General Factory Exchange Units

[Toshi 975]

Looking through my spare starter motors I decided to offer the factory exchange unit I had for sale after it has been sat in my cupboard for years. Many people do not seem to know that Fiat painted their exchange units in a distinctive blue paint.

This one came with a small leaflet that I had forgotten about.

 

[the hobbler]

Looking through my spare starter motors I decided to offer the factory exchange unit I had for sale after it has been sat in my cupboard for years. Many people do not seem to know that Fiat painted their exchange units in a distinctive blue paint.
View attachment 446306
This one came with a small leaflet that I had forgotten about.
View attachment 446307

Kind-of, Fiat equivalent to "Gold Seal"----how many people remember those?

 

[fiat500]

Kind-of, Fiat equivalent to "Gold Seal"----how many people remember those?

Those were the the real eco-friendly days....when you replaced an engine or gearbox, (and you could!), rather than nowadays, having to get a replacement car, because major repairs are too expensive to contemplate.
Having said that, modern engines seem to go on forever; except for the 1.2 Puretech in our Citroen C3. Apparently, the cambelt runs in the oil, which "unexpectedly" (by the designers) leads to early breakdown of the belt and consequent blockage of the oil filter and pickup.

 

[the hobbler]

Those were the the real eco-friendly days....when you replaced an engine or gearbox, (and you could!), rather than nowadays, having to get a replacement car, because major repairs are too expensive to contemplate.
Having said that, modern engines seem to go on forever; except for the 1.2 Puretech in our Citroen C3. Apparently, the cambelt runs in the oil, which "unexpectedly" (by the designers) leads to early breakdown of the belt and consequent blockage of the oil filter and pickup.

I think that if you have a word with people who own Ford cars with their little '3-pot' engine you will find that they have exactly the same problem---is it in fact the same engine which has been done as a Citroen/Ford collaboration? I have heard (but cannot guarentee the truth in the statement) that part of the problem is that people have not been putting the correct oil into their engines.
In many ways, the older cars are far more "eco-friendly"in that you could repair a lot of the car, rather than throw the defective part away and replace it with a new (often expensive these days) part. Before I bought my current 'day-to-day' car (a 1.9t/d Skoda Fabia) we ran a Citroen Psarra diesel estate. Very comfortable car, economical and very roomy. BUT various ECU units were beginning to show their age, and although none impacted the safety of the car, the fact that the warning lights came on meant that it would have been a MOT "fail". When I ascertained the cost to replace the ECU units, they amounted to more than the value of the car, so a perfectly sound car got consigned to "the great scrap-yard in the sky" because 2 or 3 non-safety-related electronic units could not be economically replaced---progress?

 

[smart51]

Those were the the real eco-friendly days....when you replaced an engine or gearbox, (and you could!), rather than nowadays, having to get a replacement car, because major repairs are too expensive to contemplate.
Having said that, modern engines seem to go on forever; except for the 1.2 Puretech in our Citroen C3. Apparently, the cambelt runs in the oil, which "unexpectedly" (by the designers) leads to early breakdown of the belt and consequent blockage of the oil filter and pickup.

We had the same in my wife's Peugeot.

 

[cainy1989]

Ford used the same system on their 1.0 EcoBoom engines and again "unexpectedly" found early failures of the belts in oil, so they fixed the later engines by upgrading to a chain....but leaving the oil pump as a belt so it still fails, still clogs up the pickup but now its a belt you wouldn't even need to touch if it was a chain! On an unrelated issue they have also had the same problem with the 2.0 Transit engines, but they're designed differently so completely unrelated and nothing to do with running a rubber belt in oil.....can you convey sarcasm on the internet??

 

[fiat500]

I think that if you have a word with people who own Ford cars with their little '3-pot' engine you will find that they have exactly the same problem---is it in fact the same engine which has been done as a Citroen/Ford collaboration? I have heard (but cannot guarentee the truth in the statement) that part of the problem is that people have not been putting the correct oil into their engines.
In many ways, the older cars are far more "eco-friendly"in that you could repair a lot of the car, rather than throw the defective part away and replace it with a new (often expensive these days) part. Before I bought my current 'day-to-day' car (a 1.9t/d Skoda Fabia) we ran a Citroen Psarra diesel estate. Very comfortable car, economical and very roomy. BUT various ECU units were beginning to show their age, and although none impacted the safety of the car, the fact that the warning lights came on meant that it would have been a MOT "fail". When I ascertained the cost to replace the ECU units, they amounted to more than the value of the car, so a perfectly sound car got consigned to "the great scrap-yard in the sky" because 2 or 3 non-safety-related electronic units could not be economically replaced---progress?

I think it is true about the oil, but the manufacturer of the car doesn't explicitly say that the consequences of using the wrong oil might be cambelt and oil-pump failure at 30,000 miles. The average owner may think they just want you to pay beefed-up prices, simply for a logo on the can.

I have always used the right specification oil, and all seems good at 55,000.

In the original subject, from which I diverted us, I would say that "Toshi-Seal" parts (by @Toshi 975 ) are our equivalent of old-style, manufacturer-refurbished....a quality and attention to detail you can trust.