It's definately pinking!

To be fair, we discussed this point with Peter months ago - and I uttered a similar comment. It transpires that a lot of "built down to a budget" cars do not have a coolant temp gauge - merely a dash tell-tale warning.

Peter - maybe your warning light doesn't work? ;-))

So, bottom line is: you're driving along to college, the bottom hose gives up the ghost and you cheerfully dump your coolant onto a rain-soaked road. You don't know it's happened, and you don't even know your temp is about to go orbital. The next thing is you're wondering why the hell your car is running rough, making odd noises and has little power. At least...

As much as it pains me to write it, I think he's right on this one. You are underestimating just how cheap and nasty Fiat can make a car.

Ian

The message from "T." contains these words:

Many don't, these days. And it's probably a blessing in disguise, or Peter'd be asking us if it's OK for his temperature gauge to waggle a bit or go slowly up as he drives away from cold, etc.

Mine doesn't. But it does have a coolant level warning light (it's one of the ones which lights the STOP light), which comes on before things get hot enough to show on a gauge or temp warning light - which I think is actually marginally better. (ok, I'd like both really!)

And yes, I know it works - I ran with a leaky heater matix hose for a good few months, and never once overheated as a result.

(BX 1.9D - not turbo)

cheers, clive

LMAO

Far superior to that, a good old A series. True, performance and economy were down, but it did almost well enough for me to consider tax free alternate fuels ;)

So, could this mean the real problem is engine movement causing something to rattle a bit? Sort of what people have been saying for months..

That's what I consider to be normal lol, I'm not worried about that at all.

I disagree with this bit, but then I would ;-)

Hmm..

It's just that my '90 1108cc Uno is a FIRE engine and the Haynes manual talks about the ~900cc being a FIRE one also. I know the Sporting models are. So I figured Fiat would continue with that trend as opposed to go backwards.

Oh well, those old engines things were seriously crap. Have fun Pete!

They don't call it the Haynes Book of Lies for nothing, you know ;-)

In article ,=20 snipped-for-privacy@thehomeofnospam.org spouted forth into uk.rec.driving...

Jesus Christ, my =A390 1989 Skoda Estelle 120L and my =A380 1992 Skoda=20 Favorit Forum (both base models with poverty spec trim) had temp gauges,=20 proper fuel guages with warning lights, wiring in place for fog lights,=20 plenty of room inside, loads of luggage capacity, and engines that could=20 keep up with the traffic, and you don't get much more "built down to a=20 budget" than a pre-VW Skoda. Admittedly the Estelle didn't have a rev=20 counter, although the LS, LSE, and LX models did, and it was optional in=20 the L 4spd, and standard fit in the L 5spd

--=20 Carl Robson "Sorry Sir the meatballs are orf" (The poster formerly known as Skodapilot)

Sleeker GT Phwoar ( snipped-for-privacy@bouncing-czechs.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Oh, yes, you do!

"Proper" Skodas were very nicely engineered. Certainly far far better cars than a true cheapy western car of the same era.

The engine is an 899cc pushrod. It was originally used in other Fiats (possibly the Uno/127 etc.), but was 903cc, but they reduced the capacity slightly for tax purposes. They are supposed to be pretty robust though, and that's one reason why they used them in Cinq's/Sei's.

Actually, my dad managed to wind the head off of a screw holding my TDC sensor in :-(. It's now impossible to remove this screw lol. The TDC sensor can be removed by removing just the one screw though. btw, we need to remove the sensor to put a new fan belt on. Also had to take the wheel off :-(

I know that, properly engineered, but down to a budget. do you know the Estelle was supposed to be FWD, but they didn't having funding under communist regime to either design and engineer a transmission, and didn't want to buy in anything from another Sov block country and couldn't get one in from the west. So they ended up sticking with what they knew, and using a developement of the old S100/110/1000 box.

They used cheap steel, but it was thick cheap steel, so it lasted, and it was a damned site better quality to polish steel that Polski Fiat was doing deals with to sell to Fiat/Lancia/Alfa (recycled sunk WW2 ships and subs).

I really miss my old Estelle. If it had been a rapid 136 I replaced it with, I would still be driving it now.

In news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, Peter decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

F*ck. That could well explain the pinking.

No I've never managed it, or seen it apart from on TV when they've deliberately picked the worst/most entertaining examples.

Presumably it is labouring the engine, but how much is down to poor ECU I don't know.

Daytona

IME it's easy to do on old cars with manual chokes. Just don't pull the choke out enough and then floor it in 2nd or 3rd gear at barely a few mph. I think it's something to do the feedback of the car jerking forward, which makes you release the throttle a bit, which makes the car jerk backwards, you press the throttle more, etc etc.