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Seicento Seicento Sporting MS in faded red :)

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Seicento Sporting Michael Schumacher in faded red :)

Just picked up one of these for a 70 mile a day commute and so far, great fun.

It's a 2001 Y reg, 80k miles, full service history, new rad, alternator, battery, handbrake cables, clutch and clutch cable and exhaust were done by the previous owner.

So far ( 20 miles in ) i've fixed the following ...

Seized cooling fan and a blown fuse, WD40 on fan bearings and a new fuse fixed that.

Leaking sunroof - removed all the bolts and siliconed up the rubber washers, new gaskets made from bike inner tube and silicon greased the seal. No more leaks.

Things i might fix ...

Both fog lights are not working, one definitely due to water through a cracked lens and the other .... probably got bored years ago.

Clunking from the steering, presume / assume it's either track rod ends or balljoints / arb bushes.

Paint - it's a faded sorry state, good enough condition, just looks like FIAT forgot to put suntan lotion in the original paint :)


The only thing i'm stuck with now are what tyres to get, have seen you can get Pirelli P6000 175 50 R15 or 165 60 R14 in more choices, am inclined to go for the higher profile as it's cheaper and will probably dent the mpg less. I take it there are no issues with using a 165 60 R14 tyre on that wheel? Miata tyre calculator reckons it's within tolerance

175/50-14 3.4in 10.4in 20.9in 65.6in 965 0.0%
165/60-14 3.9in 10.9in 21.8in 68.5in 925 4.3%


Bit more searching reckons 185 50 R14 will fit - Maxxis do their MA Z1 in that size and that'll do fine. Will get 4 of those ordered and fitted next month - i'll play with what's left of the P6000s for now
I'm aware this won't sharpen the handling but that's fine.

Since everyone on forums likes pics, here's a few of it, nicknamed it 'Shooey' which seems entirely apt. Outside is faded in many places, once i get some time i'll buzz the DA over it and give it a few coats of decent wax but i suspect the paint has faded beyond help. It is utterly manky inside but now the leaking roof is fixed ( and its no longer carrying a dog around) i'll get in there with an aquavac and make it a lot nicer :)

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Click to expand...
After a fairly harrowing drive this morning, 4 new tyres are going on on Friday :D

Now .... about this leaning into corners business, are they meant to feel like a 2CV or do I need to start scouring ebay for some second hand shocks?
 
185/50/14 in a decent brand should sharpen things up. Any fool can make tyres which are fine in the dry (and many do).

They do roll more than most. Lowering helps.

Depending on the clunk it could be any of the things you mention (but note that the bottom ball joint is integral with the wishbone). Add the strut top mount to the list.

No shock will be any good after 40k miles, so, generally, you're replacing scrap with scrap.
 
Thanks!

i'll get the new tyres on and see how that goes, the current ones are OLD and pretty worn and there's signs of cracks in the sidewalls - booked to get 4 new ones on Thursday morning.

Top mounts sounds feasible given the clunk / creaking over camber changes at slow speeds but bushes don't look overly expensive either. It doesn't wander around under braking or throttle though.

80k on the original shocks ( and it's been stood the last 6 months) probably means the current ones are fecked. Monroe / KYB i presume are good enough? I don't want to wreck the ride / handling with some over damped and over sprung cheap coilovers :)
 
Ebay item no. 281153751230

Pretty sure i can get these to fit and for 11 quid ... i'll have a go. Original light is 130mm x 50mm. These are 125mm by 47mm. It's cheaper than buying new lamps for the existing broken ones.

They look similar enough.
 
Little incontinence this morning, the car, not me. Turns out the bottom coolant hose wasn't tight - i think as the system pressurised, it was pushing water out past the hose clamp.

All sorted now i think, either that or i've just moved the problem to the next weakest spot in the system :)
 
4 x 185 50 R14 Maxxis MA-Z1 fitted this afternnoon and it has transformed the handling and general feel of things. Those P6000 Pirelli things are in the bin and won't be missed.

