Technical Confusion reigns re: maintenance

[Redrose2025]

Usually I have prior service records on a used car. However my 2013 Fiat 500 turbo sport doesn't have them.

There was a Auto Safety Check done about 7 months ago before I bought the car. Electrical, brakes, suspension, cooling system, engine, fuel system, steering, driveline, road test was all 'satisfactory'.

Its been about half a year now and I'm thinking to get maintenance done. So far, my list includes
- changing spark plugs
- oil & oil filter
- checking transmission fluid
- inspect cv joints

I checked my manual and my car is about 13 years old but thats showing as 208,000 km and my actual k. Is about 107,000.
Some stuff is fine like the air cabin filter & engine air filter.
It doesn't look like there is a dipstick for manual transmission fluid check, so I'm thinking the repair center has to check that?

Brakes work fine (despite rusted rotors the car probably sat for awhile), emergency brake is good, mostly this little car is a gem.

Any suggestions or comments re: maintenance? Anything else mandatory to check? Might as well do what needs checking or updating while its at the repair center, yet I dont want the car turned inside out since its running well and went up to about 120 or 130 km the other day on the freeway couldn't believe how smooth it sounded at that speed, like it was gliding on air. Very impressive!

 

[A3jeroen]

Manual gearbox should be (re)filled till it flows out of the fillerhole.

gr J

 

[Redrose2025]

Manual gearbox should be (re)filled till it flows out of the fillerhole.

gr J

Is that transmission fluid for the gear box?

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Engine oil filter and oil. you can do the air filter and if feeling really adventurous at that age I would definitely replace the coolant.
If you don't know when or if the brake fluid has been replace that is also worth getting done.

If you are going down the road of bleeding the brakes and changing the fluid and the rotors are already rusty then new discs and pads, possibly new shoes are worth doing as well (depending on the brake set up, ie rear discs or drums)

Cabin air filter is a must on any Aircon car.

gearbox oil/transmission fluid, is a case of drain it and replace it. Its not worth worrying about the level unless you have a known leak and its almost certainly never been done as this is said to be "for the life of the car" on most modern cars, which really at best is good for 100k miles (160k-km)

All of this you could do yourself over a few weekends, with parts being quite cheap for fiats and the mechanics being pretty simple.

The main concern I would have, with no service records at all, is the cambelt and water pump. I would definitely look to get those done ASAP, to avoid catastrophic engine damage should an old cam belt fail.

It might be worth if you are going to inspect the CV joints, why not get new clips and then you can pull the boot back. add grease if needed and then put the boots back with new clips. These cars are so simple that even an amateur with some basic tools could remove the drive shafts, disassemble, clean and rebuild a drive shaft with new CV boots, in an afternoon.

This is half the joy of owning a fiat, the simplicity. If you are so inclined to undertake work yourself, its worth getting a maintenance manual.

If you are not inclined to do work yourself, you can quickly find jobs getting very expensive once you start adding up labor charges

 

[Redrose2025]

Engine oil filter and oil. you can do the air filter and if feeling really adventurous at that age I would definitely replace the coolant.
If you don't know when or if the brake fluid has been replace that is also worth getting done.

If you are going down the road of bleeding the brakes and changing the fluid and the rotors are already rusty then new discs and pads, possibly new shoes are worth doing as well (depending on the brake set up, ie rear discs or drums)

Cabin air filter is a must on any Aircon car.

gearbox oil/transmission fluid, is a case of drain it and replace it. Its not worth worrying about the level unless you have a known leak and its almost certainly never been done as this is said to be "for the life of the car" on most modern cars, which really at best is good for 100k miles (160k-km)

All of this you could do yourself over a few weekends, with parts being quite cheap for fiats and the mechanics being pretty simple.

The main concern I would have, with no service records at all, is the cambelt and water pump. I would definitely look to get those done ASAP, to avoid catastrophic engine damage should an old cam belt fail.

It might be worth if you are going to inspect the CV joints, why not get new clips and then you can pull the boot back. add grease if needed and then put the boots back with new clips. These cars are so simple that even an amateur with some basic tools could remove the drive shafts, disassemble, clean and rebuild a drive shaft with new CV boots, in an afternoon.

This is half the joy of owning a fiat, the simplicity. If you are so inclined to undertake work yourself, its worth getting a maintenance manual.

If you are not inclined to do work yourself, you can quickly find jobs getting very expensive once you start adding up labor charges

What about the spark plugs? Are they difficult to do & how often do they need to be changed?

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Maybe every 30k miles, really there isn’t a lot to go wrong with a spark plug so as long as they’re gapped correctly then they should keep working indefinitely.

There are vintage cars running around with 100year old spark plugs.

But these days they are cheap and you just need a spark plug spanner to get them out which is cheap and your average home mechanic could swap them out on a 500 in half an hour taking their time

 

[Redrose2025]

Thanks very much for the spark plugs info!