I'm an AX wielding maniac - I see you baby, shaking that ass

[Craig the Princess]

I have always wanted to trundle about in one of these.

 

Not got the kids to fill it but always liked the funky styling.

Take the back seats out for a funky van.

[Craig the Princess]

Took the Fiat to Birmingham at the weekend, rear three seats out for a spaceous vehicle as I was picking up an Allegro interior on the way home for the lagoon blue deluxe.

 

It is showing at 40.3 mpg on the trip computer which I think it's pretty good for a big car.

 

 

 

Today the eBay boot struts (£11.30, arrived within 22 hours) were fitted which makes it much more usable. The rear seats were refitted after a bit of swearing but it is easy when you work it out. Also the boot catch was adjusted as it didn't easily shut before due to a tap up the rear with the last owner.

 

Lights and fluids checked for MOT tomorrow so fingers crossed. After that the Rover 214 was washed and polished. The rear door had the big dent pushed out a bit, but great but an improvement. Gumtree awaits.

 

[Craig the Princess]

MoT resulted in a reasonable fail, CV boot, front suspension bush and a missing rear reflector so hopefully a pass for less than £150.

 

Will need both front tyres soon as they are marginal but that will need to wait until the suspension has been fixed.

[Craig the Princess]

Nice lady and her father turned up today for the Rover. Went for £185 on gumtree and was hassle free so a good result

[Craig the Princess]

Started using the Multipla to tow the ride on mower back and forth between it's joint owners. Towbar electrics all fine apart from the left side indicator. The towing buzzer sounded but no light was there.

 

Trailer was fine on the LDV so must be a car fault. Tested with a neon screwdriver which showed a really dim light. Traced the wires back to the rear indicator, the buzzer was behind the right side one with an added wire over to the left one.

After testing the wires and removing some of the more dubious stochlocks the fault was in the buzzer itself so with that bypassed for the left inductor it worked.

 

One of the lagoon blue Allegros is having our local welder do his magic next Saturday. Couple of hours in the floorplan and one just behind the B-post.

 

Still not much time for cars because babies take up so much time.

[Richard_FM]

I spotted Pap131m while on a drive tonight.

[BeEP]

43 minutes ago, Richard_FM said:

I spotted Pap131m while on a drive tonight.

Good thread finding skills!  Shame PAP131M is now white and a (sort-of) rally car replica, but good that it's still on the road I guess.

[Richard_FM]

33 minutes ago, BeEP said:

Good thread finding skills!  Shame PAP131M is now white and a (sort-of) rally car replica, but good that it's still on the road I guess.

Thanks, I just Googled the registration & this thread came up.

I was thinking it would have some kind of online form, even it was just some show pictures.

[Craig the Princess]

As this thread has reappeared might as well put this update on here.

The Applejack Allegro was pushed into service at the weekend which showed up a few running issues. Idle speed raised slightly, dashpot filled will oil and the vacuum pipe reconnected.

It seems having 3 year old pulling the light switch when he is waiting in car doesn't do them much good, when driving along the main beam came on when going over a bump (on Norfolk roads every 25 yards), or when you turned the steering wheel. And when you turned the car off to go shutting the door also turned the main beam on.

@BeEP came over this morning with some spare switches, sadly they must have come from Itals or early Metros as there didn't work with the Allegro wiring. So he disconnected the main beam wire so floppy switch doesn't matter. That can be sorted before the MOT in July if we can find a working switch.

 

[Craig the Princess]

While he was doing that I was trying to get the switch to work I started to get the Multipla top level headlight out as a stone had smashed it.

Not being able to find anything online access looked difficult. So start by removing the trim strip at the scuttle. This was a massive pain in the arse as the wiper arms had seized onto the splines.

After wd-40 and whacking them with a hammer they eventually gave way. And... still no access!

Looks like the panel below the windscreen has to come off. Bugger. Ok, well three 10mm bolts at the top, two more at the bottom with the bonnet open. Then a couple of star fixings in the door shut.

And nothing, still attached. Removal of the to panels next to the windscreen revealed the final two fixings. This allowed removal.

Should have put that on a rag as the concrete had scratched it a bit. Then removal of the headlight is easy. One star fixing, remove the wire and push it forward. Almost too easy. In fact you can get to that fixing without removing all that stuff. 

It is almost back together now, I'm not going to try and remove it again as that would be far too depressing.

[Craig the Princess]

Hail the size of mint imperials and needing to swap wiper blades on the Allegro meant I didn't get the wipers back on the Multipla tonight, will need to do it with the three year old in the car on the way to nursery tomorrow ?

[Craig the Princess]

At a bit of a crossroads with the Multipla. Needed a suspension arm and drop links which @BeEP has fitted for me for the mot along with two tyres which arrived today.

But

The clutch is almost gone, is at the stage where you need to put it in gear before starting the engine. No leaks from the hydraulics and no record of a clutch change in the big wadge of paperwork so could have done 167,000 miles.

But

That probably means a dual mass flywheel too.

But

If I'm getting that done at the cost of £hundreds then it makes sense to get the timing belt done as well, along with the water pump. And if doing that the really expensive thermostat as a heater warmer than my breath would be nice.

But

There is no way it will be worth spending that much on it.

But

I like it, it's been pretty reliable in the 55,000 miles I've done in it, it's comfortable when driving in at 2am, Junior the Princess and Mrs the Princess can sit in the front with me.

