1989 SEAT Ibiza 903cc Special - The Dream Machine - Rust Bubbles and Dodgy Breaks

[SEATMad]

This is more for my own sanity really, Just somewhere where I can document general maintenance and repairs I do on my little darling. So basically, as my username might suggest, I like my old SEAT's. A Mk1 Ibiza being pretty much on the top of that list (barring a Malaga, however that doesn't look like its going to be possible anytime soon 😂.) It's taken me some years to source a decent one and to actually be in the financial position to buy, however I got my way in the end. I acquired it some 3 months or so ago now and I have absolutely fallen in love with it. Its not the "Porsche System" variant and its not got the cool, early style dashboard with the rocker indicators, however I simply don't care. It's basically perfect. Its had some very sympathetic previous owners who have lavished money on it keeping it in mint condition. One previous owner resorted it at great expense ( I've seen photos of it before and my word, she was in very poor condition). This trend is something I intend on carrying on.  

 

Anyway, enough with the soppy shite. Recently I've been having some ignition issues. It was an absolute job to try and get her to start. Even with some good ole' fashioned easy start it was extremely difficult. So I set about diagnosing. She was getting fuel and air no issue whatso ever so my attention turned to spark. 

It turns out she had a very weak spark. So I immediately ordered a new ignition coil. 

 

I was quite surprised at how easy it was trying to find parts. I thought that due to its rarity, parts were going to be a thorn in my side. However I've been proven wrong. Anyway, new ignition coil delivered, i cracked on.

 

 

Out with the old and in with the new. This job must've taken me all of ooohh maybe 5 minutes and people judge me for liking old cars.

 

 

 

I took the opportunity to change both the spark plugs and battery as I wasn't sure on when they were last done and, hey, I wouldn't harm to do it. 

Good thing I did as the spark plugs were honking of fuel.

 

Now, I'll admit it, I may have made a little bit of a cock up. While removing the air filter I may have sheared a bolt. So I had to address that as well. Out comes the tapping set and time to reverse my fuck up. 

I know it's not pretty but it'll have to do. 

 

 

All back together and ready for testing. 

 

 

She fired up straight away without a hesitation so I must've done something right! All in all this took me about an hour to do the lot, including the tapping. Not bad for a novice like me lol. 

 

Anyways sorry for rambling on. Thanks for reading if you got this far

[wuvvum]

Bazillions of cars used that 903cc Fiat engine and its derivatives so most mechanical parts should be easy enough to get hold of I would have thought.

[Burnside]

I nearly brought a similar one for my first car, at a back street garage for £95 with about 5 mins Mot but someone beat me to it!

Remember these use to rust quite badly on the front wings, but pattern replacements were readily available back then. 

Love to see more pictures of this, I bet it's been 20 years since I last saw one on the road. 

 

 

[Dobloseven]

Were they the ones that claimed to be designed by Porsche?

[fatharris]

These are such good looking little cars, remember seeing a very tidy example at SF 22.

[MantaGTE85]

Such an awesome little car. Back in the '90s, I owned two of these. They were both 1.5 GLX versions, a blue 3-dr on a C-plate (C880RAN), and a gold 5-dr on a G-plate (G193BDD). I loved them both. They had real character, however both cars seemed to prematurely corrode overnight. As soon as I find the time, I'll post you more information about these cars, the G-plate one is particularly interesting, and actually not one that I've ever seen before. I can see this thread becoming very popular indeed. All the best m8.

[SEATMad]

12 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Bazillions of cars used that 903cc Fiat engine and its derivatives so most mechanical parts should be easy enough to get hold of I would have thought.

Yeah that's right it seems. Defiantly a surprise to me but I ain't complaining. I'm not sure what else used this engine apart from the Panda, Marbella and Uno. Maybe the Ritmo? 

 

10 hours ago, Burnside said:

I nearly brought a similar one for my first car, at a back street garage for £95 with about 5 mins Mot but someone beat me to it!

