Technical Winter preparation

[Gina500]

Winter preparations for Gina while changing to Winter wheels. All the stories I read here got me scared, so a few precautions were implemented.

Rust prevention of the brake drums and disks under the wheels with Hammerite rust prevention primer. There was already quite some rust that had to be brushed off.



Nice find: outside the wheel area, the brake drums are already coated with black paint (or powder coat), so this should keep them rust free for some time.
The front wheels will get dust cover caps for the center nuts where rust is already growing fast. The back already has those.
The wheels got a spray wax cover on the inside, too

Once the dust caps have arrived, the Moon caps will go on the wheels again for the Winter.

While the wheels were off, I took the opportunity to change the DRL bulbs. My interior wings don´t have the service hatch (good, I can´t lose it...), so it requires to remove the lower screws of the inner wings to get inside to the lamp housing. Had a good laugh when I saw the horn That´s another thing to consider for an upgrade.
It is still narrow inside, and (as we all know...) the whole lamp housing setup is a pathetic misconstruction. And I have fairly small hands. Nevertheless, I managed to swap the bulbs for "blueish" ones, looks much better with the LEDs around them. I know they may not last that long, we will see...

Before/after:

Interesting find: on the newer models with LED rings, there is no pilot light any more, the DRL bulb is a 21W single filament only. The dual 21/5W I put in still fits in the socket, but next time I can buy the simpler version

And while the rear wheels were off, the rear axle spring seats got a good flooding with wax fluid that will hopefully prevent early corrosion.


Winter can come

 

[jrkitching]

If you live in a climate where there is any chance of frost, one essential item of winter preparation is to ensure you fill the windscreen washer bottle with a good quality screenwash of sufficient strength to prevent freezing.

The 500 washer system tends to break apart if it freezes; pipes pop off and washer jets pop out. They don't always go back again, and sometimes things can split.

It's an easy precaution that absolutely anyone can take, regardless of skill level. If you're in the UK, then now is probably a good time.

 

[Texas149]

IIRC then it is not reccomended to paint the mating surface where the wheels come into contact with the hub/drum/disc, as the paint may get eroded away and then the wheel nuts/bolts may eventually become loose!
To ensure the wheel is easily removed next time ( after a winter season for example) it may be prudent to just apply a light smear of copper grease to the contact area of the wheel.
Paul m.

 

[chris3234]

If you live in a climate where there is any chance of frost, one essential item of winter preparation is to ensure you fill the windscreen washer bottle with a good quality screenwash of sufficient strength to prevent freezing.

The 500 washer system tends to break apart if it freezes; pipes pop off and washer jets pop out. They don't always go back again, and sometimes things can split.

It's an easy precaution that absolutely anyone can take, regardless of skill level. If you're in the UK, then now is probably a good time.

I use -8 rated screenwash with a small ammount of methanol added to lower freezing point a little more

 

[stevo123]

My 500 is the first stop-start car I have owned. To help the battery along in the cold weather I plan to plug my bench charger to the battery weekly (or so) to keep it topped up.

If you have easy access to a hose on your drive then recommend to give it a hose off top and bottom after driving in salt.

To prevent the rear beam issues a good dose of wax oil or even a bit of old engine oil in the spring cups can't hurt either.

Most of all drive safely when it comes all!

 

[Gina500]

IIRC then it is not reccomended to paint the mating surface where the wheels come into contact with the hub/drum/disc, as the paint may get eroded away and then the wheel nuts/bolts may eventually become loose!
To ensure the wheel is easily removed next time ( after a winter season for example) it may be prudent to just apply a light smear of copper grease to the contact area of the wheel.
Paul m.

The paint layer is very thin, so I don´t see an issue there. The wheels get changed on a regular basis anyway. I will see what it looks like after the winter.

Grease or wax is certainly an option, but I did not want greasy stuff too close to the brake pads.

 

[Ralf S.]

I use -8 rated screenwash with a small ammount of methanol added to lower freezing point a little more

The -8C stuff will still freeze. It's c.20% by volume Isopropanol but when it's in the washer bottle and in the pipes and nozzles, some of the juice evaporates from the water, so you end up with fluid that will freeze at just under 0C.

If there's some really cold weather coming, get yourself a 5ltr can (like your washer fluid probably came in). If it's half full with the -8C stuff, add 1 litre of Isopropanol to it, then fill the can with water (it should take another 1.5 litres).

That will give you a c30% by volume of Isopropanol.. which is good (nominally) for -15C.

I did experiment with 40% by volume of Isopropanol once but the wiper blades made a bit more squeaking (regular screen-washer contains some soapy to help them glide more quietly and obviously this is getting diluted out, above) and the smell of the Isopropanol was a bit "over-powering"; passing out while driving is probably not good for you..



Ralf S.

 

[John202020]

If you really want, glue/silicone a beefy resistor to the underside of the washer nozzle connect them to a switched feed to keep the jets warm, like on many north European countries cars? Haven't even got heated mirrors on our 500 pop though wonder if the mirror assembly or just glass was replaced they'd heat up?

