Seicento Finally got my Seicento Sporting.

Have you picked a colour yet or are you sticking to matte light grey?

I have some Gulf racing powder blue in my shed.

Leaving it a bit late imo! Unless you started earlier this morning.

it sounds doable to me.. Good luck, let us know how you get on.

We've got the clutch done, went quite well, only needed one tiny cable adjustment after putting it all back to get the bite right. Didn't need any extra bits, the clutch was just totally worn and smooth. No grinding in the gears and a smooth action on the pedal now. Stopped for a chinese (food, not person), had many brews and spent half an hour looking for a nut we lost from the suspension (it just vanished, found it under the tool trolley), so maybe could have done it quicker if we hadn't stopped, but it was done properly so I can't complain. Going to do the service and gasket tomorrow as it was getting late. Only just got back in the house now. Still smiling!

That picture back there of the matt grey one is not mine mate, I'm leaving it standard just getting rid of the orange.

The car is now fully serviced and running beautifully, I've been very lucky, the more we got the car to bits, the happier I was getting with it. It's been so well looked after. So on goes the journey, I'll keep the car as long as I can and slowly build it up to my personal specification, replacing parts as needed, and uprating where practical. But for now, it's just a case of finishing off the cosmetic touches ie.
remove the side flashes,
paint front and rear bumper inserts black,
clear indicators front and side,
freshen up rear badges with black outline over the original blue,
replace bonnet badge with a newer model version,

I'll probably do all that on the next decent weather day.

Thanks for all your replies and tips during this mini project, all of it has been helpful and now I've got one of my dream cars in great condition I can just enjoy it now.

I will stick around the site as it is excellent.

jMz said:

The car is now fully serviced and running beautifully, I've been very lucky, the more we got the car to bits, the happier I was getting with it. It's been so well looked after. So on goes the journey, I'll keep the car as long as I can and slowly build it up to my personal specification, replacing parts as needed, and uprating where practical. But for now, it's just a case of finishing off the cosmetic touches ie.
remove the side flashes,
paint front and rear bumper inserts black,
clear indicators front and side,
freshen up rear badges with black outline over the original blue,
replace bonnet badge with a newer model version,

I'll probably do all that on the next decent weather day.

Thanks for all your replies and tips during this mini project, all of it has been helpful and now I've got one of my dream cars in great condition I can just enjoy it now.

I will stick around the site as it is excellent.

Click to expand...

plans sound good - 2bh thats my kinda main priority atm, get the car running nice, sweet and comfortably.

those little touches you got planned will make a huge difference.

Liquid Knight said:

Have you picked a colour yet or are you sticking to matte light grey?

I have some Gulf racing powder blue in my shed.

Click to expand...

its still in primer but will be either going a dark graphite bmw grey or clio cup/megane yellow

In for a Penny....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/multichro...essories_ET&hash=item19d1bc2104#ht_500wt_1365

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-LITRE-F...plies_Paint&hash=item27b804d925#ht_500wt_1348

I notice my car is running a little rich, I have looked at some other threads here on the topic but they were never concluded.
It's not major but it has got slightly worse since I've had the car and serviced it.
If I don't floor it everywhere and just drive in low revs it seems to stutter a bit when I accelerate hard, if I lift off and go back on full it seems to clear. I'm thinking that it's just using too much fuel, but I don't know how to adjust it or whether I will have to take it somewhere. There is a smell of petrol whether I floor it or not. It's not too bad but I get the feeling it will get worse, and it's noticeable to me so I want to sort it.
The car just wants to go! All the time. Unless it gets too hot.
Another thing I noticed is that the heaters are very warm even when they are off. Is this normal, because I read here that Sei's do run hot anyway?

shouldn't smell of petrol, i would suspect it has a leak over it overfuelling. Check all the fuel lines

Also whip out the spark plugs and look at their condition, if it is overfuelling they will be all black and sooty, they should be a nice light brown colour.

The jeater thing will be a stuck (heater) cock. The smell of petrol may be a simple fuel line leak, equally, may be a leak from a corroded fuel tank.

blu73 said:

shouldn't smell of petrol, i would suspect it has a leak over it overfuelling. Check all the fuel lines

Also whip out the spark plugs and look at their condition, if it is overfuelling they will be all black and sooty, they should be a nice light brown colour.

Click to expand...

Spark plugs are brand new but the ones that came out were fine.

fingers99 said:

The jeater thing will be a stuck (heater) cock. The smell of petrol may be a simple fuel line leak, equally, may be a leak from a corroded fuel tank.

Click to expand...

I'll have another look but it all looked well when I was under last. No wet patches or anything.
It's like there is too much fuel going into the throttle body/carb/ whatever you call it. With the airbox off you can see a small amount of fuel sitting there on tickover.