Remember these use to rust quite badly on the front wings, but pattern replacements were readily available back then. 

Love to see more pictures of this, I bet it's been 20 years since I last saw one on the road. 

 

 

Yeah these are notorious for it. Here's a picture of it before it was restored by its previous owner. Pattern parts seem to be easily available in Spain so if I need to source any that'll be my first port of call. I'll keep this thread updated so more photos to come! 

4 hours ago, Dobloseven said:

Were they the ones that claimed to be designed by Porsche?

Porsche helped to develop engines, transmissions and drivetrains on these. The car itself was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. That's quite an interesting story in its own right!

 

4 hours ago, fatharris said:

These are such good looking little cars, remember seeing a very tidy example at SF 22.

Yeah I completely agree. That's what made me fall in love all those years ago when I first starting getting into cars. Simple yet stunning IMO.

 

4 hours ago, MantaGTE85 said:

Such an awesome little car. Back in the '90s, I owned two of these. They were both 1.5 GLX versions, a blue 3-dr on a C-plate (C880RAN), and a gold 5-dr on a G-plate (G193BDD). I loved them both. They had real character, however both cars seemed to prematurely corrode overnight. As soon as I find the time, I'll post you more information about these cars, the G-plate one is particularly interesting, and actually not one that I've ever seen before. I can see this thread becoming very popular indeed. All the best m8.

Yeah they are proper characterful little cars. Rust is what killed most of these off it seems (same with the Malaga's). I'd love to hear more about them, C plate must've been one of the earliest ones surely? 

Thank you I hope it does! Cheers mate. 

[SEATMad]

I've just noticed something. There appears to be 7 Malaga "Premier's" registered. In 2020, there were 10. Weirdly there hasn't been a Malaga premier taxed or tested since 2002. Anyone got any theory's? 

It would be a bit strange for someone to import 10 wouldn't it? 

 

[egg]

3 hours ago, SEATMad said:

Yeah I completely agree. That's what made me fall in love all those years ago when I first starting getting into cars. Simple yet stunning IMO.

+1, I think these are great looking (pre-facelift), and a useful sized car too. I guess also a symbol of Spain moving beyond its years as a dictatorship.

I notice on Wiki it says the 903cc has 45bhp, is that correct? I thought the 903cc typically had around 40 in Fiat applications?

[MantaGTE85]

Are you ready for a long story? Yeah? Great!!! First off, I wish I had pictures of them to upload, that really would have been great, so I'll have to describe them from what I remember about them. October 1985 was when the Ibiza was officially launched in the UK. My first Ibiza, a metallic Stratos Blue (code 038) C880RAN was February 1986-registered, so it was certainly launch-spec. All C-plates WILL be 3-dr. The 5-dr came out in October 1986 on D-plates. My car was indeed incredibly early, with the light grey thickly padded and upholstered seats and very creaky huge full-length door cards that were made of thin wood with what felt like a dark blue vinyl coating. All the rest of the interior was very blue. It was a GLX with electric windows, a hilariously buzzy-sounding central locking mechanism, rev counter and heavily-oxidised 165-wide 14 inch 32-spoke alloys. It also had those cool contrasting silver stripes on the lower sides. The wiper, washer and some of the paddle switches took some getting used to, but they all worked just fine. The indicator switch was a Y-shaped toggle item that stuck out of the left of the console and was always within easy reach. But they were very over-eager to self-cancel, and the indicator ticking was inaudible.

