Technical Couple of Uno issues to sort out

[worcestersource]

Hi all,

I have a Fiat Uno 1.4 70 i.e. and sent the car to my local backstreet garage for a service. I was told by the mechanic that he wasn't able to mount the new oil filter and it just spun in situ. For the time being, the old filter is back on the car but it needs replacing before too many more miles go on it. What are we missing?

Recently, the temperature gauge started to misread the engine temperature. I believe it's something to do with the sender, which I have located to the front of the engine. I think there's another at the back of the engine but this is for the engine management system instead. The gauge would climb as the engine heated up but would start to wobble around. Sometimes it read nothing, other times it read 70º. Changing the thermostat hasn't done anything.

I've changed the sensor but am now getting nothing! If the wire is grounded, the gauge goes to max. Potentially, I have the wrong sensor but I'm not so sure. I could try refitting the old sensor but haven't had time for this. The fan kicks in as normal when hot.

Finally, I discovered a puddle in the footwell. I'm at a loss to find where the water is getting in as the car appears to be quite well sealed. Potentially, it could be the aftermarket aerial, with the rainwater running to the back of the car down the headliner. I'll try dropping the headliner to see. Are the two rubber strips on the roof just stuck on or do they have mounting holes?

Thanks,


Steve

 

[bugsymike]

Hi all,

I have a Fiat Uno 1.4 70 i.e. and sent the car to my local backstreet garage for a service. I was told by the mechanic that he wasn't able to mount the new oil filter and it just spun in situ. For the time being, the old filter is back on the car but it needs replacing before too many more miles go on it. What are we missing?

Recently, the temperature gauge started to misread the engine temperature. I believe it's something to do with the sender, which I have located to the front of the engine. I think there's another at the back of the engine but this is for the engine management system instead. The gauge would climb as the engine heated up but would start to wobble around. Sometimes it read nothing, other times it read 70º. Changing the thermostat hasn't done anything.

I've changed the sensor but am now getting nothing! If the wire is grounded, the gauge goes to max. Potentially, I have the wrong sensor but I'm not so sure. I could try refitting the old sensor but haven't had time for this. The fan kicks in as normal when hot.

Finally, I discovered a puddle in the footwell. I'm at a loss to find where the water is getting in as the car appears to be quite well sealed. Potentially, it could be the aftermarket aerial, with the rainwater running to the back of the car down the headliner. I'll try dropping the headliner to see. Are the two rubber strips on the roof just stuck on or do they have mounting holes?

Thanks,


Steve

Wrong filter supplied! They sometimes have the thread dimensions marked on the inside where it screws onto engine. It should be fairly obvious to the mechanic!
Re temp gauge I would check for air in the coolant, especially if water in car as that suggests a leaking heater radiator.
Problem needs fixing and then system correctly bled of air.
As a temporary measure to confirm no other problem , your garage could bypass the heater radiator , bleed the air from system and road test the car again.
Probably not a problem on older vehicles , but modern cars use the heater radiator as a extra method of cooling the engine so they can get away with a smaller main radiator.

 

[worcestersource]

Hello again.

We've sorted the temperature sensor. Popped the old one back on again and better crimped the connection. It works very well now.

Back to the oil filter mounting bolt. This screws into the block but even the exact same replacement oil filter part won't mount (same code). We think the bolt's possibly been distorted slightly, although it's hard to see in the image. I don't really fancy running the car on the old filter.

Would anybody happen to have a mounting bolt off an old engine? I have the 1.4 i.e. in case they're different. Looking on ePer, it looks like there were two bolts.

Looking back at my original post, I meant wheel well rather that foot well. If I lift up the boot carpet, it's moist on the left hand side. A few months ago, I spent an hour freeing off the spare wheel and draining the boot. Fortunately, I rust protected the wheel well when I got the car, so no damage other than the spare wheel getting a tad rusty. Given the location, I suspect the rear light unit might be leaking. I can't see any tears or holes in the boot seal. The rear window and side window seals look good but I'll do a proper water test on the car in a few weekend's time.

Steve

 

[bugsymike]

Hello again.

We've sorted the temperature sensor. Popped the old one back on again and better crimped the connection. It works very well now.

Back to the oil filter mounting bolt. This screws into the block but even the exact same replacement oil filter part won't mount (same code). We think the bolt's possibly been distorted slightly, although it's hard to see in the image. I don't really fancy running the car on the old filter.

Would anybody happen to have a mounting bolt off an old engine? I have the 1.4 i.e. in case they're different. Looking on ePer, it looks like there were two bolts.

Looking back at my original post, I meant wheel well rather that foot well. If I lift up the boot carpet, it's moist on the left hand side. A few months ago, I spent an hour freeing off the spare wheel and draining the boot. Fortunately, I rust protected the wheel well when I got the car, so no damage other than the spare wheel getting a tad rusty. Given the location, I suspect the rear light unit might be leaking. I can't see any tears or holes in the boot seal. The rear window and side window seals look good but I'll do a proper water test on the car in a few weekend's time.

Steve

View attachment 468542

Threads do look a little abused.
I have seen many filters over the years wrong threaded, mostly when they went from UNF to Metric so factors wrongly supplied and fitters yanked them on tight but couldn't understand why they leaked!.

 

[worcestersource]

Thanks. We thought so.

I've found one of the parts on eBay in Italy, so might be inclined to buy it. If it doesn't fit the car, I know I'll need the other unavailable part. Hopefully as a late mk2, the part online is the one on the car.

Steve