General Rust prevention on a Seicentos Sills.

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General Rust prevention on a Seicentos Sills.

Joined
Jan 12, 2024
Messages
30
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Location
Peterborough
Hi all, as above, I've been cleaning and rustproofing my new to me Sei and was a bit stumped assuming I could inject some cavity wax into the sills.. On my panda it's full of rubber grommets to do this (the panda chassis has a lot more too all over), there's nothing similar on the Sei so should I drill and plug a few in or are they generally sealed up ok and not generally prone to rust issues?... The car is really good overall and I wanted to get it finished before winter..
thanks in advance.
 
Model
1.1 SX
Year
2001
When I rustproofed my Seicento I didn't see any grommets anywhere, your car is an SX like my Cento so it'll have a sunroof which will be the only 3 holes along the edge of the floor/sill, I wouldn't put anything in there though as they are for the sunroof drains & tend to clog up with crud from the roads. Seicento sills aren't too bad in the corrosion department apart from at the back of the sills where it goes onto the rear arches, in this area on each side there should be a small plastic cover which is screwed on, take these off & clean/cavity wax behind them, as for the sills themselves keep them clean, polished, waxed & just keep a very close eye on them. There are a few common rust areas on the Seicento's near enough all of them are on the rear end off the car.

1) Rear arches - can be caused by general lack of keeping arches clean etc, I do mine every time I clean the Seicento just to keep an eye & keep on top of it. It could also be caused by issues which on Seicento's is a common trait as they do tend to suffer from a little incontinence 😂 with water leakage into the boot as it comes in through either faulty rear light seals, boot seal, vent in the rear panel not sealing properly or something simple like buffers on the boot lid not aligned properly.

2) Edge of boot floor/Spare Wheel Well/Rear Panel - I've put these 3 together as where these corrode is on the edge where the panels join together, as above caused by water leaks into the boot & if ignored leads to corrosion as the water either runs down around the arches or into the edge of the floor in the spare wheel well & sits where it joins the rear panel.

3) Rear Chassis Legs/Bumper brackets - the rear legs tend to go a little flakey & if left spreads to the rear bumper brackets which are obsolete everywhere now, in fact this is the only part of the floor on the Seicento I did cavity wax inside & when the cavity wax nossle is in enough it it'll come out near the rear of the sills.

4) Front Floopan - this only happens if the sunroof drains are clogged up & it's been ignored for a long time, there are 4 small drain holes in the sunroof aperture which drain down via tubes to 6 holes on the floor edge/sill, 3 on each side, the top ones are not really an issue but the bottom ones clog up with crud resulting in blockages & water building up in the floor pans as it had nowhere to escape, it only takes minutes to just go along the edges on the floor regularly to make sure they are clear by poking something through the small holes.

So that's it's as far as I can think, I would strongly advise against drilling into any good solid bodywork as this can lead to rust, especially sills & undersides, the best thing is to regularly clean the car taking extra measure with arches, sills etc, polish & wax every so often & you should be able to keep on top of it, so when I rustproofed my Seicento I did

1) waxed whole floor pan including boot floor
2) waxed rear arches including behind protective covers on the bottom of arch
3) waxed rear chassis legs inside & out
4) waxed rear bumper brackets
5) waxed inside front arches after removing liners
6) removed rear bumper & waxed rear panel
7) general quick clean up of rear subframe whilst attached to car with wire brush & treated with rust converter.

The rustproofing took me about 2 days altogether doing it when I could after work etc, the above section with common rust areas sounds a lot worse than it actually is, it's just basically down to maintenance etc, keeping an eye on the boot/arch areas & pouncing on it as soon as you spot something starting, hope this helps.
 
When I rustproofed my Seicento I didn't see any grommets anywhere, your car is an SX like my Cento so it'll have a sunroof which will be the only 3 holes along the edge of the floor/sill, I wouldn't put anything in there though as they are for the sunroof drains & tend to clog up with crud from the roads. Seicento sills aren't too bad in the corrosion department apart from at the back of the sills where it goes onto the rear arches, in this area on each side there should be a small plastic cover which is screwed on, take these off & clean/cavity wax behind them, as for the sills themselves keep them clean, polished, waxed & just keep a very close eye on them. There are a few common rust areas on the Seicento's near enough all of them are on the rear end off the car.

1) Rear arches - can be caused by general lack of keeping arches clean etc, I do mine every time I clean the Seicento just to keep an eye & keep on top of it. It could also be caused by issues which on Seicento's is a common trait as they do tend to suffer from a little incontinence 😂 with water leakage into the boot as it comes in through either faulty rear light seals, boot seal, vent in the rear panel not sealing properly or something simple like buffers on the boot lid not aligned properly.

