General My Sei is Ill

[Seicento Racer]

Hi just took my 2001 Fiat Seicento to Desira fiat for an ECU check for £62 they came up with this

NEEDS URGENT ATTENTION

Thermostat
Temp Sensor
Cambelt
Indicator Bulb as going white
Oil Level

they said my car needs it done urgently or it will get worse also they said they would give me 15% off part because I had the ECU check.

After that I took it to my normal garage Dove Garage which checked it and found Oil was between minimun and maxiumun and I did not need my cambelt changed as my car done 32K and my car is 5 yrs old in March

 

[AIJ29]

Hi
I think cambelts deteriorate(sp) with age not just mileage,
I think the one in my girlfriends 106 is 5 year intervals so thats probably correct
Cheers
Adrian
p.s make sure they do the tensioner as well as the belt

 

[chaos]

The cambelt may need doing due to age and not mileage. (I can't remember the service intervals off the top of my head)
The oil and indicator bulb are a no brainer to do yourself.
Have you noticed anything different with regards to the running temperatures at all?

Also £62 is a lot to pay for an ECU exam.....................

 

[LanciaMad]

I did the cam belt on my sei, was really easy, its hard to get wrong. Try doing it yourself, parts are were only around £20 from shop4parts, make sure they send you the right cam belt though, I have an mpi and the belt they sent was for the spi i think.

 

[Seicento Racer]

Dove garage said every 60K or 6 yrs

 

[AppleSei]

Dove garage said every 60K or 6 yrs

Its a grey area the cambelt, this has come up before this type of thread when the cambelt is discussed i had mine done at 37k and i was told i would have been lucky for another 1k. TBH i would get it done

 

[J333EVO]

After that I took it to my normal garage Dove Garage which checked it and found Oil was between minimun and maxiumun and I did not need my cambelt changed as my car done 32K and my car is 5 yrs old in March

There is NO grey area around servicing!

As others have said ALL servicing is time as well mileage reliant, so if it says change oil/filter every 12,00omiles or 12 months which ever is sooner then do it, on a cam belt I would say 5 years is really at its max, no matter what car as it has rubber in its construction and rubber deteriorates with age, I know someone who failed an MOT with 5 years old Goodyear Eagle tyres that had started to crack, still had 6mm of tread all round!

You are fortunate that on the Centos if its goes it doesn't take anything with it.

Aaron.

 

[Oldschool]

There is NO grey area around servicing!

As others have said ALL servicing is time as well mileage reliant, so if it says change oil/filter every 12,00omiles or 12 months which ever is sooner then do it, on a cam belt I would say 5 years is really at its max, no matter what car as it has rubber in its construction and rubber deteriorates with age, I know someone who failed an MOT with 5 years old Goodyear Eagle tyres that had started to crack, still had 6mm of tread all round!

You are fortunate that on the Centos if its goes it doesn't take anything with it.

Aaron.

I second this without any addition.

 

[paulbfd]

In the owners manual, it says cambelt should be between 3-5 years depending on type of driving.

If your car does a lot of city work / idling, then the cam belt should be done at 3 years.

I'd get it changed anyway, then you can be safe in the knowlegde it won't fail on you.

I personally prefer to change the oil / filter every 6 months, mainly because I don't do much mileage or long journeys.

Coolant and brake fluid every 2 years.