The engine was the System Porsche 1.5 with the twin-choke Weber carb. I found it quite a lively and smooth unit, accompanied by a very distinctive constant high-pitched tone entering the cabin when accelerating. It was quick, not R5 GT Turbo or 205 GTi-quick, more like the Nova SR really, just fun and responsive. Fuel economy was not really a strong point. It had to be driven extremely carefully at very low revs to get it anywhere near Seat's claims. To drive, I found the steering to be really heavy when parking, but it soon got really light after setting off. The driver's seat was always set right back as the pedals were high with very long travel. The brakes were really good, and the ride felt very firm and the tall body did lean quite a lot when cornering, but the chassis still held the road very well. Both cars looked a bit unusual from the rear, as the rear wheels had pronounced positive camber making them look a bit too tall and tempting to lower. Now for the interesting bits:

I bought the GLX 1.5 C880RAN in late-'94 for £395. It had 79000 miles. Everything inside the car was quite rattly and creaky but I was expecting that. The Stratos Blue metallic body was very shiny but I soon found out that the rear arches were fibre-glass repaired multiple times at various points in its earlier life, and attempting to keep them rust-free was a full time job. The car itself was very reliable, with only the rear wiper and boot interior light that did not work. I finished with the car in October 1997 after the MOT found terminal rust under the floor and sills which affected the rear suspension. By then the mileage was 92000. I part-exchanged it the following month with:

Another mk1 Ibiza, also a 1.5 GLX, this time a 5-dr in Kalahari Beige (metallic gold, code 051). The mileage was 72000 and the price was a rather steep £2795 from a small dealer in Crediton with a full year's warranty so it couldn't be that bad. It was G193BDD, a January 1990-registration which I'm sure was made at least two years prior!!! This is where it hopefully gets VERY interesting:

Now, unlike your Ibiza Special, and any of them post-April 1989, this G-plater still had the early dash, in fact the entire interior was like the C-reg, except it was very brown and still featured the huge, thick, armchair-type seats that only the early GLX's had, and some traces of old glue from where somebody removed the lower door tape stripes that, again, only the early GLX's had. Kalahari Beige was also not even available on new Seat cars after 1988. Another tell-tale was the bright plastic clip-on trim that runs along the gutter above each door, on either side of the roof (proper '89-on models would have black trim there). My car was a definite 'bitza' Ibiza as it still had the colour-coded grille with the newer-style Seat badge (other Seat badges on this car were the earliest style). Finally, this car also sported a set of six-spoke 185 wide 14-inch alloys that were only used on later 'post-'91 GLX and SXi versions, so the original 32-spokers were clearly an issue to somebody. Still, they were a lot easier to clean and had no damage or corrosion so I was happy.

I do actually remember reading countless 'What Car? Helpline' reports in the early '90s about people who unknowingly bought new cars which turned out to be the previous specifications after being stockpiled and tarted up before sale so my 2nd Ibiza must have been one of the victims of this scandal.

G193BDD, however, was proving slightly more troublesome than my previous one. My suspicions were confirmed when I found a 'FEB '88' marking on the back of the door card when I was repairing a window that came off its runner. Really, this car should have been a late-E, or early F-plate. Reliability-wise, it was good as gold although the auto-choke not always was. It would sometimes hop along until it was almost at fully operating temperature. It also had an oil weep around the base of the rocker cover which nobody could get to the bottom of, and the oil would occasionally drip onto the manifold directly below so the front of the car would smoke slightly at normal temperature.

I sold the car at the turn of the millennium with 108000 miles, for just £500. It was looking prematurely tired by then. The front wings were failing on the front edges and the arch bottoms and along the tops. The plastic rear arch coverings (spats) at the rear of the sills/fronts of the rear arches had no metal behind and the back arches themselves were getting very bubbly and crusty, the arch lips were just falling off. The doors were bubbling all the way along the very bottom edges where the door skins fold over the door shell. The inside of the tailgate corroded and started to leak at the bottom corners of the rear screen below the seal (check yours!) I was starting to think this was getting a bit poor for a 10 year old (or should that be 12?) in January 2000. I put that down to the car's build date and unresolved early quality glitches, G193BDD apparently was to survive for another 4 and a half years before it was scrapped.

I then bought a red 18-month-old Punto 1.2 85 Sporting which I ran for 12 years.

I know this is a long post, but I hope you enjoyed reading it, and that it serves as a 'what to look for' guide if you are, in the future, considering an earlier example with 'that' dash. 

