Hello from Scotland - Fiat 500L owner

[Marengoscotland]

Hi to you all,

It's great to see an enthusiast Fiat forum. Thanks for having me here. I originally had a Fiat Panda 30 as my first car (the original two cylinders), then had a cheeky upgrade to a Fiat Ritmo Abarth 105TC and over the years, when I moved to the UK, I owned an Alfa Mito 1.4 16v.
I recently purchased a Fiat 500L 1.4 16v from 2014, and I must say I am super-impressed by how complete this car is; this was not the car I thought I'd end up with, but I am blown away by its overall ability to be a big small car. I've also been lucky to find TomTom installed, which is super helpful despite its retro looks (which I like).

The only "issue" was finding the workshop manuals, particularly about refreshing the engine mounts and finding the correct torque settings; if you lovely people can redirect me to a dedicated page, I'll appreciate it.

Speak soon and take care!

Carlo.

 

[jonny427]

Hi to you all,

It's great to see an enthusiast Fiat forum. Thanks for having me here. I originally had a Fiat Panda 30 as my first car (the original two cylinders), then had a cheeky upgrade to a Fiat Ritmo Abarth 105TC and over the years, when I moved to the UK, I owned an Alfa Mito 1.4 16v.
I recently purchased a Fiat 500L 1.4 16v from 2014, and I must say I am super-impressed by how complete this car is; this was not the car I thought I'd end up with, but I am blown away by its overall ability to be a big small car. I've also been lucky to find TomTom installed, which is super helpful despite its retro looks (which I like).

The only "issue" was finding the workshop manuals, particularly about refreshing the engine mounts and finding the correct torque settings; if you lovely people can redirect me to a dedicated page, I'll appreciate it.

Speak soon and take care!

Carlo.

Welcome Carlo plenty of good info here, I've been using the forum a lot.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Hi to you all,

It's great to see an enthusiast Fiat forum. Thanks for having me here. I originally had a Fiat Panda 30 as my first car (the original two cylinders), then had a cheeky upgrade to a Fiat Ritmo Abarth 105TC and over the years, when I moved to the UK, I owned an Alfa Mito 1.4 16v.
I recently purchased a Fiat 500L 1.4 16v from 2014, and I must say I am super-impressed by how complete this car is; this was not the car I thought I'd end up with, but I am blown away by its overall ability to be a big small car. I've also been lucky to find TomTom installed, which is super helpful despite its retro looks (which I like).

The only "issue" was finding the workshop manuals, particularly about refreshing the engine mounts and finding the correct torque settings; if you lovely people can redirect me to a dedicated page, I'll appreciate it.

Speak soon and take care!

Carlo.

@Marengoscotland Hi Carlo and welcome from me too. Sorry I didn't pick up on your post earlier. As you can see we both live in the same city, I'm in the north not too far from the docks.

I hang around on a few forums and am a contributing member on two, this is by far the most friendly and knowledgeable I know. First Fiat I ever worked on was my wife's friend's two cylinder 500 way back in the very early 1970s - They shared the car to get to work. Her husband was an upholsterer where as I had recently finished training as a mechanic so I got called in to look after it. Then, when our family got a bit older, we bought our first Panda for our daughter to learn to drive in and we've had Pandas as a second car ever since - ranging from a 750 OHV - with carburettor and distributor ignition - through to our present 1.2 Eco Dynamic 169. My older boy also had a very nice Punto for a while until a "mad" lane changer person "T" boned him and wrote it off. Of course I've come across a number of Fiats in my working life but I worked mostly with BL cars - with a bit of DAF and VW thrown in - so my in depth knowledge of Fiats extends mostly to the Panda and the FIRE engine in particular. I'm quite old now so not physically so able, but if I can help with advice or anything please do just ask.

Kindest regards
Jock

 

[Marengoscotland]

@Marengoscotland Hi Carlo and welcome from me too. Sorry I didn't pick up on your post earlier. As you can see we both live in the same city, I'm in the north not too far from the docks.

I hang around on a few forums and am a contributing member on two, this is by far the most friendly and knowledgeable I know. First Fiat I ever worked on was my wife's friend's two cylinder 500 way back in the very early 1970s - They shared the car to get to work. Her husband was an upholsterer where as I had recently finished training as a mechanic so I got called in to look after it. Then, when our family got a bit older, we bought our first Panda for our daughter to learn to drive in and we've had Pandas as a second car ever since - ranging from a 750 OHV - with carburettor and distributor ignition - through to our present 1.2 Eco Dynamic 169. My older boy also had a very nice Punto for a while until a "mad" lane changer person "T" boned him and wrote it off. Of course I've come across a number of Fiats in my working life but I worked mostly with BL cars - with a bit of DAF and VW thrown in - so my in depth knowledge of Fiats extends mostly to the Panda and the FIRE engine in particular. I'm quite old now so not physically so able, but if I can help with advice or anything please do just ask.

Kindest regards
Jock

Hi Jock,

Great to hear from you, and it's nice to hear from a fellow Fiat enthusiast.

We still have a MK1 Panda 1000cc in Italy, and it is the only car I use when I go back; its rugged and simple engineering is sublime, stress-free motoring!

