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Memoirs from the Hard Shoulder: bASeman's Spot of the Year award.


BorniteIdentity

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Thought this was my old one for a minute, same age and colour.

There is some good engineering there on the packaging side, the slim doors with the handles on top for example.

Packing in 3 full size seats with 3 point belts in the back but being no bigger than say a BINI externally is also pretty good.

I got rid because as well as the 3 children I carry all sorts of shite in the back and the boot is not up to van levels with all the seats in, my old one I assume is still with@bangernomics (relevant name is relevant) trucking back and forth to France hauling shite and kicking ass.

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First time out in the Mutlipla yesterday as a sixsome.  Absolutely awesome.  Even with a proper child seat in one corner, nobody felt cramped or squashed.  Honestly - I think it's getting better and better the more it's used; the door handles have now stopped sticking up, the glowplug lights are behaving a lot better and the smell of cigarettes has all but disappated.

Niggles?  A few.  The closer you look, the more you realise parts of the trim have been absolutely hammered.  A few bits have been replaced in the wrong colour which I find quite endearing to be honest.  I believe the thermostat to be stuck, as it barely creeps past one bar on the gauge - however I'm not getting involved at the moment.  From a mechanical POV the aux belt squeaks a bit on idle (but if the car is a keeper I'll get it done with the timing belt which is due next year).  Otherwise, it rattles along nicely.

I had a go at pulling out the pollen filter earlier on, as it really does steam up like a bastard and the air con isn't playing the game.  I'm delighted to say I pulled the entire lower dash out, only to find that they moved it for the facelift to under the windscreen scuttle.  Classic.

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That's probably not been helping then.

Haven't got a new one in yet - so riding bareback until I CBA to get one/secure an MOT for next year.

Crawled underneath it - I actually reckon it's better than @BeEPlet on, but let's allow the man from the ministry to have the final say on such matters.

 

 

Really bloody chuffed with it all told, and I can't quite believe I'm saying that about a car that I laughed about a month ago.  They really are brilliant things, and you can see why there's a die hard, cult following for them.

Hopefully it gets a test, and I can start picking up some bits to make it lovely.

 

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14 minutes ago, Dave_Q said:

Afraid the thermostat is a pretty sad job on these, access is pretty good once you get the battery out but there is an EGR cooler sharing bolts with the thermostat housing meaning it requires quite a lot of swearing, wiggling and disconnecting seemingly unrelated stuff.

Farmitout/10.

Alright Dave?! Yes, I read as much on the forum earlier on. Zero chance of me even having a go - overwhelming levels of CBA. 

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On 11/29/2020 at 10:50 AM, Ian_Fearn said:

I don’t know why people slag off these mid noughties Fiats. In my experience they’re brilliant, tough and absolutely worthless! I reckon it’s because they attracted disinterested or uninformed early owners that didn’t keep up with servicing, treated them like dirt and expected the world from them.

The number of posts I’ve read saying Fiat X, Y or Z is the worst car they’ve ever had because it needed an exhaust, brakes and a ball joint. 

Anyway, great purchase!

Absolutly. Had many fiats from earlyb90s onwards, all good durable cars with a bit of character that the major players at the time would have struggled to replicate. Fix It Again Tomorow? Absolute bollocks 👍

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2 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Alright Dave?! Yes, I read as much on the forum earlier on. Zero chance of me even having a go - overwhelming levels of CBA. 

@shedenvy is the resident Multipla expert and I'm sure he posted somewhere what in line thermostat can be added instead of replacing the original.

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Already titivating the bloody thing even though I might only own it another three weeks 😐

Six quid on eBay and I’ve got an OEM fitted rear mat. It’s lush, goes around all the metalwork and is non slip.

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Look at that fit! 
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Still fogging up in the back which is twisting my fucking melon atm. Hopefully some proper heat and fan speed will help, but I’m not sure there are any blowers in the back? Couldn’t feel anything under the seats - so maybe I’ll have to get the aircon done!

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Thought this was my old one for a minute, same age and colour.

There is some good engineering there on the packaging side, the slim doors with the handles on top for example.

Packing in 3 full size seats with 3 point belts in the back but being no bigger than say a BINI externally is also pretty good.

I got rid because as well as the 3 children I carry all sorts of shite in the back and the boot is not up to van levels with all the seats in, my old one I assume is still with[mention=20553]bangernomics[/mention] (relevant name is relevant) trucking back and forth to France hauling shite and kicking ass.

It is indeed still with us. Sat for 3 months again and just fired up no bother. Great things.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Attention has now turned to the Clio; recently repatriated from my parents (along with a boot full of shit I’ve had in their loft for 20 years) 🙄

Bless my Dad, he said it was a bugger to start so has been fighting with it for a few weeks - making sure to start it every day and trickle charging the battery. I could tell as soon as I got there it wasn’t a battery problem, but thanked him profusely for looking after it so well and drove it home. 

