Pinking

Or give it to one of us for an hour. Stick £20 of Optimax in and i'm sure we can sort it for you. Doki - get hold of Matt, we can challenge him round Brunters :)

Yes, don't thrash it from cold. But you're misreading your book - what you're looking at is the economy driving tips page, where it tells you to change up as early as possible etc. But the owner of a Seicento hardly need worry about the massive amount of fuel it guzzles. Do you care if you get 47mpg instead of 45, honestly?

It says here 45bhp at 5600rpm, for the version that was around in 1990. Probably the single point injection and catalytic convertor stole some power. It doesn't give the redline but I'd guess between 5800 and

6000rpm. The Uno with that engine could do, in mph in each gear, 24, 45, 68 and 87.

Pass. I drive like that all the time, except towards the end of the month before the salary comes in (then I sit on the motorway at 60 and complain about all the maniacs). My cars usually get faster after a couple of weeks owning them.

I would suggest, if your driving style is to keep the revs down, you just open it up maybe once or twice per journey. But a little Italian car like that is designed to be driven very hard and that's the only way to get anything out of it.

FIRE were the later range of engines in the Uno, 1.0 and 1.1. Previously there was the 1.1 OHC and the 900cc pushrod that survived at least into the Cinquecento. That's the one that always sounds like a tin of nails. Probably ok if anyone ever bothered adjusting the tappets, the lazy sods. I used to see 1-2 year old Cinquecentos that sounded like that.

Agreed. All Italians think they are F1 drivers, no matter what they drive, so all their engines are very rev happy and rev needy :)

Oh, I did just scan through the book quickly, you're probably right.

Hey, I just got 37mpg. I got 46mpg once but that was a while ago. I'm on an average of 40mpg!

Probably.

That's similar to my one. I think it's 22mph in 1st, 89mph in 4th,

87mph in 5th and I can't remember the others.

That must have been what it was!

Great, that's the engine I've got. They put the 899cc engine into the first few Sei's too. My one sounds good though. I laugh when I see a

900cc Panda though, they sound like chainsaws lol.

I get 30mpg from the Ka when I drive it hard for a week. Drive it *really* hard and I might be able to get it down towards the mid twenties. I get about 35mpg driving gently, and I do a roughly similar commute to you (7 miles from a cold start). Give it some beans for a few weeks, it's not going to cost you a fortune.

I might be slower in Peter's sei, but I'll make up for it in sidewaysness :P.

If the car is pinking, it's also wasting fuel. I had a 1.0 Metro years ago which was pinking really badly, economy was hugely improved (at least 50%) after decoking. If it still pinks after the italian tune-up everyone is recommending, you could try the 'water' method - someone else might elaborate as I haven't tried it myself but it sounds easier than removing the head.

Wow, I'd love to get 60mpg for city driving :-)

I wouldn't bank on it - the metro was *really* bad before I decoked it, almost undriveable. Doesn't sound like yours is anything like as bad, but you should get some improvement.

Yeah, I used to drive one of those metro's. Two cylinders were dead when we got rid of it lol.

What's the best way to do this Italian tune up? Is it best to hold it at high revs or rev it and change gear at around 5000rpm?

I think I managed to get it past the limiter somehow today. I did

26mph in 1st and it was still accelerating, the top speed is only 22mph. I got worried when I reallised I was well past the top speed and shoved it up a gear. Allowing for the speedo under reading, it is still very high. Is this OK. My engine seems to make things vibrate badly after about 20mph.

The aim is to get the engine hot by burning lots of fuel. The best way to do this go up through the gears at full throttle, changing up 5mph or so below the limiter. You could hold the thing just under the limiter at part throttle in second but this wouldn't get it as roasting hot. If you get it in third or fourth and hold it at top speed in that gear for a while you'll be well on your way, as the aerodynamic drag will provide a load for the engine to pull against. A twisty road where you keep braking for corners and the acellerating hard out would be another way...

I doubt it very much. The limiter's controlled by the computer, and if the limiter's not working then the computer has no idea of how many revs the car is doing, or the computers broken. You'd have the MIL lit on the dash.

Is 22mph "don't go above this speed in 2nd gear" according to the manual, or according to where the rev limiter is and worked out with the gearing? The VW Polo manual reckons you mustn't do above 20 in first, 35-40 in second IIRC (there are red marks on the speedo, no tacho), and they pull to 30 and

50 indicated before getting to the limiter. From what I've read, the 900cc Cinq hits the rev limter at around 45 in second, and the Sei is based on the Cinq, so I'd expect very similar if not the same gear ratios.

The limiter is usually above where the redline would be on the tacho, as going above the redline momentarily once in a while isn't a terrible thing, but rather something you shouldn't do continuously / often. That's why you don't rev quite to the limiter when you're doing your italian tune up :).

Can you get a Sei sideways? A base model one, won't it just roll over :) ?

sidewaysness

I'm sure I could try :).

Do you get a sucking sound when you remove the fuel cap? Could be a vacuum forming in the tank causing fuel starvation.

Paul

No, I don't.

Could this be related to the pinking? Could the fuel filter need replacing and cause more carbon to build up in the engine? I've given it a thrashing and it doesn't seem any better, and I've had enough thrashing, I want to get back to driving properly.

How many miles have you thrashed it for? Have you found the rev limiter yet? Driving around on such low revs whilst doing short journeys that your engine cokes up IS NOT driving properly. Jesus Christ...