2) Edge of boot floor/Spare Wheel Well/Rear Panel - I've put these 3 together as where these corrode is on the edge where the panels join together, as above caused by water leaks into the boot & if ignored leads to corrosion as the water either runs down around the arches or into the edge of the floor in the spare wheel well & sits where it joins the rear panel.

3) Rear Chassis Legs/Bumper brackets - the rear legs tend to go a little flakey & if left spreads to the rear bumper brackets which are obsolete everywhere now, in fact this is the only part of the floor on the Seicento I did cavity wax inside & when the cavity wax nossle is in enough it it'll come out near the rear of the sills.

4) Front Floopan - this only happens if the sunroof drains are clogged up & it's been ignored for a long time, there are 4 small drain holes in the sunroof aperture which drain down via tubes to 6 holes on the floor edge/sill, 3 on each side, the top ones are not really an issue but the bottom ones clog up with crud resulting in blockages & water building up in the floor pans as it had nowhere to escape, it only takes minutes to just go along the edges on the floor regularly to make sure they are clear by poking something through the small holes.

So that's it's as far as I can think, I would strongly advise against drilling into any good solid bodywork as this can lead to rust, especially sills & undersides, the best thing is to regularly clean the car taking extra measure with arches, sills etc, polish & wax every so often & you should be able to keep on top of it, so when I rustproofed my Seicento I did

1) waxed whole floor pan including boot floor
2) waxed rear arches including behind protective covers on the bottom of arch
3) waxed rear chassis legs inside & out
4) waxed rear bumper brackets
5) waxed inside front arches after removing liners
6) removed rear bumper & waxed rear panel
7) general quick clean up of rear subframe whilst attached to car with wire brush & treated with rust converter.

The rustproofing took me about 2 days altogether doing it when I could after work etc, the above section with common rust areas sounds a lot worse than it actually is, it's just basically down to maintenance etc, keeping an eye on the boot/arch areas & pouncing on it as soon as you spot something starting, hope this helps.
Hi Matt, amazing post,thanks for the info! I've pretty much done exactly as you've mentioned so far, the rear beam was good overall but the springs and cups a little crispy, all been wire brushed by hand and drill and used Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust converter followed by B.H UB (dark) on the beam and springs etc and UC (clear) on the whole inner wings front and back and chassis ....the front arch liners came out easily enough,the rears wouldn't budge and the head of 1 screw just snapped off (fuel tank side)😟 so have left them in place at the mo.. I'll add some pics when I can, was going to ask on the FB group but posts seem to get very few comments (if any) it seems although there's a lot of members, Strange as the panda page gets loads to questions!

I do have a little moisture getting into the rear passenger side light lens, I can't see where from or how but removed and drilled out a couple of tiny holes underneath to get the water out. Still a work in progress,would a replacement light lens sort the issue do you think, the seal on the body looks good or sound at least.

Crossing fingers my sunroof seals ok and no sign of any previous leaks..the drain holes are clear and in good condition.
The boot I'll double check and get the spare wheel out but seems very good in there.
I love this little car, only done 24k miles..had plenty of service history..getting ready to machine polish it this weekend as it's black and a horrendous colour for swirls and light scratches in the paint. No lacquer peel though which is a bonus! Already used carpet vac type machine on seats and they came up great. Drivers seat was very grubby. I really like the seat fabric, its the Oxford Blue one.
Cambelt changed booked in for next week.
Hope your car is running well! I'll no doubt have more questions as I go😊 thanks again.
 
Hi Matt, amazing post,thanks for the info! I've pretty much done exactly as you've mentioned so far, the rear beam was good overall but the springs and cups a little crispy, all been wire brushed by hand and drill and used Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 rust converter followed by B.H UB (dark) on the beam and springs etc and UC (clear) on the whole inner wings front and back and chassis ....the front arch liners came out easily enough,the rears wouldn't budge and the head of 1 screw just snapped off (fuel tank side)😟 so have left them in place at the mo.. I'll add some pics when I can, was going to ask on the FB group but posts seem to get very few comments (if any) it seems although there's a lot of members, Strange as the panda page gets loads to questions!

I do have a little moisture getting into the rear passenger side light lens, I can't see where from or how but removed and drilled out a couple of tiny holes underneath to get the water out. Still a work in progress,would a replacement light lens sort the issue do you think, the seal on the body looks good or sound at least.