Culprit(s) 

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Managed to break my Chinese wobbly spark plug tool owing to the fact someone used a breaker bar to put the plugs in last time. My suspicion continues to grow that garages have a secret league table/leaderboard as to who can do things up the tightest. 
 

RIP IN PEAS SWEAT PRINTS.

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All told, glad to get them out when I did. 

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Stuck a new air filter in too which cost me £2. Such a satisfying job with all those lovely fat ping clips. 

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Before, it would take 10 seconds cranking before popping and eventually going. Now it jumps to life first turn. 

Got a dizzy cap and rotor arm coming for £6 which I will stick on, and might even go for a set of leads too to complete the level with maximum points. 

MOT next week. May need a tickle, will likely need part of an exhaust. But I really love this little thing. 

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  • BorniteIdentity changed the title to Bornite's Memoirs - Clio MOT Prep

What a fucking battle.

Thought I'd better have a go at the oil and filter before presenting for MOT - seeing as everything else looks 8/10 I thought I'd get it done.  We will be in for a little tickle sooner rather than later - but nothing frightening.  Just the lip around the sill is a little soft.

I can tell you this now - this little car hasn't had any love in a while.  Those plugs (pictured above) were fucking toast, and the oil wasn't a lot better.  I started with the PELA (inspired by @Split_Pin) but the oil was just too thick.  I warmed the car for about 10 mins at idle but it seemed to take forever.  After 30 minutes I'd got about a litre out.  Fuck that.  Up she goes.  

Within seconds, the darkest oil I've seen in ages came flowing - and it was all out within 5 minutes.  Magic.

Other than the oil filter.  

Griff's Garage of Countesthorpe get +3 points in Garage Leaderboard for an oil filter that was literally welded on.  After 10 minutes of knuckle scraping, chain wrenching, strap pulling and grunting I gave up and fucking went for it.

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It took 5 punches to get the bastard to shift.  I'd say that it's been on for a good few years as it was leaking a bit and there was some crust on the rim.  Yum.

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Few chunks in there too.  Vile.

Slight problem now - is the sump plug is leaking.  I've never seen a GIRTHY BOI like this.  I can only assume I've lost a little crush washer, or it's fucked, or something.  Obviously the pisser is you have to drain the lot to fix the problem, so OBVIOUSLY the solution is just to park on the road* rather than your own block paved driveway. It's a tiny drop every 10 minutes, and I improved it by tightening up to Griff's Garage levels - so maybe it'll self cure.

Whilst up in the air I took I gave it a splash in Vactan - and will do it again in a few weeks before tarting up with some UB40 or whatever it's called ;)

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Shame about the bloody oil drip, because otherwise it's been mega satisfying titivating it over the last week or so.

Any tips with the oil drip?  Should I order a complete new sump plug?

 

 

 

*Jokes. I couldn't do it to a motorcyclist. 

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It’s a nice feeling to sort out things like this, and be safe in the knowledge it won’t ever end up as bad as that again.

Did that on quite a few cars I’ve had, and some similar-coloured oils have exited the sumps. Oil filters are hand tight only, some garages would do good to remember that!

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You need to warm the car right up to full temperature in this weather in order to get the oil extractor working. I warmed my 75 for about 20 minutes and it still took about 2 hours to get all 7.5 litres out!

That said, if the oil is that old and thick, dropping it out the sump is probably best.

Draining it all out to fit the new sump plug might be a blessing as it sounds like it could do with another change to get rid of all the old crap that might still be floating around.

Glad you and your dad are enjoying the 90s Reno experience, I know I did!

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22 minutes ago, greengartside said:

Oil filters are hand tight only, some garages would do good to remember that!

But I bet professional mechanics have super human strong hands from continous wrenching! So the mere mortals hand-tight is limp wristed compared to theirs.

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Hmm. It’s actually quite drippy 😢

Incontinence pad installed. It’ll have to come out tomorrow with a fresh install from the local factor who - genuinely - is the most miserable bastard I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. Ugh.

 
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In the end, I travelled an extra 3 miles to go to the prestigious Bennetts Motor Spares.  Typical place; lots of oily men leering over the mutton behind the counter who - in fairness - knew a damn sight more than I did about most things motoring.  £4 for a new plug and twin washer set, and £8 for a litre of oil.  Not bad - but I usually pay £14 for 4litres of oil on eBay, and I didn't even spill enough to need it!!

Used the copper washer rather than the the one with the rubber insert on the advice of pre-eminent shiter @alf892 and it seems to have done the job.

This only after the car slipped off the jack, and nearly landed on my fucking head.  I'm mega Laissez-faire about stuff like this, but it did put the willies up me a bit as the bastard came crashing down.  Fortunately, I wasn't underneath it - but please, friends, don't be a twat like me.  

Oil out and back in again, and i treated the car to a splash of Dynax S50 that I had left around.  Looks fresh AF now - let's see how it fares up!

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As you can see, there's a lot more to paint up but I didn't have all my blankets out to cover the drive.  MOAR later.

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