 

 

[Blue 850]

5 hours ago, SEATMad said:

Yeah that's right it seems. Defiantly a surprise to me but I ain't complaining. I'm not sure what else used this engine apart from the Panda, Marbella and Uno. Maybe the Ritmo

 Yugo 45s, Autobianchi A112s , and about 3 million Fiat 127s. They were also in the rear of the Fiat 850 but run anticlockwise, and the engine was originally designed for the 600 of 1955, the 899 in the Cinquecento is basically the same unit

 

[Blue 850]

Probably the best one left? 14,300 miles from new

[EyesWeldedShut]

11 minutes ago, Blue 850 said:

They were also in the rear of the Fiat 850 but run anticlockwise,

Every day, I learn something new. That's today's new fact.

[MantaGTE85]

2 hours ago, SEATMad said:

I've just noticed something. There appears to be 7 Malaga "Premier's" registered. In 2020, there were 10. Weirdly there hasn't been a Malaga premier taxed or tested since 2002. Anyone got any theory's? 

It would be a bit strange for someone to import 10 wouldn't it? 

 

I would love to meet whoever it was who did that.

[Burnside]

That's really interesting about the Malaga, hopefully someone can shed some light on it.

Back in the late 90's there was a D reg Black Malaga 1.5 GLX that lived near me. It was pretty rusty along all four door's,  but it lasted until around 2000. I was really disappointed when it went, as even then I knew it was unlikely I'd see another.

[SEATMad]

3 hours ago, MantaGTE85 said:

Are you ready for a long story? Yeah? Great!!! First off, I wish I had pictures of them to upload, that really would have been great, so I'll have to describe them from what I remember about them. October 1985 was when the Ibiza was officially launched in the UK. My first Ibiza, a metallic Stratos Blue (code 038) C880RAN was February 1986-registered, so it was certainly launch-spec. All C-plates WILL be 3-dr. The 5-dr came out in October 1986 on D-plates. My car was indeed incredibly early, with the light grey thickly padded and upholstered seats and very creaky huge full-length door cards that were made of thin wood with what felt like a dark blue vinyl coating. All the rest of the interior was very blue. It was a GLX with electric windows, a hilariously buzzy-sounding central locking mechanism, rev counter and heavily-oxidised 165-wide 14 inch 32-spoke alloys. It also had those cool contrasting silver stripes on the lower sides. The wiper, washer and some of the paddle switches took some getting used to, but they all worked just fine. The indicator switch was a Y-shaped toggle item that stuck out of the left of the console and was always within easy reach. But they were very over-eager to self-cancel, and the indicator ticking was inaudible.

The engine was the System Porsche 1.5 with the twin-choke Weber carb. I found it quite a lively and smooth unit, accompanied by a very distinctive constant high-pitched tone entering the cabin when accelerating. It was quick, not R5 GT Turbo or 205 GTi-quick, more like the Nova SR really, just fun and responsive. Fuel economy was not really a strong point. It had to be driven extremely carefully at very low revs to get it anywhere near Seat's claims. To drive, I found the steering to be really heavy when parking, but it soon got really light after setting off. The driver's seat was always set right back as the pedals were high with very long travel. The brakes were really good, and the ride felt very firm and the tall body did lean quite a lot when cornering, but the chassis still held the road very well. Both cars looked a bit unusual from the rear, as the rear wheels had pronounced positive camber making them look a bit too tall and tempting to lower. Now for the interesting bits:

I bought the GLX 1.5 C880RAN in late-'94 for £395. It had 79000 miles. Everything inside the car was quite rattly and creaky but I was expecting that. The Stratos Blue metallic body was very shiny but I soon found out that the rear arches were fibre-glass repaired multiple times at various points in its earlier life, and attempting to keep them rust-free was a full time job. The car itself was very reliable, with only the rear wiper and boot interior light that did not work. I finished with the car in October 1997 after the MOT found terminal rust under the floor and sills which affected the rear suspension. By then the mileage was 92000. I part-exchanged it the following month with:

Another mk1 Ibiza, also a 1.5 GLX, this time a 5-dr in Kalahari Beige (metallic gold, code 051). The mileage was 72000 and the price was a rather steep £2795 from a small dealer in Crediton with a full year's warranty so it couldn't be that bad. It was G193BDD, a January 1990-registration which I'm sure was made at least two years prior!!! This is where it hopefully gets VERY interesting:

Now, unlike your Ibiza Special, and any of them post-April 1989, this G-plater still had the early dash, in fact the entire interior was like the C-reg, except it was very brown and still featured the huge, thick, armchair-type seats that only the early GLX's had, and some traces of old glue from where somebody removed the lower door tape stripes that, again, only the early GLX's had. Kalahari Beige was also not even available on new Seat cars after 1988. Another tell-tale was the bright plastic clip-on trim that runs along the gutter above each door, on either side of the roof (proper '89-on models would have black trim there). My car was a definite 'bitza' Ibiza as it still had the colour-coded grille with the newer-style Seat badge (other Seat badges on this car were the earliest style). Finally, this car also sported a set of six-spoke 185 wide 14-inch alloys that were only used on later 'post-'91 GLX and SXi versions, so the original 32-spokers were clearly an issue to somebody. Still, they were a lot easier to clean and had no damage or corrosion so I was happy.

I do actually remember reading countless 'What Car? Helpline' reports in the early '90s about people who unknowingly bought new cars which turned out to be the previous specifications after being stockpiled and tarted up before sale so my 2nd Ibiza must have been one of the victims of this scandal.

G193BDD, however, was proving slightly more troublesome than my previous one. My suspicions were confirmed when I found a 'FEB '88' marking on the back of the door card when I was repairing a window that came off its runner. Really, this car should have been a late-E, or early F-plate. Reliability-wise, it was good as gold although the auto-choke not always was. It would sometimes hop along until it was almost at fully operating temperature. It also had an oil weep around the base of the rocker cover which nobody could get to the bottom of, and the oil would occasionally drip onto the manifold directly below so the front of the car would smoke slightly at normal temperature.

I sold the car at the turn of the millennium with 108000 miles, for just £500. It was looking prematurely tired by then. The front wings were failing on the front edges and the arch bottoms and along the tops. The plastic rear arch coverings (spats) at the rear of the sills/fronts of the rear arches had no metal behind and the back arches themselves were getting very bubbly and crusty, the arch lips were just falling off. The doors were bubbling all the way along the very bottom edges where the door skins fold over the door shell. The inside of the tailgate corroded and started to leak at the bottom corners of the rear screen below the seal (check yours!) I was starting to think this was getting a bit poor for a 10 year old (or should that be 12?) in January 2000. I put that down to the car's build date and unresolved early quality glitches, G193BDD apparently was to survive for another 4 and a half years before it was scrapped.

I then bought a red 18-month-old Punto 1.2 85 Sporting which I ran for 12 years.

I know this is a long post, but I hope you enjoyed reading it, and that it serves as a 'what to look for' guide if you are, in the future, considering an earlier example with 'that' dash. 

 

 

Cheers for taking the time and effort to write all that. Not sure about anyone else but I find it fascinating! 

[SEATMad]

1 hour ago, Blue 850 said:

Probably the best one left? 14,300 miles from new

Interesting to note, no passenger door mirror 

[SEATMad]

1 hour ago, MantaGTE85 said:

I would love to meet whoever it was who did that.

 

1 hour ago, Burnside said:

That's really interesting about the Malaga, hopefully someone can shed some light on it.

Back in the late 90's there was a D reg Black Malaga 1.5 GLX that lived near me. It was pretty rusty along all four door's,  but it lasted until around 2000. I was really disappointed when it went, as even then I knew it was unlikely I'd see another.

As sad as this sounds, the Malaga is one of my dream cars. I know there was one kicking about a few years ago however it's appears to have fallen off the DVLA system. I'm praying one comes up in someone's garage for restoration one day. 