Crossing fingers my sunroof seals ok and no sign of any previous leaks..the drain holes are clear and in good condition.
The boot I'll double check and get the spare wheel out but seems very good in there.
I love this little car, only done 24k miles..had plenty of service history..getting ready to machine polish it this weekend as it's black and a horrendous colour for swirls and light scratches in the paint. No lacquer peel though which is a bonus! Already used carpet vac type machine on seats and they came up great. Drivers seat was very grubby. I really like the seat fabric, its the Oxford Blue one.
Cambelt changed booked in for next week.
Hope your car is running well! I'll no doubt have more questions as I go😊 thanks again.
The rear screws on the liners wouldn't budge on mine either so I left them in place & did where i could with them intact, mine only has 25k miles on the clock with mostly main dealer service & MOT history, I service it myself now though. I'm regards to the leak/moisture I changed both rear lights seals (which were very expensive), boot seal, basically everything there 😂 & it didn't solve it. The one thing which did solve it so after lots of head scratching & looking at the car it was the rubber buffers on the inside of the boot as I noticed when looking at the car closely the boot lid wasn't even with a bigger gap one side than the other so I adjusted them so they were even both sides which only took about a minute & now it's bone dry, she'll be running today as she's just had a complete brand new driveshaft with joints as the original Fiat inner CV boot was leaking & the original hub nut had melted to the end of the outer CV joint & had to be cut off so I decided to just replace the entire thing, also painted up the anti roll bar & replaced the brackets along with all new nuts, bolts & studs etc.
 
The rear screws on the liners wouldn't budge on mine either so I left them in place & did where i could with them intact, mine only has 25k miles on the clock with mostly main dealer service & MOT history, I service it myself now though. I'm regards to the leak/moisture I changed both rear lights seals (which were very expensive), boot seal, basically everything there 😂 & it didn't solve it. The one thing which did solve it so after lots of head scratching & looking at the car it was the rubber buffers on the inside of the boot as I noticed when looking at the car closely the boot lid wasn't even with a bigger gap one side than the other so I adjusted them so they were even both sides which only took about a minute & now it's bone dry, she'll be running today as she's just had a complete brand new driveshaft with joints as the original Fiat inner CV boot was leaking & the original hub nut had melted to the end of the outer CV joint & had to be cut off so I decided to just replace the entire thing, also painted up the anti roll bar & replaced the brackets along with all new nuts, bolts & studs etc.
Hey Matt, interesting info on the light leak fix! I'll be checking that out🙌 crikey,wonder how or why your hub leaked and did that, nightmare! Good job getting it sorted,worth the investment,..nice one. Is it your first Sei and have you had it long?
One other thing, do you know if the gearbox oil is 1.6 ltr quantity to fill? I know the fiat books suggested wrongly its 2.4 ltrs it seems..didn't really need to change mine but while it was up on the ramps I did it with engine oil..thanks again, Brett
 
Hey Matt, interesting info on the light leak fix! I'll be checking that out🙌 crikey,wonder how or why your hub leaked and did that, nightmare! Good job getting it sorted,worth the investment,..nice one. Is it your first Sei and have you had it long?
One other thing, do you know if the gearbox oil is 1.6 ltr quantity to fill? I know the fiat books suggested wrongly its 2.4 ltrs it seems..didn't really need to change mine but while it was up on the ramps I did it with engine oil..thanks again, Brett
This is my first Sei but I had a Cinquecento back in 2012 as my first car when I was 17, I nearly bought a yellow Michael Schumacher Seicento locally when I was 18 which the body was immaculate but had a knackered engine & the seller wanted too much for it at the time so he didn't accept my offer of £100, anyway this one I've had her now for just over 4 months & in that time it's had quite a bit done.
: All underside & arches cleaned, treated & waxed with Bilt Hamber products
: New shock absorbers all round
: New top mounts
: New badges all round
: New rear lights with seals
: 2nd hand boot seal
: New complete driveshaft with joints, boots etc
: full service with genuine air & oil filter, Castrol GTX 15w40 & Denso twin tip plugs
: New anti roll bar brackets, bushes, nut & bolts etc & I painted the anti roll bar whilst it was off.

There is more but it's not coming to me right now 😂 my handbook also suggests 2.4 ltrs but when I filled mine up yesterday after putting the new shaft in it took a little more than that, it took about 2.7 ltrs before it started dribbling out so if you get 3 litres it'll be more than enough, I always take Fiat's gearbox oil capacity claim with a pinch of salt as when we did my dad's Punto I think that said 2.5 ltrs but it took less than 2 ltrs before it was dribbling out. I'm not sure why the hub nut was like that either as I've never seen it before, the inner boot had to be done though as it was seeping quite bad due to it being the original part & perished but it's all in now & driving, what a transformation from before as she's now keeping all her oil in as she should be 😂 but also the power delivery feels more smoother & quieter & the small grab on acceleration she had has now also completely gone as well.
 
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