General My project car passed its MOT!

[AnthonyH]

I bought a Grande Punto a few months ago with a lot of problems. And decided to repair it with basically no experience or tools.

I got it from an auction, the good thing about the auction I used is that they give you the keys and let you start it up and shunt it around, so I was very careful in not buying a car with major mechanical problems. It has a good engine, clutch and gearbox as far as I can see, and with 80k on the clock has plenty of miles in those.

However I bid on it with a front window regulator that wasn't working, the bumper was hanging off, it had big gashes to 3 panels and bad tyres. I subsequently found out it needed new brakes front and back, a new strut mount and shock, 6 new bulbs and counting, a big mould problem, a clanking heat shield, a broken radio and probably some other stuff I forgot.

Yesterday it passed its MOT, this brought a smile to my face It is nice to struggle and prevail

Today I'll be changing the oil, there's not much else left to do.

I want to stay at 3 Fiat cars, I have room on the drive for 3 cars, so in the next few weeks I'll be selling my unwanted Grande Punto and buying another one at the auction to do it all over again, fun hey

 

[AnthonyH]

The oil change led me to check the oil levels on the other two cars and my EVO had basically no oil left. I was shocked as I only changed the oil in October, i've been doing a lot of miles in it, so need to check oil levels much more frequently.

Which does begs the question why do Grande Puntos and EVOs never have a working oil level sensor?

 

[AndyRKett]

Congratulations on saving an unloved Fiat, hopefully you found some guidance for some of the jobs you did on this forum.

The beauty of fiats is their simplicity, even a complicated Fiat is a very simple car when you compare it to other cars out there, which makes them a dream to work on and a great car to learn on.

Hopefully you’ll share with us what you buy next and any progress you make

 

[AnthonyH]

Thanks! I think the car had been looked after for most of its life, it had just one owner until three years ago, but when I bought it there were Learner plates in the boot. So it'd ended up being scraped along walls, being driven with half inflated tyres, having wafer thin brakes and having boinging struts

It wasn't a deathtrap to drive as its structurally sound, but I couldn't drive a car like that and the next MOT was going to cost more than I paid for the car. So all is well now, and I've enjoyed the process.

The forum here has made it possible to fix the car, there have been certain times i've been completely stuck and it would have either been impossible or taken a lifetime to get passed those problems. So i'm a big fan of the Fiat Forum!

I'm going to buy another Grande Punto when the right one crops up at the auction. I need a 5 door car and currently have 3 door ones. From a safety point of view I'm used to driving and being able to look over my right shoulder at the blind spot of the mirrors, and I can't do that in a 3 door car. Also i carry a lot of big items which need the boot and the back seat.

 

[AndyRKett]

I'm going to buy another Grande Punto when the right one crops up at the auction. I need a 5 door car and currently have 3 door ones. From a safety point of view I'm used to driving and being able to look over my right shoulder at the blind spot of the mirrors, and I can't do that in a 3 door car. Also i carry a lot of big items which need the boot and the back seat.

Having owned every model of punto, I'd recommend looking at the EVO instead of the Grande. it was a step up in safety with extra airbags, Iso fix and a much better dash which was not only laid out better but also was soft to minimize injuries. The grande had a trim along the top of the dash that would warp in the heat of the sun, this was removed on the EVO and there are some nice EVOs to be had now on facebook market place for reasonable prices.

Be warned the 1.4 8V engine is very gutless in any of these cars, so either go for a diesel or something with a more powerful engine, such at the twinair or a 16v

 

[AnthonyH]

Having owned every model of punto, I'd recommend looking at the EVO instead of the Grande. it was a step up in safety with extra airbags, Iso fix and a much better dash which was not only laid out better but also was soft to minimize injuries. The grande had a trim along the top of the dash that would warp in the heat of the sun, this was removed on the EVO and there are some nice EVOs to be had now on facebook market place for reasonable prices.

Be warned the 1.4 8V engine is very gutless in any of these cars, so either go for a diesel or something with a more powerful engine, such at the twinair or a 16v

I have two GPs and an EVO at the moment, the EVO is the better car. The music through a USB stick is really good, and yes the dash on both of the GPs is warped LOL

I've never looked for cars on Facebook marketplace, that's a great idea, i'm going to take a look.

One of the GPs is a 1.2 engine, it does get up to speed, just have to wait and wait lol. Your advice regarding the engine is good, i'll see what I can find.