Abarth Owners Club
Abarth Cars => Your Abarth => Topic started by: Mikey4410 on August 28, 2020, 08:01:38 PM
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On the 21st of this month (August) I picked this up from Somerset. Was a 4 hour journey from southend to go get it but it was well worth it. Its done 88k and has a full abarth service history.
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The first thing mod wise i did was de-wiper as I don't like the look of rear wipers.
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Next thing I wanted to get sorted was the lack of spare wheel. In the wheel well was a foam insert with two towing eyes and a sealed never used puncture repair kit(pump and liquid kit) that was out of date. I did myself a favour and got this ordered up from ebay for £50. It includes space saver spare wheel, jack, and wheel spanner.
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Afternoon guys,
Today I went about having a clean under the scuttle panel. I checked for debris in the drain holes aswell and they where slightly blocked. Looks much better now and will obviously drain much better.I am going to buy some caps for the top of the suspension as that is just a water trap and some light rust is taking hold.
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Yesterday I fitted my new airtec intercooler that arrived on Friday last week.
Took a while to fit but was well worth it.
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Today I went about freshening up the road rash at the bottom of the arches. It's not the best or prettiest but most importantly will stop any more deterioration of the metal work etc. I am putting 3m clear wrap over the newly painted bits to furthermore protect stuff.
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I recently sold the two front seats which where red and black leather.
In there place will be for now just the one cobra Monaco on an omp mount.
Very very happy with the new seat, it's very comfortable and holds you in place so well.
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Had a spare half an hour today and I fitted a little volt meter
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Today I have also addressed the big ugly breather system with 90 degree elbow and a custom made alloy plate to hold it in and down. There will be hose that comes of of this obviously. Grand total to make this was around £12.
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My racetech boost gauge arrived today along with the fitting kit needed.
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Last night I managed to fashion a boost gauge blank bung as I have done a boost gauge delete.
It took me nearly an hour to make from a bit of 4mm thick abs, its an extremely tight fit and I am chuffed with it.
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Got round to soldering and heatshrinking up some permanent proper resistors today for the seat airbag plugs.
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Finally got round to fitting my omp foot pedals that I have had for a few weeks.
They are spaced for the ease of heel toe action which is great. A little annoying that every pedal is different so bolts up differently but anyway they are so much better to drive with and give a solid feel compared to the highly rubberised stock items
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Today I blocked of the 3 breather slots for the side mount intercoolers that are in the wheels arches. These don't do any favours for contamination as water, road dirt and crap that goes through the said gaps and gets everywhere dirty. I managed to get hold of a fiat 500 arch liner and cut this up to make square patches to blank so they are Exaclty the same colour and material.
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Today my new double din fascia arrived from china. Its actually really great quality and fits like a glove. My intention is to fit it out with a boost gauge and few other bits and bobs, I never ever have headunits in my performance cars, the music is the exhaust and turbo noises. Tonight I fitted a solid new backing onto the new fascia and mounted the first gauge I have been very eager to fit.
Here's some piccys
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Managed to wire up the guages, used the switched live from the cigarette lighter near the handbrake and ran a wire up to new double din as the stereo wiring didn't have a switched live for some reason, just a permanent live.
Just need to fit the shift light at some point soon.
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Today I have done and oil and filter change.
The car is now on 88,728 miles.
I use and always have done mobil1 5/40 fully synthetic oil, a blueprint filter, and for good measure I have fitted a magnetic sump plug to catch any metal particles.
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Yesterday afternoon/evening I got round to fitting my brake upgrades.
I have fitted brand new brembo calipers up front with new 305mm discs and carriers.
I let the old fluid bleed out for a few hours and then bled through brand new ate typ200 fluid and I have also fitted new braided lines front and rear. 10mm spacers have gone on all round the car and lastly I have fitted 60mm stud and nut conversion.
The old fluid was absolutely dark brown and old/knackered and clearly needed doing bad
I also managed to bleed the clutch through thoroughly as this is connected to the the same resevoir as the brakes and was equally as shitty condition.
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I have managed to source some cheap top hats for the top mounts which are by design literally water catchers as you may well know. The top hats will stop anymore rust or water. It's the little things 😊
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Today I fitted some 10mm rear wheel spacers, nut and bolt conversion and brand new bump stops.
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Wow Mikey44, that is a hell of a project so far!
Have enjoyed reading through and viewing the pics. Keep em coming.
Looking good, I presume from the speed you are going through the tasks, you have plenty of experience in tis sort of thing.
What is your end goal?
Andy
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Thanks so much for your comments andy595.
I have had a few performance cars in my time including 5 starlet turbos, clio 182 turbo, r26 megane, clio 197 etc. All of them have been customised by me and 3 of them I forged the engine on myself. Love working on cars and making them my own style.
Now the cars done for a good while.
Today I finally finished the gauge setup.
