
Palio never sold in the uk.. but passinh views while 'enFrance' make it a mk2 punto: 188 for 'tech'

The 1248 multijet diesel was pretty straightforward until 2010
So Doblo and punto

When they hid the glowplugs and added a DPF

My work nowadays is very limited.. :(
And the 1248 has done me well ..
only issue was with the 2nd purchase.. it has a leak of combustion gasses.. changed the whole EGR cooler a couple of hours laid in a carpark.

The other 2 are solid runners (even the stinky one still runs well..annoyingly)

The motor is available in 75 and 90 bhp

Do Paris govt still tax in this way..?
 
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Oil filter on the Croma is a bitch. The best way to get it removed is with several 1/2" extension bars and a swivel coupling. Put the 32mm socket on the filter housing cap and run the extension along the back of the engine/drive shaft into the wheel arch. You still have to work under the and will get covered in oil!
 
I have at least three oil filer sockets (which never work when the old one was fitted by a gorilla), chain wrench and a 1/2' socket drive strap wrench. The latter is almost always the best option. The only thing where it did not work was the BMW boxer bike. The ONLY option was a socket wrench and screwdriver to push through the old filter if it had been gorilla'rd.

You can make a strap wench from dowelling and some webbing. I've also pushed webbing thought a socket set U/J coupling and got that to work.
 
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I always have a classic or 3 on the go and it amazes me how much space there is in engine bay compared to modern cars. Even more unusual when you consider that cars have been getting bigger.

I have an early 70’s Alfa Spider and most things are very accessible. Roll on 20 years and and things start to get tighter on my 944, but still most things are reasonably accessible. I’ve only topped up the screen wash on my modern car.

I guess it comes down to all the options and reliability we demand from modern cars.
 
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Oil filter on the Croma is a bitch. The best way to get it removed is with several 1/2" extension bars and a swivel coupling. Put the 32mm socket on the filter housing cap and run the extension along the back of the engine/drive shaft into the wheel arch. You still have to work under the and will get covered in oil!

Aye, my Coupe is the same. On paper it’s looks easy, but, removing the undertray is just the start of goodness how long will it take. Even jacking the Coupe up onto stands is a bitch. All that and knees and other parts wearing out by the year. I have to do both cars oil and filter, but I’m waiting for a sunny warm day. I also have to do front discs and pads on the daily, easier to work on, but my body still fights back.

I have to laugh at myself, getting down and under the cars is bad enough, getting up again can be interesting contortions..:D
 
I have to laugh at myself, getting down and under the cars is bad enough, getting up again can be interesting contortions..:D

Yep. Last summer I put new shocks and springs on the wife's "B". Also removed the anti-roll bar for some surface rust clean-up and hamerite paint job.

Getting the anti-roll bar back was not that easy so had to slither in under the car (on stands) a bit further towards the lower front. Rolled to to my left OK but when I tried to roll back I was jammed. Boiler suit gripping like mad. I eventually wriggled out but by now my right shoulder had been so far and for so long compressed to my left I was basically stuffed for a long time afterwards with movement and pain problems.

My other pet hate are today's modern wheels. They and the tyres get larger in all dimensions and exponentially heavier. Add old having to lift and hold and jiggle close to the ground and one's back and arms get stuffed as well. Worst is the two year all wheels off for a brake fluid change.

My body is getting to the point where I want to swop the body pain for pain in the wallet and let my trusted independent Fiat specialist do the work (which I have had to do once just after the "B" job above).
 
I think as battery packs eventually drop to more reasonable costs we will see more and more old cars getting converted. It will be a shame to lose the old engines but servicing and living with them will be easier.
 
Right now, I wish I had a trusted independent Fiat specialist (he shut a few years ago).

Thanks for the comments on the 1248 cc Multijet - I presume that's the 1.3 diesel in everything from the Panda to the Doblo?

Older cars are easier. My Uno is brilliant, can see, touch and get a grip on everything just by opening the bonnet. My wife's 2004 Panda is nearly as good (1.2 FIRE), can at least see and touch things. My Alfa 145 TD is not bad either, the engine bay is much "busier", but all the regular service items are sensibly placed, can do an oil change just cranking the steering fully to the right.

As for the Croma - I tried to take it to work yesterday, it made it 3km down the road - front coil spring broke and cut through the (brand new) tyre like a knife. Stupid tubular wheelbrace just crumpled when I tried to use it. Hauled away on a recovery truck, waiting to see how much they're going to quote...

Fortunately, it happened at 50km/h on a country road, 3 minutes later I'd have been on the motorway at 130...
 
Palio never sold in the uk.. but passinh views while 'enFrance' make it a mk2 punto: 188 for 'tech'

The 1248 multijet diesel was pretty straightforward until 2010
So Doblo and punto

When they hid the glowplugs and added a DPF

My work nowadays is very limited.. :(
And the 1248 has done me well ..
only issue was with the 2nd purchase.. it has a leak of combustion gasses.. changed the whole EGR cooler a couple of hours laid in a carpark.

The other 2 are solid runners (even the stinky one still runs well..annoyingly)

The motor is available in 75 and 90 bhp

Do Paris govt still tax in this way..?

To be fair the dpf wasn't in the way it was the variable turbo on the 95 hp version that block's the glowplugs
 
Sorry, I'd written a fairly detailed reply, but life intervened and it didn't get finished.

Yes, I'm in Correze, France, on the edge of the Massif Central. Lots of cows, not much else.

Currently trying to get my car out of the hands of the breakdown service...
 
Sorry, I'd written a fairly detailed reply, but life intervened and it didn't get finished.

Yes, I'm in Correze, France, on the edge of the Massif Central. Lots of cows, not much else.

Currently trying to get my car out of the hands of the breakdown service...

That's OK. I was hoping you may be near to some UK specialist ;)
 
Who designs these stupid place filters

Seat Leon VW engines have a large nut pressed into the base of the filter onto which you just stick the appropriate sized socket. Its so simple and I wonder why every canister oil filter is not the same. It almost makes up for their emissions cheating.... Especially as the car runs so clean anyway you can wipe the inside of the tail pipe without getting your fingers dirty even after 123,000 miles.. The TA tail pipe on the other hand looks like the Torrey Canyon disaster zone at 9000 miles.
 
The TA tail pipe on the other hand looks like the Torrey Canyon disaster zone at 9000 miles.

Ah, now that brings back memories PN. Back in the summer of 1967 my mates and myself, about five of us, can’t remember the exact figure, we were all about eleven or twelve, throwing stones at a 45 gallon empty oil drum that we found and set off down a large stream, we thought at the time it was a river :D We started off at a farm that one of my pals came from. This is way out in the sticks. Went for miles before the oil drum was sunk.

Playing back then was using your imagination. That summer will live for me until the end. (y) Happy innocent times indeed. Looking back, of course the oil drum represented the I’ll fated Torrey Canyon oil tanker ship. Again looking back, we probably walked about three miles or so, but in our minds it was far more. Yes, great times, could this be emulated today, I doubt it unfortunately, kids these days seem to be interested in things that already been made up for them.

Thanks for the reminiscence PN…:)
 
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