I love the fact that in the UK, people consider Fiat cars "not being" reliable enough; just like any other car I've owned, they all require some care over time, or they will all eventually break down. Anyway, I did find some information on torquing here and there. There isn't much information available on torque specs for this model, but fortunately, I can cross-reference them between the Fiat Grande Punto and Alfa Mito, so it's not too bad.

I will want to change the head cover gasket on my newly acquired Fiat 500L (1.4 95bhp), I found a bit of oil when swapping one of the spark plugs; I have no misfires, but since I know it needs to be done, it would be great if you could find me some guidance on the torque figures; but honestly, no worries if you don't have any details!

Best Wishes,

Carlo.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Hi Jock,

Great to hear from you, and it's nice to hear from a fellow Fiat enthusiast.

We still have a MK1 Panda 1000cc in Italy, and it is the only car I use when I go back; its rugged and simple engineering is sublime, stress-free motoring!

I love the fact that in the UK, people consider Fiat cars "not being" reliable enough; just like any other car I've owned, they all require some care over time, or they will all eventually break down. Anyway, I did find some information on torquing here and there. There isn't much information available on torque specs for this model, but fortunately, I can cross-reference them between the Fiat Grande Punto and Alfa Mito, so it's not too bad.

I will want to change the head cover gasket on my newly acquired Fiat 500L (1.4 95bhp), I found a bit of oil when swapping one of the spark plugs; I have no misfires, but since I know it needs to be done, it would be great if you could find me some guidance on the torque figures; but honestly, no worries if you don't have any details!

Best Wishes,

Carlo.

Hi Carlo,

Your 500 has the twin overhead camshaft engine? Although it's bottom end has a lot of similarities to the single cam FIRE engines I believe, it's not an engine I've ever worked on. However the Haynes manual No 5956 - Grande Punto, Punto Evo & Punto 2006 to 2015 - which I bought when my boy had a 2012 1.4 single cam Punto - does list torque figures for the 199A6000 twin cam engine. I think this may be the same engine? It lists camshaft housing to cylinder head bolts - 15Nm. Camshaft housing bolt caps - 15Nm. That sounds like "sensible" values for cover bolts? Do you have this manual? If not feel free to ask away about anything I could maybe help with.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Hi Jock,

Great to hear from you, and it's nice to hear from a fellow Fiat enthusiast.

We still have a MK1 Panda 1000cc in Italy, and it is the only car I use when I go back; its rugged and simple engineering is sublime, stress-free motoring!

Yes, they never really got over the rust problem of earlier models, electrics weren't super reliable either. Now a days, what with "Wet" cambelt engines failing all over the place and the complexity of modern electronics I can think of a lot of cars where I'd choose an older Fiat before one of them.

I really loved the simplicity of the older cars, Like "Felicity" - the Panda Parade in my avatar picture - Non of our Pandas have ever let us down catastrophically, well except that first 750 Panda which my daughter set off down to Salisbury in when she moved out after university. It was quite old before she set out in it and it obviously developed a coolant leak. She got as far as Carlisle before it expired in a cloud of steam. Other than that we've never had a serious failure in any of them. I found a small bag of tools in the boot got you out of most "situations". Can't do that with today's cars.

 

[LoKeR52]

Hello, welcome to the Fiat family it's a great forum with plenty of info to help you out

 

[Marengoscotland]

Hi Carlo,

Your 500 has the twin overhead camshaft engine? Although it's bottom end has a lot of similarities to the single cam FIRE engines I believe, it's not an engine I've ever worked on. However the Haynes manual No 5956 - Grande Punto, Punto Evo & Punto 2006 to 2015 - which I bought when my boy had a 2012 1.4 single cam Punto - does list torque figures for the 199A6000 twin cam engine. I think this may be the same engine? It lists camshaft housing to cylinder head bolts - 15Nm. Camshaft housing bolt caps - 15Nm. That sounds like "sensible" values for cover bolts? Do you have this manual? If not feel free to ask away about anything I could maybe help with.

Thanks Jock,

I believe it is a twin-cam engine, so your values are probably accurate; if I am not mistaken this engine was shared with the Alfa Mito 1.4 16v, so that might be a way to look into it. I suppose if I limit myself to changing only the head gasket cover, then they won't have a massive tension. 15nm sounds reasonable, I'll see what I find around. I'll do my best to take pictures of the job. If it works, I'll post them.

 

[Marengoscotland]

Yes, they never really got over the rust problem of earlier models, electrics weren't super reliable either. Now a days, what with "Wet" cambelt engines failing all over the place and the complexity of modern electronics I can think of a lot of cars where I'd choose an older Fiat before one of them.

I really loved the simplicity of the older cars, Like "Felicity" - the Panda Parade in my avatar picture - Non of our Pandas have ever let us down catastrophically, well except that first 750 Panda which my daughter set off down to Salisbury in when she moved out after university. It was quite old before she set out in it and it obviously developed a coolant leak. She got as far as Carlisle before it expired in a cloud of steam. Other than that we've never had a serious failure in any of them. I found a small bag of tools in the boot got you out of most "situations". Can't do that with today's cars.

Yeah, my next purchase will be something similar, or even an early Fiat Punto as an extra runabout. The new wet cambelts are a joke!

 

[Marengoscotland]

Hello, welcome to the Fiat family it's a great forum with plenty of info to help you out

Thank you so much! I love the forum, lots of great people and info!