Technical Fiat Seicento buying guide

[BoardinBob]

Hi folks. First post on here so hello :wave:

I'm looking to buy a Seicento Sporting in the next couple of weeks and I was hoping someone could give me the run down on what to look out for when looking at cars.

I've owned several Fiat's over the years (Uno, Tipo, Mk 1 Punto) and I've always been a massive Fiat fan and I'm looking for a small runabout car with some character and the Seicento is the only one that fits the bill for me.

I've had a read throught the FAQ post at the top and got some good info from there.

I am concerned a little about the head gasket failures. My Punto blew it's gasket but thankfully it was repaired under warranty. How common is it on the Seicento? I'm selling my MGF and you may or may not know their reputation for HGF's. Whilst I love the MG I'm fed up spending every journey constantly checking the oil and water temp every 60 seconds (that's not an exaggeration BTW). Combatting the HGF on the MG is an expensive nightmare. Repairs are criminally expensive (£1k for a dealer to sort) and there are various steps you can take to minimise it (remote thermostat, bigger rad etc) but again expensive.

Are there any other common problems I should keep an eye out for? I remember the bushes on the radius arm failing on my Punto and the MOT tester said it was a common Fiat problem but I'm not sure if it was restricted to the Punto.

Any advice appreciated! Thanks in advance.

 

[AppleSei]

The SPI seicento (1998-00) has been known to suffer from headgasket probs much more than an MPI sei (00-04) but there are a lot more SPI sei/cinq on the road, so in reality that is a bit of a false statement, providing a FSH etc you should have no probs with either type

If however the HG looks to be on its way out, it is fixable, but there are plenty of seis available second hand so you could wait a bit longer for a good one.

The clutch cable is a poor design and is prone to snapping, but the part reuired takes less than an hr to fit and is only 12 quid to buy so thats not too bad.

Handbrake cable is also a bit dodgy but again a relatively simple fix

other than that theres not much else that is wrong with a sei, obviously check the basics, gears, tyres etc

Hope you get a good one