General New Sei Owner - Few Questions

[Goftrey]

After a good few months of stalking the forum & viewing various Sei's that have popped up in the local area, I am now the proud owner of a black '02 Sei Sporting. Although I've held my license for a while this is my first roadworthy car that I'm going to put any serious mileage on (~200 miles a week).

As I'm trying to keep it clean on my insurance until I get the first year of NCD I'm limiting myself to mostly OEM upgrades (so I avoid the hassle of having to declare 3rd party modifications).

Over the next few weeks I'll be looking to get hold of a set of 14" Abarth alloys, black Abarth side skirts & a back tailgate lip. I've also got a Schumi centre console & handbrake ready to fit. And I'm also dabbling with the idea of swapping out the seats for the red Mk1 Abarth ones as I find the headrests in the Mk2's to be ridiculously positioned (and I'm visioning a bit of a black & red colour scheme in my head).

I am by no means an expert when it comes to cars, but I have a long history working with electronics & DIY so I like to think I'm pretty decent with my hands.

I have a couple of questions before going ahead and buying in parts;

1 - When fitting the 14" alloys, will the speedometer be "off" (as it's calibrated for 13" rims?). Also, I'm aware I'll need 10mm spacers on the front, but aside from that is it a straight swap?

2 - What's the best way of going about fitting the side skirts? I can't seem to find any holes for screws etc. on my car, yet I believe the skirts on the Abarth models screwed in. The same question applies for the spoiler - I'm guessing it's going to be a case of lining it up & gluing it on?

3 - Are the Mk1 seats interchangeable with the Mk2 seats?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Eklipze3k]

Welcome to the forum

1.) No, as long as you have the right tyres fitted the rolling radius will be the same (or within a few %) so the speedo shouldn't be noticeably affected.

2.) I've never fitted skirts, but I think they screw in at the end (so in the wheel arches) however I think they should also be glued on.

3.) Yes

 

[Dan at Adrian Flux]

Hi,
Probably best to check with your insurance regarding modifications.
If your vehicle didn't have those exact Abarth or Scumacher parts on as standard then if you add these there would be deemed a modification. I appreciate Abarth extra could probably have been a factory option at the time but I would recommend you disclose these to be on the safe side.
Regards,
Dan.

 

[DRSIK]

Use this to work out the tyre that has the least effect on the speedo https://www.tacomaworld.com/tirecalc?tires=195-45r15-165-70r13


REMEMBER TO CHOOSE A COMMONLY AVAILABLE TYRE SIZE SO YOU HAVE MAXIMUM CHOICE (AND A LOWER PRICE AS A RESULT)

 

[Goftrey]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I've already been in contact with my insurance company and they said as the Abarth parts were optional extras of the same model (as it's just a Sporting at the end of the day) it's fine. Where they'd have an issue is if I owned an S or an SX & was fitting Sporting/Abarth parts to that. So all a-okay in that department.

And that wheel diameter calculator will definitely come in handy - thanks for linking it!

I'll make sure to keep this thread updated as I go along. It'll be a slow burner though.

 

[Goftrey]

Couple of updates;

- I managed to bag a pair of black Abarth skirts in decent nick for 25 quid this week. Still waiting on the tiger seal though so they should be fitted this week. And I can almost guarantee it's going to look 'off' with the 13" alloys so if anyone has a set of 14" Abarths lying around give us a shout.

- I think I'm going to need a new clutch. Once the car's actually in gear it's as smooth as silk, but physically getting it in to 1st (from stationery especially) is seriously hard work, and it's getting worse by the week. Do you reckon I'll need to replace the whole thing or could it just be something as simple as the clutch cable?

The garage quoted for £300 for a new clutch which frankly seems ridiculous to me given a 3pc clutch kit can be picked up for £50, and from what I can tell it's no more than a 3 hour job. Does £300 sound about right or is the bloke taking the ****?

Thanks again.

 

[The Black Box]

300 for a clutch is exspensive. Is clutch hard to depress should be light if its hard then new clutch if its light then adjustment at the cable is best peddle should be just above the brake peddle.

Best way to check its in correct adj range is depress clutch measure from peddle to base of steering wheel then measure again without depressing peddle then its the difference think the range is on here somewhere or its in the cinq Haynes manual

 

[Goftrey]

Thankfully it turned out that all the clutch needed was an adjustment in the end!

Unfortunately though the little guy's been in the garage since Monday. Went out to go to work in the morning and there was oil absolutely everywhere. Unbelievably lightning struck twice overnight as both the n/s front brake hose split AND the sump decided to **** itself and drop its contents through the floor. Not a good morning all things considered.

As it's in the garage anyway I decided to MOT it while I was there to see what work needed doing. Of course the the brake hose needs replacing (easy job). The front and rear brakes are imbalanced (not that I've noticed honestly) & they'll need to be stripped down to see exactly what's going on there. I don't expect that to be anything more than a bit of tweaking though to be honest. And aside from the sump that's pretty much it. Sound little car from a corrosion standpoint thank god. I plan on undersealing it as soon as I get it back anyway to prevent anything from deteriorating in the next 9-12 months.

In better news I'm off to pick up a set of Abarth alloys on the weekend. Managed to nab them off a breaker for 40 quid with good tyres.

Obligatory post-wash snap;

 

[Paul106xsi]

Good find! I've seen abarth alloys go for that for each wheel!

Fairly sure you'll need longer wheel studs. I think the standard sporting uses bolts to hold the wheels on and the abarths had long wheel studs built into the hubs with wheel nuts.

 

[Eklipze3k]

The Abarth had studs because it also had spacers for said wheels.

 

[Goftrey]

Yeah I'm having the spacers and the studs included. The whole shebang.

 

[Goftrey]

Sad news. The car is off the road.

After stripping the brakes they found that it needs new pads, discs & shoes. That along with the sump, brake hose & future clutch comes to around £700 worth of work. The clutch is working fine for now but the biting point is pretty narrow and will presumably get worse over time. Disregarding the clutch I'm still looking at £500 just to get it roadworthy again. If the car didn't need the sump I'd probably say go ahead and get it through, but with a clutch on top that could go at any point it really doesn't seem economical for me to put any money in to it.

If I knew my way around the car I'd try my best to do as much of it myself. It pains me (having worked on electronics all my life) to own something and not know exactly how it works and how things are fixed. But on to better things - I'm picking up a '57 reg Grande Punto Sporting on Sunday. Due to the fact I'm commuting 40 miles a day I just need something reliable and easy going on the motorway. I'm 110% sure I'll own a Seicento at some point again though. However great this Punto turns out to be I can never see it being more fun than the Sei through the lanes.

Before scrapping it I thought I may as well offer it up to you folks first. Due to the hilarious scrap value right now if you can collect the car you can have it. Drive it away and risk it, truck it, toe it, I don't mind. The engine starts on the button every time and hasn't put a foot wrong since I've owned it. If you've got a few breakers knocking around & you can do the work yourself then I'm sure you could get a tidy little car out of it. As I said it didn't fail on much but I just couldn't justify paying the garage £60p/h more than anything to put what was wrong right.

Give me a bell on 07933491982 if you're interested. I'm based in Llantwit Major. Approx. 15mi west of Cardiff, 10mi east of Bridgend.