So I guess it is expensive repairs time and hope that Cambridge don't ban diesels before a reasonable amount of time to justify it.

[Jim Bell]

What you need sir, is a far smaller, less ugly diesel ...........

[Craig the Princess]

5 minutes ago, Jim Bell said:

What you need sir, is a far smaller, less ugly diesel ...........

His and hers matching Pandas?

The little buggers still wouldn't mate.

[Jim Bell]

2 minutes ago, Craig the Princess said:

His and hers matching Pandas?

The little buggers still wouldn't mate.

They would if you got them good and drunk and if you stuck a bit of the old Barry White on. 

[spartacus]

If you need to put it in gear before you start the engine that points to the clutch not disengaging. That's a not necessarily a gearbox out job, it could just be a new slave or master cylinder needed.

[Craig the Princess]

1 minute ago, spartacus said:

If you need to put it in gear before you start the engine that points to the clutch not disengaging. That's a not necessarily a gearbox out job, it could just be a new slave or master cylinder needed.

We did think that, a look at the master cylinder revealed no leaking, the arm moving freely and when trying to bleed it there was no air to bleed out 

[BeEP]

2 minutes ago, spartacus said:

If you need to put it in gear before you start the engine that points to the clutch not disengaging. That's a not necessarily a gearbox out job, it could just be a new slave or master cylinder needed.

Been there, checked that.  No hydraulic leaks and clutch arm operating through full extent of travel when pedal is depressed.

[spartacus]

Worth a try. In that case it may be weak clutch fingers or a failing release arm.

[BeEP]

2 minutes ago, spartacus said:

Worth a try. In that case it may be weak clutch fingers or a failing release arm.

It will be release bearing or diaphragm (possibly what you refer to as clutch fingers?) failing.  The high pedal, clutch slipping symptoms only occur if the friction plate has run out of um, .. friction material.  Failure of the other parts of the clutch assembly result in the 'biting point below the floor' symptoms Craig's Multipla has.

[spartacus]

Yeah, the diaphragm. I had a car once giving those symptoms and the clutch fork had fractured either side of the release bearing.

Whatever it is I hope it's fixable.

[Craig the Princess]

1 hour ago, spartacus said:

Watever it is I hope it's fixable.

Thank you. I'm sure it will be, I guess spending a load on it should give me confidence in it against splashing £1000 on something else and then that needing a cambelt, etc, etc.

[Jim Bell]

As it always goes, it's better the devil you know.

Hopefully it's easy enough fixed and many more years of quirky motoring. 

[LostnotFound]

1 hour ago, Craig the Princess said:

Thank you. I'm sure it will be, I guess spending a load on it should give me confidence in it against splashing £1000 on something else and then that needing a cambelt, etc, etc.

£1000 on autoshite isn't much of a gamble?

One of the four cars you'd buy with that should be working at any point. Just hopefully not the one you left at home while you now sit at the side of the road in the fens at 3am.

[Craig the Princess]

Well the MOT retest is done with a fresh certificate.

But the clutch is almost unusable now, slightly better when warm but reluctant to leave gear and almost impossible to find the new one anyway.

Quote from the garage for clutch, dmf and if I'm spending that I would want the unknown age but at least 60,000 timing belt done so that, tensioner, water pump and the stuck open thermostat comes to £1,780 (but labour costs might reduce if it comes apart better). Even without the DMF it is over £1,250 so I now need to work out its replacement.

Then decide what to do. Fix the Volvo for family car duties and the AX or MGF or Rover 400 for my commuting. Or buy stopgap. 

Decisions, decisions.

[Jim Bell]

Yikes. 

Congratulations on the pass, considerations on the clutch. My mind is boggled at that projected bill. 

Frightening numbers. 

[Craig the Princess]

Short term replacement plan go!

[Craig the Princess]

Huge thanks to @LostnotFound for the short term loan of this. Drove back really nicely, if it had been a 5 door I think it would have been a permanent transfer.

[shedenvy]

Hi Dude,

Your clutch problem sounds exactly like my second multipla - dragging which was caused by a worn release bearing.  When you press the clutch the friction disc carries on spinning and will stop you engaging the next gear which is at the wrong speed.  Sometimes I found it easier to 'match the engine speed' for the next gear so when changing up try a lowish rpm (1250rpm) and when changing down choose a highish rpm (2500rpm).   You can only engage 1st & reverse with the engine off. Only solution is to do the clutch & bearing.  You can get a kit for as low as £50 but it's not a fun DIY job (i've done two).  All the front subframe bolts need to be slackened off and the nearside need to be removed entirely.  You then pull the box out betwixed the subframe and chassis leg.  

here it is mid-exciting stage;

Took me 12 hrs odd - no exaggeration.

dont bother with the dual mass until you're there and can have a 'feel' of it.

The timing belt  / water pump was a relative doddle after that.

 

Oh and the stuck open thermostat just needs a Renault Espace 2.0 thermostat jamming in the top hose.

 

Here's my trials and tribulations.  I scrapped mine last week and i'm already regretting it.

https://www.fiatforum.com/multipla/462009-project-double-ugly.html

That's quite an early one you have there.  My 1st one was the same colour.  

[SRi05]

1 hour ago, Craig the Princess said:

Huge thanks to @LostnotFound for the short term loan of this. Drove back really nicely, if it had been a 5 door I think it would have been a permanent transfer.

These are still pretty nice looking cars in 3 door flavour. That and not being mostly rotten