Cinquecento Still working on it...oil leaks/welding/and it won`t bloody start

[ROB MILLER]

Posted and joined some time ago now announcing that I`d blindly bought an Imola Blue Cinquecento Sporting. Having got it home I discovered that there were a few jobs but nothing too frightening.

Its been in my garage since then and I`ve been tinkering away when I`ve had the spare time. Fitted a new cam-cover gasket to fix quite a bad oil leakage and removed the rear bumper to examine a couple of small tin-worm holes in the boot. Will have these fixed in due course. I bought a genuine Abarth steering wheel and a boss to suit, which I must say do improve the overall driver appeal of the interior. A quite rare item sprung up on ebay a few weeks ago which I immediately pressed to buy; a slightly shabby Imola blue tailgate. But the interesting thing about it was that it had the tailgate rear roof spoiler attached with the "eye level" brake lights...and the asking price from the vehicle dismantler was cheap!!

I have added to the instrumentation information front by fitting an oil pressure gauge to the right of the dash cluster. Being fed by a capillary tube I had to obtain the "tee" piece in order to connect the feed pipe to the filter housing. (I don`t think the electric senders are accurate). Anyway there is no room for the usual "tee" piece arrangement so a braided flexible pipe and attachments was fitted and the connection to the capillary pipe was made neatly adjacent to the rad. header tank.........there is more.....

 

[ROB MILLER]

......The sump pan appears to be leaking badly so that's the next task on the agenda...oh and
when starting the car to see the results of my oil pressure installation...it refused to start!! DARN IT!...all appears well, dash lights, I can hear the pump, the gauge shows fuel, it has been running sweetly before.....another task on the agenda. It has occurred to me that I may have disturbed the crankshaft sender which is in close proximity to the oil filter housing.
....I did check the inertia fuel switch under the dash....I walked away from it, locked the garage and had a cold beer.

 

[ROB MILLER]

I suppose I should make any further postings on the model specific forum heading Cinquecento..........I`ll have to try and get some pictures up but not too sure of just quite how.

 

[purf]

Might well be the crank shaft sensor. I forgot to put it back in place once... started trying to bump start the car up and down.... then remembered!

 

[ROB MILLER]

Spent the whole day in the garage today and decided to make good the tin worm holes under the offside rear wheel-arch and fit a new crankshaft sender unit. First off the two areas of rust were thoroughly wire brushed using an angle grinder and the rough edges trimmed off. I`ve always preferred to use a weld through primer as an extra rust preventative; you never know whats going to happen chemically underneath the welded patch. The two patches were sealed with chassis sealant and then given a coat of Imola Blue paint. Whilst underneath there I was able to closely inspect the rear sub-frame and surrounding area. I was happy to confirm that all was well and there was no rust in this well known area for the dreaded tin worm. I decided to intensely wire bush and clean up this and give it a good coat of rust repellent and black paint.....sounds dead easy but what a bloody awfull job with all the dust, rust and general under-body crap in your face.

A far more pleasant and easier job was the installation of the new crankshaft sender unit. Upon the turning of the ignition key the bloody thing immediately burst into life.................happiness!!!! and my newly installed oil pressure gauge was working without any leaks.......I was over the moon.

 

[ROB MILLER]

Examined the rear wheel arch inner and outer "splash guards" which are plastic and fixed into place using threaded rivets. These are a brilliant idea but after a few years in position and with road dirt, rain and general crud; are a difficult job to remove,,,,,,the screws are usualy seized. I managed to get these off and wire brushed the surface rust and painted the general area. Another good job done and replaced the old threaded rivets with new.

 

[Michael Dranfield]

Hi,Rob, how did you manage to get the old threaded rivets out and where did you get the new ones from ?
I am working on a seicento now and the whole lot snapped off .

 

[ROB MILLER]

About half of the old rivets I was able to pull out using the seized screw already in there. the remainder I drilled out. Obviously I now had to use a slightly larger threaded rivet size for those I tore out.
Just look up threaded rivets on Ebay and you`ll find packs of assorted sizes and packs of specific size. You will need a rivet applicator, which is very similar to a pop rivet gun. The hole to be drilled will depend on the size of the rivet thread you are going to affix. They are dead easy to use and much more substantial than a self tapper. And of course you are using the same hole location.......

 

[varesecrazy]

Rivnuts

 

[ROB MILLER]

managed to get hold of a pair of good condition Sporting rear bumper mountings, these are notorious for rusty disintegration. Heavily wire brushed and suitably rust treated and painted these were fixed back to the car and the rear bumper attached. Had to run the wire down from the rear roof spoiler to connect the "eye level" rear brake light to the rear light assembly on the near side. I ran the wire beneath the tailgate rubber seal and then through one of the chassis holes to where the rear light fixes. just need to get these lights up and working and that's another job towards a fresh MOT.

Not looking forward to fixing the leaking sump and its removal from the car; I believe the exhaust down pipe has to be dis-connected. But needs must. Looking forward now to the completion of these jobs and to having an MOT. and being road worthy

 

[rallycinq]

Not looking forward to fixing the leaking sump and its removal from the car; I believe the exhaust down pipe has to be dis-connected. But needs must. Looking forward now to the completion of these jobs and to having an MOT. and being road worthy

Get yourself some plusgas,gt85 or similar and apply to the down pipe nuts every day for a week before removing the down pipe.

Pop the whole exhaust off, save risking the flexi being over stretched.

D

 

[ROB MILLER]

Oh hell! what a well thought out piece of car design. My father always used to say that in the dark depths of car design studios they always employed an evil little gremlin who`s purpose in life was do dream up home mechanic jobs to be made as difficult as possible.

......."how can we make this a right bastard!"

 

[ROB MILLER]

Just a note here to any Cinque Sporting owners out there who`ve removed the rear bumper and tail lights. Don`t tighten up the rear bumper before you attempt to re fit the tail lights. Fit the tail lights first, because the rear facings should fit flush to the back panel and seal onto the fibre gaskets. Then fix to the body using the two screws. The bumper can then be pushed up snug against the body and the lower plastic "legs" of the rear lights. and the fixing nuts tightened......You may have problems fitting the rear lights should you attempt to try and fit with the bumper tight.......Could also be the caurse of water ingress into the boot with the light not sealing properly to the back panel......Particularly if a bulb has been replaced and the light unit not sealing correctly.

trust this is of interest.