Hello fellow Fiat lovers,
I have spent the best part of 3 days battling with refitting new inner tie rods and track rod ends. Reason being, they were so solidly seized together that over the ten years (25 year old car this year) I’ve owned the car, the tracking has never been right or an indy garage would just adjust the side they can undo and that would be that. Steering wheel cocked up; tyres in the end, cocked up.
I have just bought myself another new set of tyres and this time round, I wanted my tyres to last as long as they should. I took a lot of pictures the last time I had this much of a headache with the Sei, but with time against me this time I didn’t and I just wanted to get my experience of it out in the open.
As far as the job was concerned, the track rod to hub knuckle nuts came off without a fight, but the inner tie rods were a major pain in the proverbial because of space. Yes, I could have taken the rack off, but time is the issue with the kids and the wife working and being the ‘reliable’ car.
The driver side on a 2000 1108 sporting has a little more room, I managed to break it free initially with a rather large adjustable spanner (32mm) [I think the actual size on the flats is 1 3/16] then work it off with a pair of locking mole-grip as it was being replaced, but the passenger side (uk left)… the space is next to nothing thanks to the gearbox. Time was very limited so I resorted to buying one of those obscene ‘universal tie rod tools’ that Amazon sells. It actually did the job and gave me the leverage that i needed to initially break it free, with three extension bars, but the tool is a headache itself. Next time, I won’t think my tool collection is so complete. The proper tie-rod tube tool on this car next time, if ever!
Also, if you’re going to tackle this job with the rack in-situ, another thing to consider is fitting the new boot that ‘slides’ over the rack. It did not want to go on and how I finally did it was by sliding a smallish, blunt screwdriver under the boot and working round it to send it home, while laying under the car giving it my might with brute force (I’m a lanky sod so my smallish hands did help).
Lastly, alignment, which is why I did this in the first place. After I had done both sides, my steering wheel was at ten o clock and driving to get it tracked was a kind of daunting task. Please forgive me if you work for this establishment but I am sure you are competent. Some of you probably have your go-to places but with time against me, I chose Kwik Fit, which I clearly regret. I wanted it precise with their hunter machine, but the guys working there had not got a clue and it was almost as if they didn’t want to do the work because I had not bought the tyres from there. They wanted shy of £80 to adjust, but in the end after 40mins couldn’t do it because they ‘didn’t have a small enough spanner’ to counter-hold the inner tie rod. He even tightened back up my brand new track rod nut with a 20mm spanner? (Obviously 19mm). In the end, close to the end of the day, I went to some really nice people at National Tyres who fit me in before they went home and now the car is sound. Praise be where it is due.
You can’t get it spot on when you do a job like this and extra money spent is something that is going to have to happen as much as you don’t want to. Good luck if you ever need to do this, I think it’s one of the harder jobs on a Seicento. I’m gonna go and rest my limbs but I fuffing love my Sei. All the best.
I have spent the best part of 3 days battling with refitting new inner tie rods and track rod ends. Reason being, they were so solidly seized together that over the ten years (25 year old car this year) I’ve owned the car, the tracking has never been right or an indy garage would just adjust the side they can undo and that would be that. Steering wheel cocked up; tyres in the end, cocked up.
I have just bought myself another new set of tyres and this time round, I wanted my tyres to last as long as they should. I took a lot of pictures the last time I had this much of a headache with the Sei, but with time against me this time I didn’t and I just wanted to get my experience of it out in the open.
As far as the job was concerned, the track rod to hub knuckle nuts came off without a fight, but the inner tie rods were a major pain in the proverbial because of space. Yes, I could have taken the rack off, but time is the issue with the kids and the wife working and being the ‘reliable’ car.
The driver side on a 2000 1108 sporting has a little more room, I managed to break it free initially with a rather large adjustable spanner (32mm) [I think the actual size on the flats is 1 3/16] then work it off with a pair of locking mole-grip as it was being replaced, but the passenger side (uk left)… the space is next to nothing thanks to the gearbox. Time was very limited so I resorted to buying one of those obscene ‘universal tie rod tools’ that Amazon sells. It actually did the job and gave me the leverage that i needed to initially break it free, with three extension bars, but the tool is a headache itself. Next time, I won’t think my tool collection is so complete. The proper tie-rod tube tool on this car next time, if ever!Also, if you’re going to tackle this job with the rack in-situ, another thing to consider is fitting the new boot that ‘slides’ over the rack. It did not want to go on and how I finally did it was by sliding a smallish, blunt screwdriver under the boot and working round it to send it home, while laying under the car giving it my might with brute force (I’m a lanky sod so my smallish hands did help).
Lastly, alignment, which is why I did this in the first place. After I had done both sides, my steering wheel was at ten o clock and driving to get it tracked was a kind of daunting task. Please forgive me if you work for this establishment but I am sure you are competent. Some of you probably have your go-to places but with time against me, I chose Kwik Fit, which I clearly regret. I wanted it precise with their hunter machine, but the guys working there had not got a clue and it was almost as if they didn’t want to do the work because I had not bought the tyres from there. They wanted shy of £80 to adjust, but in the end after 40mins couldn’t do it because they ‘didn’t have a small enough spanner’ to counter-hold the inner tie rod. He even tightened back up my brand new track rod nut with a 20mm spanner? (Obviously 19mm). In the end, close to the end of the day, I went to some really nice people at National Tyres who fit me in before they went home and now the car is sound. Praise be where it is due.
You can’t get it spot on when you do a job like this and extra money spent is something that is going to have to happen as much as you don’t want to. Good luck if you ever need to do this, I think it’s one of the harder jobs on a Seicento. I’m gonna go and rest my limbs but I fuffing love my Sei. All the best.
- Model
- Seicento
- Year
- 2000
- Mileage
- 93000
