Bravo (Classic) Fiat Bravo HGT 155

Adrian Bravo · Sep 7, 2014

On my car the garage that did my front brake pipes cut the cars original pipes back and flared them to put a new connection further down, my car has passed 3 MOT's since, they checked with another MOT station to see if it was an acceptable repair.

Ive had a lot of metal replaced under the rear sills, one of the rear arches and a panel that's like a mud guard on the rear arch. It wasn't that expensive but I took the interior out to save the bodyshop time, save me money and avoid interior parts getting broken since id taken the interior out several times before.

Bushboy · Sep 7, 2014

I've yet to even have a look at the area that's failed. Good idea on removing interior parts etc. I'll see what's local to the repair and remove stuff if I think they might need to. The fail sheet suggests it's one of the rear suspension mounting points. Need to investigate further.

Made a start on the front wishbones tonight.. Started with the drivers side and getting the old one out was easy peasy...

Spent the next hour or so faffing trying to get the new one in. Just struggled to get everything to line up and was starting to get dark so I gave up.

A bit of research though and seems i'm not doing anything wrong and it is indeed a massive faff. A far cry from the cinquecento and punto wishbones i've done in the past that took less than an hour per side

Some have suggested removing the strut which makes it a lot easier to maneuver stuff around, so that's where I'll start next time. Probs friday if the weather is ok

bluejohn125 · Sep 10, 2014

From the experience of my 2001 Brava I'd say that as regards rust underneath you need to bank on spending a very messy day under the car with a wire brush attachment in a small angle grinder, and remove all the old underseal, seam sealant and rust from all the edges of the car underside and sills. The factory stuff fails after 8-9 years and rust festers underneath. Take off the plastic undertray beneath the back seats and get into all the nooks and crannies to clean and scrape. Back end of the seals inside the rear wheelarches are vulnerable also. Also the front corners underneath at the end of the sills, these pick up a lot of wet and crud from the front wheels (without mudflaps...).

Give it proper rust treatment and primer, weld as needed, then on with new underseal. Could be worth removing the bumbers also to clean and derust, the mounting towers at the front corners of the car are very vulnerable to rust also.

Hope it all goes well, it's all standard stuff requiring time and effort and a bit of cash.

Bushboy · Sep 19, 2014

So a bit more of an update.

With the night drawing in a bit earlier these days, I've not been able to work on the car after work but did manage to get the front wishbones sorted in the end. Took a lot of fiddling but much easier if you take the whole shock out. Just more room to move everything about to get it lined up and no resistance from the shock and spring.

The reason the wishbones need to be replaced.. split boots on both sides

The pass side wishbone in, just waiting for the ARB droplink to be refit... Another mission...

Brand new battery installed. The old one wasn't holding charge for more than 24 hours so needed to go...

And the bravo back on it's wheels again. Front end done. Just need to do the rear wheel bearing which was my job for today but it's pissed it down all day so never got round to it

Popped into the garage today to get it booked in for the brake lines and the welding as well as the MOT retest and the tracking too (quick drive after the front end work showed it's been knocked right out...)

I had a quick look under the back end of the car for the suspect area but didn't find much. There are a few bits of minor surface rust about but nothing excessive. Admittedly I didn't have a proper look and the garage have no doubt spotted something i didnt. Oh well...

blu73 · Sep 19, 2014

i dunno mate, i have known cars fail on rust and then been retested elsewhere and it not even mentioned as an advisory - find alot of places make out its miles worse than it really is. Next time though, ask him to show you the rot thats the issue (well hopefully there won't be a next time but you know what i mean)

Bushboy · Sep 20, 2014

Yeah I know what you're saying. I was original tempted to get it retested elsewhere but all of the other points they've picked up have been as they've said.

I don't really want to have to pay out an extra £40 to another garage/test station for it to fail again on the same point and still have to have the work done and end up paying for the retest again anyway.

Booked in Friday for everything I can't/won't do and the retest anyway.

blu73 · Sep 20, 2014

well best of luck fella.

Bushboy · Oct 3, 2014

Taxed and MOTed... I am so poor :bang:

blu73 · Oct 3, 2014

well done chap - how bad was the rust in the end, much welding??

Bushboy · Oct 3, 2014

Well the fail wording on the MOT fail sheet was a bit misleading.. It mentioned a suspension mounting point when the rust needing to be repaired was actually the rear jacking point on the drivers side. I knew this area was dodgy before getting the car MOTed but the wording on the fail sheet had me looking at other places assuming the jacking point was actually ok. There's a drainage hole there and the area around it was rotten.

They have done a really tidy job of the repair and was only £70 for the welding work so I'm pleased about that. The work wasn't more than I expected but I've just had to spend another £130 on the tax for 6 months too because they're not rolling out the direct debit payments until November... Ah well..

CFREITAS · Oct 3, 2014

Nice to see the another hgt saved from he scrap heap
Especially a hut as good as yours

Bushboy · Oct 5, 2014

CFREITAS said:
Nice to see the another hgt saved from he scrap heap
Especially a hut as good as yours

Believe me it came close. My initial reaction was to break it when faced with a £700 repair bill from the garage... I managed to save around £200 sourcing parts and fitting a lot myself but its still cost me around £500 to get the MOT pass.

I must be ****ing mad... I seem to have a habit of spending a bloody fortune on fixing these things...

CFREITAS · Oct 5, 2014

Bushboy said:
Believe me it came close. My initial reaction was to break it when faced with a £700 repair bill from the garage... I managed to save around £200 sourcing parts and fitting a lot myself but its still cost me around £500 to get the MOT pass.

I must be ****ing mad... I seem to have a habit of spending a bloody fortune on fixing these things...

£500 is nothing I'm facing a repair bill of 2000 to fix my 155 Marea
Still going to fix her up

Bushboy · Oct 5, 2014

CFREITAS said:
£500 is nothing I'm facing a repair bill of 2000 to fix my 155 Marea
Still going to fix her up

Yeah... I would be buying another marea...

007dembo · Oct 25, 2014

Bushboy how much for HGT?.. Price?...

Bushboy · Nov 2, 2014

It's not for sale.

Bushboy · Jan 15, 2015

Been a while since I updated this thread, mainly because there's been nothing to really update it with

I've just been driving the Bravo and it's been faultless the last few months.

Decided the other week it was about time I did a service on the Bravo. Just a general thing, nothing major so got on to Euro Car Parts and ordered oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter and a full set of sparks. Managed to get the air filter and sparks replaced on a damp afternoon last week...

As you can see, the air filter was definitely due a change. I've owned the car around 14 months now and it hasn't been done in that time. Not sure when it was done previous to that either :bang: ... The airbox is also modified to take air from inside the passenger side wing, which I imagine doesn't help much keeping the filter clean.

Sparks were in OK condition but no harm replacing them anyway.

Left the oil and fuel filter for another day as the drive was very damp and I didn't fancy rolling around under the car much in the damp. Hopefully get on that this weekend.

Also decided to treat the car to a few mods. Nothing fancy and should hopefully be arriving in the next few days... A pair of clear side repeaters (to replace the stock orange ones) and a pair of Heko wind deflectors for the doors. Always liked the idea of them and think they should look pretty nice on the Bravo.

Will update in a few days

blu73 · Jan 15, 2015

that is certainly a very very dirty air filter!!!

Adrian Bravo · Jan 15, 2015

wow that filter is really bad, I couldn't even see it in the thumbnail.

CFREITAS · Jan 15, 2015

I would recommend the G3 reflectors
They curved rather than angled
And suit the car better

Bravo (Classic) Fiat Bravo HGT 155

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