As for those 10, I thought I'd bring it to the Autoshite community's attention. Maybe someone here knows. 

[Blue 850]

26 minutes ago, SEATMad said:

Interesting to note, no passenger door mirror 

Irish spec, we were lucky to get the passenger door 😁

[HMC]

Lovley! Didnt @Mr_Bo11ox have a black one at some stage that needed some glass IIRC ?

[Dyslexic Viking]

Around 14-15 years ago there was a black one of these for sale in Norway and it is the only one I have seen here. Regret not buying it.

[SEATMad]

50 minutes ago, Blue 850 said:

Irish spec, we were lucky to get the passenger door 😁

There surely can't be many left that side of the pond! 

 

10 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

Around 14-15 years ago there was a black one of these for sale in Norway and it is the only one I have seen here. Regret not buying it.

I can't imagine these selling that well in Norway and other Scandinavian countries. These were defiantly built with warmer climates in mind I reckon  

[Blue 850]

I don't know if Seat did it any different to Fiat, but if it starts to give symptoms of a dodgy fuel pump, it probably won't be the pump itself, there's a pin that hits the cam on the pump which is made of softer metal than the pump and it wears, the 903 Unos were b@stards for this when I worked in a Fiat dealers back in the 90s

[SEATMad]

Just now, Blue 850 said:

I don't know if Seat did it any different to Fiat, but if it starts give symptoms of a dodgy fuel pump, it robably won't be the pump itself, there's a pin that hits the cam on the pump which is made of softer metal than the pump and it wears, the 903 Unos were b@stards for this when I worked in a Fiat dealers back in the 90s

Nice one cheers for the info, I'll keep that in mind. Mine seems to be functioning pretty well at the moment so will keep an eye out. 

[Dyslexic Viking]

14 minutes ago, SEATMad said:

I can't imagine these selling that well in Norway and other Scandinavian countries. These were defiantly built with warmer climates in mind I reckon  

I don't think the first generation Ibiza was officially sold here but Ibiza came for sale here with the second gen.

So I think the one I saw was imported.

[Blue 850]

Useless Ibiza fact, in the carpark scene with the BMW 7 series in the Tomorrow Never Dies Bond movie, in one shot there is a red Mk1 Ibiza on Fiat X1/9 alloys

[SEATMad]

56 minutes ago, Dyslexic Viking said:

I don't think the first generation Ibiza was officially sold here but Ibiza came for sale here with the second gen.

So I think the one I saw was imported.

Aaaah right I see, how did SEAT sales get on in the scandi world?

53 minutes ago, Blue 850 said:

Useless Ibiza fact, in the carpark scene with the BMW 7 series in the Tomorrow Never Dies Bond movie, in one shot there is a red Mk1 Ibiza on Fiat X1/9 alloys

Im definitely going to be watching it now and trying to find it 😂

[Burnside]

4 hours ago, SEATMad said:

 

As sad as this sounds, the Malaga is one of my dream cars. I know there was one kicking about a few years ago however it's appears to have fallen off the DVLA system. I'm praying one comes up in someone's garage for restoration one day. 

As for those 10, I thought I'd bring it to the Autoshite community's attention. Maybe someone here knows. 

Nothing sad about wanting a Malaga, I think there ace!

Only a few years ago, there was someone on this very forum who spent years trying to find a RHD Renault 14.

A few people said no chance, but they manged to find four cars before buying one of them.  So anything possible.

[Burnside]

3 hours ago, Blue 850 said:

Useless Ibiza fact, in the carpark scene with the BMW 7 series in the Tomorrow Never Dies Bond movie, in one shot there is a red Mk1 Ibiza on Fiat X1/9 alloys

Remember seeing this film at the cinema, some of these scenes were filmed in the UK too. The Sun Newspaper had pictures of the BMW 750i being fired through a window.

[Dyslexic Viking]

8 hours ago, SEATMad said:

aaah right I see, how did SEAT sales get on in the scandi world?

I don't know the others, but in Norway it was never high.