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Heya guys
Today I got round to machine polishing my car and putting a really decent wax coating on it. Being white it isn't the most reflective but In the flesh it has come up very well indeed.
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Today I investigated a very annoying and loud vibration noise coming from the passenger rear quarter plastic near the speaker somewhere when car was at warm idle.... ....... On getting all the plastics of I quickly sorted it out. It was the passenger seat belt reel vibrating and it was because a piece of foam that stops the vibration had fallen off into the rear quarter internal gap. It has a sticky layer on that that obviously hadn't been man enough to hold the foam on so I superglued it back onto the reel
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Today I replaced the pollen filter in the abarth. It's located in drivers footwell next to the steering column. It's a pain in the arse to get out and put in be warned but I managed it lol
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I have have fitted my exhaust parts I pirchased for my abarth
I am extremely happy with it and sounds great without being to offensive.
I went for a modified backbox in stainless steel and I opted to have welded in a 2.25 inch stainless silencer in the mid pipe to keep noise sensible. Very very happy with the results.
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Today I fitted a new auxiliary belt and tensioner to the abarth because a few days ago I noticed a few cracks in the belt. I am very glad i did this as the belt was about to let go and had bits missing out of it.
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Because of the above I thought I had better check the camblet which is due to be done midway through next year (2021) and thankfully this looked fine and without cracks or issues
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Here's a quick picture of the beading of water on my car since doing the detailing recently
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Today I changed the gearbox oil on the abarth. Cost me £23.99 for two litres delivered from opie oils. Draining it and putting it in was straight forward and easy to do, just two 12mm allen key bolts for draining and filling.
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Been to a few meets recently and all the abarth 500 owners are so great to chat to. A lovely community for sure. Each and every one of you is awesome
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Mot coming up and not to worried at all. Seems a solid little car and drives so well
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My car passed its M. O. T yesterday which is great, I have a few little bits to sort (advisories) but nothing to bad really. 😎
Front shocks weeping, and tyres a little perished. Will address these in due course.
Cars now on just 89,483 miles
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Today I sorted out one of the advisorys I had on the abarth. Offside front lower ball joint dust cover perished. I purchased a new dust cover for £3 delivered and fitted it after cleaning up the ball joint and sticking some copper grease in there, I checked the ball joint and it was nice and smooth with no play in it. If it hadn't been addressed as quickly as I have done the ball joint would have worn out fast and then I would have needed a whole new wishbone as the ball joint is integral.
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Today I starting making a custom brake light for the rear diffuser style part of the bumper.
I purchased a rear light from amazon and the innards are really cheap and crap so I threw that away and I had also ordered up 20 x 5mm red leds from amazon also
I rigged these up on two lots of ten circuits and that's as far as I got so far. I need to seal it all of properly and make it weather proof and then it can be fitted to my car
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Finished it this afternoon
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I have ordered a set of floor mats as my front ones are knackered and nearly worn through on drivers side. A bargain for all four at only 13.95 of ebay (rears aren't goin in as original ones are still like new).
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I have ordered up one of these for around £50. It's a repair for the tailgate rubber gaiter and wiring and it has proper silicone wiring in it instead of the normal coating on wiring that goes stiff and britel after a few years. The reason I have bought it is because my third brake light has no power going to it whatsoever despite the fuse being fine etc and I read into it and this issue is quite a problem for the 10 year old or so abarths and I want to fix it asap
I will post pictures up of the old one and any damage when I get the new one when it arrives.
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Today I fitted the repair kit above on my abarth, and it's just aswell I did it. My god it was so bad in there........
First picture is the damage then after that the pictures are the repairs happening including soldering and heatshrinking. Took 3 hours to do and all is now working 😎
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It's so nice to have the third brake light back. So under rated haha.
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Today I got bored and removed both of the rear lights and cleaned underneath them as they had years of crap built up.
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This morning I went about removing the two rear quarter badges, I used a strong thin string and flossed behind it gradually to remove them both. This way there is no damage to the paint work. I much prefer it without all the badges and stickers.
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Over the last few weeks I have had a small leak coming through behind the passenger rear light. It's been an absolute pain in the arse to try and find the source. There is many place where water can get in after doing alot of research, I have had the rear lights out, rear bumper off, double checked the new rubber boot I had just fitted. I even checked under the gas strut bracket with a borescope to see if that was the cause. In the end I thought well there is only one place to look which is under the trim strip that goes down each side of the roof. I found some miniscule cracking and a split which I have attached. I confirmed the leak by making an end-cap out of blue-tack and filling the end with water and waited. Sure enough after 8 or so minutes it cam through to my relief. I must have spent 10 hours in total looking for this bloody leak. Fixed it all with a good few layers of high quality colour match paint. Will wait a few days and then will restick the trim down.
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Snow!
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Got a bit bored what with not doin much on the abarth recently so I removed the bootlid and cleaned thoroughly round the hinges etc and also removed the number plate and cleaned under that as there was a build up of dirt behind it. Not a hard job and I did it alone.