The old Pirellis had at least one tyre repair per wheel, the sidewalls were knackered and generally in poor condition.
 
unclebloodyfester said:
4 x 185 50 R14 Maxxis MA-Z1 fitted this afternnoon and it has transformed the handling and general feel of things. Those P6000 Pirelli things are in the bin and won't be missed.

The old Pirellis had at least one tyre repair per wheel, the sidewalls were knackered and generally in poor condition.
Click to expand...

Those MA-Z1 are new to us all, do keep us posted on them :).

I would like to get a set in the near future, as the prices are amazing compared to other 185/50/14!

ming
 
£254 fitted inc vat. Compared to almost £420 for the Pirellis. I had the MA-Z1 on the rear of my S2000 when i first got it, they weren't great on that but then they were dealing with about 200bhp more and a car that can generate far more cornering forces.

On this they seem nice and sticky and the beefier sidewalls ( the Pirellis looked and felt really soft and squidgy ) make the little thing feel less nervous.
However the tyres i've taken off may well have been approaching the end of their date life, despite having some tread remaining. Anything new may well have been an improvement.

I'm doing 80 miles a day in this to work and back on a mixture of A and B roads with some nice corners so i'll have a good idea pretty quickly how they feel once they've worn in.

http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Maxxis/MA-Z1-Victra.htm
 
Tyres have scrubbed in nicely, plenty of grip, feel good but they really highlight the state of the rest of the suspension. Loving the way it drives though. So it looks like i'll be sourcing two new front lower arms, a polybush set, a set of shocks and springs and will get them fitted at some point in the next couple of months. I also need to bleed the brakes and probably put new fluid in, there is just too much pedal travel for my liking.

Got a new headunit, combined bluetooth / usb / android media player / handsfree for it and some new speakers - the OEM ones are utter gash and also sourced ( 2nd hand ) an under seat active sub to add a little depth to the tunes.

Headunit - http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/alp-ute72bt-alpine-ute-72bt-media-receiver.html

Speakers - http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/jvc-cshx438-jvc-cshx438.html

Overall I like the little thing far more than i probably should but it has bags of character and replacing bits isn't expensive and should it decide it no longer wants to run / pass an MOT ... nothing I've bought can't be sold on or fitted to another one.
 
you probably need to replace the ARB bushes and some people have had problems with the captive nuts securing the bolts on the inner lower arm...

use lots of plus gas on the two bolts at the bottom of the struts
 
Ta for that - a few weeks before i do it i'll give them a regular soaking in the stuff - might ease some of the pain.

ARB bushes should be relatively easy - i'll do those first and see if it quietens things down.
 
think one of the ARB fastners is a captive in a box section...
 
The inner bushes seldom wear much. Generally you can get away with just replacing the outers, so no need to faff around with the captive nuts (only the equally evil ones which hold the outer ARB mounts to the wishbones). Some folk do away with the front ARB altogether.

Noisy suspension is generally down to wishbone or trailing arm bushes, or nackered ball joints, strut top mounts, etc.
 
confirmed

and the only way of telling a rear has gone is with a pot hole in middle of road take each side over pot hole do noisy one first

then try again probably you will need to do both
 
Cough ... splutter .... cough cough ... splutter .... pop .... splutter cough.

Died tonight, started misfiring at first so stopped and turned it off. Restarted and got it another 10 miles .... then it did it again. This time it was worse but managed to coast / nurse / feather it another 6 miles and then got it collected by my friendly garage man.

Suspect either coil pack(s), leads, plugs, crank sensor or map sensor or possibly temp sensor. Anyway thankfully it threw an ECU warning light - confident i'll have it back tomorrow.

I've asked him to change plugs, coils and leads anyway as well as anything else that the fault code suggests and give it an oil change and filter at the same time.

To be fair to it ... it has done 600 miles of commuting after almost 6 months sat doing nothing, i'll chalk this to shakedown :)
 
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