 

[chris3234]

If you really want, glue/silicone a beefy resistor to the underside of the washer nozzle connect them to a switched feed to keep the jets warm, like on many north European countries cars? Haven't even got heated mirrors on our 500 pop though wonder if the mirror assembly or just glass was replaced they'd heat up?

As long as there's a feed for them in the wiring to the mirrors it should do may need proxi alligment however

 

[Baglady1990]

Winter preparations for Gina while changing to Winter wheels. All the stories I read here got me scared, so a few precautions were implemented.

Rust prevention of the brake drums and disks under the wheels with Hammerite rust prevention primer. There was already quite some rust that had to be brushed off.

View attachment 204066
View attachment 204067
Nice find: outside the wheel area, the brake drums are already coated with black paint (or powder coat), so this should keep them rust free for some time.
The front wheels will get dust cover caps for the center nuts where rust is already growing fast. The back already has those.
The wheels got a spray wax cover on the inside, too
View attachment 204064
Once the dust caps have arrived, the Moon caps will go on the wheels again for the Winter.

While the wheels were off, I took the opportunity to change the DRL bulbs. My interior wings don´t have the service hatch (good, I can´t lose it...), so it requires to remove the lower screws of the inner wings to get inside to the lamp housing. Had a good laugh when I saw the horn That´s another thing to consider for an upgrade.
It is still narrow inside, and (as we all know...) the whole lamp housing setup is a pathetic misconstruction. And I have fairly small hands. Nevertheless, I managed to swap the bulbs for "blueish" ones, looks much better with the LEDs around them. I know they may not last that long, we will see...

Before/after:
View attachment 204068View attachment 204065
Interesting find: on the newer models with LED rings, there is no pilot light any more, the DRL bulb is a 21W single filament only. The dual 21/5W I put in still fits in the socket, but next time I can buy the simpler version

And while the rear wheels were off, the rear axle spring seats got a good flooding with wax fluid that will hopefully prevent early corrosion.
View attachment 204069

Winter can come

What a great job well done!! You have inspired me!!! What bulbs did you swap for? Were yours not double filament?

 

[Gina500]

What a great job well done!! You have inspired me!!! What bulbs did you swap for? Were yours not double filament?

Thanks ;-). The original bulbs are single 21W, Probably because of the LED rings that replace the pilot light. The replacemant bulbs are "xenon" type, which has nothing to do with xenon, just a blueish coating that makes them appear white. Just search ebay. It would be even nicer to use LED bulbs, but they are checked by the control unit, so need load resistors. Too much hassle in the small space that's difficult enough to get to anyway.

 

[Ralf S.]

If you really want, glue/silicone a beefy resistor to the underside of the washer nozzle connect them to a switched feed to keep the jets warm, like on many north European countries cars? Haven't even got heated mirrors on our 500 pop though wonder if the mirror assembly or just glass was replaced they'd heat up?

I recently fitted new mirror glass onto the younger Mrs S.'s Rasputin (a 2013 1.2 Pop) and that had no wires in the mirror. In contrast, my old Stilo had two wires in there (and the glass had an element with little tangs attached to it).

So, I suspect if you want heated mirrors you would need to change at least the glass for a heated type... assuming the rest of the mirror is (logically?) the same... and also runs wires from the heater element to the rest of the car's wiring.


Ralf S.

 

[John202020]

I recently fitted new mirror glass onto the younger Mrs S.'s Rasputin (a 2013 1.2 Pop) and that had no wires in the mirror. In contrast, my old Stilo had two wires in there (and the glass had an element with little tangs attached to it).

So, I suspect if you want heated mirrors you would need to change at least the glass for a heated type... assuming the rest of the mirror is (logically?) the same... and also runs wires from the heater element to the rest of the car's wiring.


Ralf S.

I wondered if Fiat used the same loom for all cars so you could retro add heated, even if a whole new mirror assembly was required, the 1 of 2 things I miss AC being the other, but its the car my wife wanted, at the same time if I tried with the passenger one first and had MES could I get external temp display?

 

[Ralf S.]

Theoretically the mirror glass would just need to be plugged in to the car's wiring.

When I was a lad, the mirrors were just a part of the heated rear window circuit so it was quite simple to just connect everything up... albeit you needed to take care not to fry the wiring by just adding an extra couple of heating elements to the circuit... but these days the mirrors need to be proxy-aligned to the body control module so there's something more going on than I know about.

The outside temperature sensor is fed from a sensor in the mirror casing and (as I recall) Rasputin displays the temperature outside (although I might be thinking about my old Stilo).

It could be there, even if the mirrors are not heated, although it would need *some* of the wiring, so it's possible/likely that you only get the temperature reader if you have heated mirrors.

But it'd be interesting to see if you can wire in a temperature sender, even if the mirror glass is not connected yet, or at all.


Ralf S.

 

[Gina500]

Greasecaps for the front axle. 50mm, tight fit, needed a few careful whacks with a mallet. Won’t stop corrosion, but makes it less visible..
10£ a pair

 

[chris3234]

Greasecaps for the front axle. 50mm, tight fit, needed a few careful whacks with a mallet. Won’t stop corrosion, but makes it less visible..
10£ a pair

Should stop if if you fill the inside with grease
Assuming it won't leak out anyway