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Finally got the wheels I always wanted. So happy.
Wheels from the essesse.
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Yesterday I got my facelift rear lights arrive, I have wanted some since day one and after doing some research they are pretty easy to retro fit on a 2009 model. I set to work straight away removing the grey inserts and sprayed them bianco white, also I bought 5 pin connectors so I hopefully don't have to cut my original car loom.
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Tonight I got the rear lights on, all wiring soldered and heatshrunk. In next few days I will need to fit a reflector, and reverse bulb in the light and the fog light in diffuser.
These facelift lights look soooo much better
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I have been very busy with work and family so haven't had time to do much until recently on the car.
I made a purchase with Ms racing, I bought a rear set delete kit consisting of custom black floor matt, black rear strut brace, and black cargo net. I am extremely happy with it and its made well.
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I have made an order with ae cars for parts to renew and refresh the front end what with the front shocks slightly weeping on mot advisory.
New shock dust covers
New top mounts
New top mount plates
New drop links
Polybush wishbone bushes
Bilstein b8 dampers/shocks
Polybush anti-roll bushes.
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So after many many hours of work and sorting out seized and fused bolts/nuts the suspension up front is finally all renewed and fresh.
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Thank you really enjoy your DIY posts.
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Finally managed to get my second seat after some saving up
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This evening I machine polished the abarth and then sealed it with fusso wax
It doesn't come up bad at all for a white 2009 car.
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The last week or so a few bits have arrived and I am soon going to be running a garrett 1446 turbo with a sports cat. I have most parts now and I will be fitting them soon. I have mapping on the 10th of June.
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Nice photo I took yesterday
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I have got round to fitting an undertray I recently purchased as It was missing when I bought the car.
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Finally got round to fitting the 200 cell sports cat and the garrett 1446 turbo and got it mapped today with Tony at tune4performance in Watford.
He's an absolute gentlemen and he's so knowledgeable and helpfull.
Car made 225.9 bhp and 265 ftlbs torque.
Raised rev limit to 7,000 rpms.
Response to throttle dramatically increased.
Rev limiter in 1st set to 3,800 rpm.
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Recently I have fitted my catch can to go on my breather pipe. It's bolted at top of catch can with two little bolts and a cable tie to stop it rattling against chassis, fits nicely drivers side next to where the drl would sit when bumper is back on.
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Ever since I got my brembos up front I have wanted to colour code the rear brake calipers and carriers the same colour. It took a while to prepare for painting as they were very shitty but they cleaned up well and the paint in shark grey and looks decent.
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Yesterday the dreaded and well known weak door hinge problem occurred to me. I knew it was coming. Luckily I am prepared and will fit new one asap
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It's fixed!!!!
I have done my broken door handle and boy does it feel good to have it back to normal again.
Only took about 35 mins to do. I have copper greased all moving parts of handle and hinge and it's so much smoother than it ever was before.
After looking at the old hinge I think it broke because the pivot point of the hinge has seized together not allowing it to move and so it cracked and broke upon attempted opening of door.
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This afternoon I have done an oil and filter change, as expected with the intervals I change oil at (only been 2,800 miles since last change) it wasn't to bad at all and gratefully nothing other than very normal minimal metal on the magnetic sump plug.
Mileage is now 91,554 miles only.
Apparently an average for any given car is 12,000 a year which would make mine normal if it were at 144,000 so mines a heck of alot lower than average.
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Today I went about fixing a leaking inner cv boot on driver side, I have had the parts for a month or so but been putting it off as I knew it would be a bit of a crap job and it was. Took many hours and was a bit of a bitch to do but it's done now thank god. Will keep an eye on it and Makesure it's definitely sealed and good over the next few drives.
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Over the last few days I have fitted my 51mm racetech mechanical boost gauge into the original boost gauge pod that comes in the car standard. It was a real big pain to do tbh and took over 4 hours in the end.
I have removed the boost pod bung I made and refitted the boost pod back where it belongs.
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Went to a weekly Thursday meet at dick Turpin pub a127 last night. There was 30 abarths in attendance and it was great to talk to the lovely owners.
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For a while now I have wanted to purchase a facelift front bumper for my abarth as the original one is so old looking and dated. Been looking for ages and they go for so much money with bits removed so when I found this one I had to have it. Its fully intact and I got it for a very good price, it even came with dark satin whiskers!
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I have had the bumper sprayed and whilst waiting I started on the blacking out or decroming of parts on the car. The boot handle and outer badge is done,as is the front badge.
Also had to get the bottom piece that was red painted 268a aswell.
The car looks so much better now and I am so happy with it.
I need to do the handles in matt black now and that will complete the decroming.
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Today I spent some hours on the abarth.
I finished matt blacking the door handles and I fitted an ariel blank also.
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For anybody interested the ariel delete was one of these pictured below. The genuine item is around £130 and I didn't wana spend that much.
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