General Punto Maintenance

[SAMTERS TRIAD]

Hi all
I live partly on the hot dusty tiny rugged island of Malta, where there are no motorways, plenty of pot holes and really bad conditioned roads (not all). The sea air is never far away, and the driving skills of the locals is very bad! I bought a 1997 MK1 Fiat Punto 1.2 8v 75 sx TEAM (what ever that means) a while back, in very good condition, a lovely metalic darkish blue, 47,000 miles on the clock. I love driving it around here! Although it cost £4000, cars are expensive here. Since I've had it I've had two services done, all within 6k miles, I've had the timming belt done with the water pump, Coolent replaced however they put 100% coolent not 50/50, is that right? And put 20/50 oil in it which concerned me a bit but they were adamant it was ok. My question is does anyone know the correct procedure for maintence/ patrs/ quantities/ or anything I should know that will be different to the UK. Kind regards Steve.

p.s I'll send some pictures soon.

 

[bredsticz]

Coolant should be 50/50 - red coolant / deionised water
Oil should be 10W40 I think on that car

 

[tinytim]

hired a panda in Malta recently; perfect car for the conditions; that was one expensive Punto; agree 10w40 I use on my 1997 Punto that has now done 210,000m; 50:50 red antifreeze:dionised water (I use the water from a dehumidifier which is free and absolutely pure H2O)
The worst thing about Malta is the absence of birdlife. They all get shot for fun and Malta is situated on important migratory routes.....