I know my Uncle had a similar problem once with an old Ford and I remember him just turning a screw on the carb to change the mixture, can I do the equivalent of that at home or do you think something has gone or do I need to plug it in at Fiat?

The dribble onto the butterfly at idle is absolutely normal.

The SPI cars do run very rich when cold, but there should be no petrol smell.

A search should throw up some links to diagnostic stuff which works with the SPI cars.

Colour of plug after a long, hard, thrash?

if the old ones came out fine then it clearly isn't overfuelling.

I'm starting to think now that the smell is coming from the petrol filler cap, which doesn't seal fully.

Still haven't got round to doing any mods, but have give it a good clean and took some pictures.

Hi guys I'm back again, I'm still having a problem with stuttering at low revs after I've started the car from cold. I'll try and describe it best I can in order of what is happening.
Start car, maybe 2 or 3 turns, fires up fine, ticks over above 1000rpm for a second then drops to normal (so far so good)
Pull out of junction up to around 3000rpm, change to second and accelerate
engine feels hesitant/restricted, lift off then go back on hard and it clears,
if I just continue to drive normally, like half or three quarter throttle it seems to struggle,
when I lift off then push it hard it doesn't seem to be an issue,
It is intermitent, in that sometimes it feels more or less powerful, and sometimes there is no issue at all. It is mostly occuring when the car is cold though.

Now I assumed these cars like to be driven hard so I didn't think much of it at first then the other day I was exiting a roundabout and I floored it, the car had an almighty stutter, felt like it cut out completely for a split second, heard what I thought was a "light bang" then it was off like a rocket. My girlfriend even said "what did we hit there?" but we hadn't hit anything. Next time I drove the car it felt fine, then the day after that it was back to the original symptoms.

Few things that might help diagnosis.
The petrol filler cap is not fully sealed, I need a new one.
The heaters seem to be on hot all the time no matter what temp setting I put them to, the only thing that changes is the intesity of the blowing from off to full, that is normal but the temp is always hot, feels like the switch/knob is loose. Also there is a paper sounding rattle from inside the dash linked to what the heaters are doing, but I'm not too bothered about this as it probs just needs a clean out.

The car has been fully serviced, new HT leads, Bosch super 4 plugs, filters all round, oil, coolant, flushes, the lot.

I'm hoping it's something simple because apart from that the car is sweet as a nut.
Thanks for reading guys, please help!

Just over a year and 13 thousand miles from the last post in this thread I thought I'd post an update on Luigi.

I still haven't done any of the cosmetic mods. Combination of laziness and busyness.

Over winter I had a water pump leak, quickly and easily replaced and resolved.
I had a battery fail not long after so I replaced it with a calcium one.

The car ran without a hitch for months (and still is) and recently I did a full service and replaced the front springs, I chose not to lower the car, because I honestly can't fault the handling, and if I were to upgrade the suspension in any way I'd want to go the whole hog at once, coil-overs, roll bars, struts etc which I can't afford anyway. And it's not a track car (yet)...

I had a dilemma over replacing a blown backbox, again, the cost of a full stainless system, and the fact it is not a race car made me stay standard. (For now).... I will replace the cat and the flexi over the next few months as they are showing signs of age.

I've fitted new brake pads to the front, rears still have way plenty on. Although I need to check them again as my handbrake is weak, I have literally only just thought of this as the plan was to take it apart and clean it all up and hope it works better, but I would think that because it is free. I may need new shoes.

Last week someone cut my fuel lines, all of them just next to the filter. They got no fuel, and I have no idea who or why. Strapped up for now with no leaks.

I still love the car, and I'd love to modify it but that would take it out of the category of what it is meant to be, a cheap, reliable, fun runaround. My daily commute is a joy. One day, I'll get another car, and I will take this car off the road, and give it the full track treatment.

Oh, I've replaced a side light bulb also.

Not bad for a car that most uneducated people laugh at.

if you still have the hesitation on acceleration especially when cold borrow a multimeter and measure the resistance of each coil pack both primary and secondary I'll post the nominal values if you request this is a phone and I dont memorize...

[edit]oops nominals are in FAQ

That thing you said about the thing with the nominal thing. Erm. ???
It only really hesitates when it's cold, once I've opened it up a bit after maybe a mile or so it's pretty much gone. But there is definitely something not right. It feels like it's starving of either fuel, air, or that thing you said about the nominals...

I've got a multimeter, but I'm not sure I know what you mean without looking under the bonnet. I thought I only had one coil pack! And I couldn't even tell you where that is.


Also, handbrake (kind of) fixed, just scraped it through the test at 16.2%.
If I hold the brakes on and apply it it's solid, but on the cable alone it's pathetic.