okay so went ahead and bought all the things for doing the timing belt. I have go the tensioner, belt and water pump.
But upon reading the haynes manual have come across a problem. As mine is the 1.2 8v 55plate it only gives a rough guide as to tensioning and states i should take it to a fiat garage immediately after to get it checked. But for obvious reasons I don't want to do that as it is a pointless exercise. So what do fiat do to check that it is tensioned correctly?
Is there a tool i can buy cheaply or some other way of doing it?
Kind of annoyed i was expecting this to be an easy job i would just risk it and take it as correct but thats not me.
Thanks

You can probably buy the Fiat tool. I somehow doubt that they even use it - bit of a contraption. The way I do it is get it so you can twist the mid part of the long run of the belt through 90 degrees without too much effort.
There is a bit of trial and error.The tensioner moves as you tighten. Can't explain it any better , it's one of those know it when you see it things:shrug:

:yeahthat: that's the way I still do it.

The old FIAT/Alfa tool is essentially a weight on a stick, so pretty unweildy. FIAT recently changed the proceedure to use a modern tool which measures the vibration of the belt in Hz.

150 - 200 Hz 1.1
160 - 210 Hz 1.2 8v

This is the kind of tool a well equipped modern garage will have. But, as you see, the allowable range is pretty large.

Something new everyday

The frequency varies with the root of the tension so the range is more than appears from the frequencies. Your looking at 1.7:1 allowable range of tension to keep that frequency range.
A well designed car gives you a barn door to hit.