Seicento Sweepstake

Did the sign say "danger! falling signs"?

I think they're picking on you a bit. I think your car probably has a problem beyond excessively gentle driving.

They always were; it didn't take long to wear out the synchros and get noise in 1st and 2nd. Fiat aren't alone in having crap gearboxes, though, and actually a good box that's nice to use and robust is quite rare.

I've found that reverse is usually bad. On most cars, if not all, you need to wait a few seconds with the clutch in before you engage reverse. On the Fiesta and KA, I found that if you don't wait 3 seconds (I think) then you can't garuntee than it's gonna go in. On my Sei however, if I give it the 2 seconds that the manual says, then I've got about a 30% chance of it going in. Sometimes, to get it in reverse it can take me about 5 tries. I sometimes sit in car parks for about 15 seconds just trying to select reverse lol.

No problem with that on ours. Been to specialist this morning and he confirmed that it needs new synchro units. Will cost under £200 to repair, including new parts for 3rd & 4th if necessary.

Stuart Sharp

Try chucking it into another gear with the clutch down, then into reverse, should do the trick.

Will you look at the pre-cognition there! If I'm not careful, I'll have a prang because I'm so worried about the prang I'm about to have. :-) Seriously, I can sympathise with that - I parked my car in a car park once and returned a day later to find that the wall I'd parked in front of was now on my car. I was not a happy bunny. Still, a bit of hammering later and...............It looked like my car was involved in a serious accident. I replaced the bonnet. *grin*

Doesn't everyone! Everyone thinks that they're the saint of the roads. Nobody ever admits to making a big, fat hairy cockup. I'm by no means a perfect driver. I don't think anyone can be. Still, at least I indicate, apologise for cocking up, let people out (or in) at junctions and understand that I must drop a gear on hills to stop everyone else having to scream up in first "because I have a powerful car which is happy to creep up a hill in 287th gear at 3rpm" - you know who you are. :-/

Tom.

lol. I've almost got a full year of no claims :-D. My insurance should only be around £600 at the end of this month, my friend pays more than that for third party!

Yeah, what I can't understand is when people just pass their test and they think they're good. When I passed my test I knew that I wasn't good, I was good enough to pass the test etc but I didn't have much experience etc. I couldn't understand how people can drive like maniacs just after driving a test :-o.

I'm much better now than I was when I passed my test, but I still make mistakes. I do learn from my mistakes though and in 5 years time I will hopefully be a very good driver, but certainly not perfect.

I do steep his in 5th at about 500rpm, and who said I couldn't drive ;-)

I don't know, it broke when it hit my car :-D.

It definately is a problem beyond gentle driving. After 150 miles (half a tank) since cleaning my plugs, the car is barely driveable. I don't really want to clean the plugs again, but it's terrible. I'm going to be trashing it from cold now, it's the best thing for it :-( I've been going past 4000rpm from cold with icy weather, I rev it until it sounds like it's going to break.

I will be changing the fuel filter next, in about three weeks time, hopefully that will make it better. It really does seem like the car's dieing now :-( The problem is that my parents won't let me get it repaired, I may need to sneak it into a garage without them knowing. I'd rather pay a few £hundred to get it cured than have it running how it is at the moment, or blowing up. If it didn't pink it would be a good car, oh and if the door wasn't rusty, the seal on one of the doors wasn't comming of, if it didn't have an oil leak... They are great fun though.

Sounds like you've got a bit of a dog there. I'd bodge it and sell it ASAP.

A Sei shouldn't be showing any sign of rust, unless it's been in a smash and repaired on the cheap, as they're a galvanised shell. My Cinq. didn't show any sign of rust, even after being fairly heavily smacked into a central reservation (sideways) and not repaired for 4 months one winter.

Poor Cinq :-(

:-o

What has concerned me is that all of the rust is on the drivers door, three separate patches. They're also near the top where it is less likely to get stone chips and salt etc from the road. The bonnet's got literally hundreds of stone chips, but no rust. I can't see how it could've been involved in an accident. I'll inspect it later though. The rust isn't spreading though, I'll try sorting it out after this term at uni.

Peter (petermcmillan snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

It's had that door done on the cheap. For sure.

Somebody opened the door without looking? Somebody parked into it? Something fell against it? If you bought it new, it doesn't mean it wasn't done before delivery.

Is it not still under the 3 yr paintwork or 8 yr rust warranty? Take it and shout at the dealer. Of course, if it has been repaired badly, then they'll laugh at you and tell you to take it up with the cowboys that did it.

Try either letting the clutch up in neutral & trying again, or pushing in & out of another gear while keeping the clutch down. Both of these work for SWMBOs Escort which seems to have a morbid hatred of reverse.

It needed to be checked after three years, just before I bought the car, and it wasn't :-(. It would be an 8 year warranty. My dad says that they're stone chips, the only 3 that went rusty are all on the same door, which hardly has any stone chips on it :-o.

Peter (petermcmillan snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I hope you negotiated the price down based on that? Did the amount you got off cover the price of this bodywork?

How "just before"? Maybe there would have been enough flexibility for you to get it inspected when you bought it?

How the bloody hell does the top of a door get stonechipped badly enough to go through not just paint but the galvanising? Nope, sorry, try again.

It's had bodywork done on the door. Either a cheap pattern panel put on or the door's been taken back to bare metal aggressively enough to damage the protection. Either way, it was bodged, and it's starting to show.