I'm new to this excellent forum and am looking for some advice. I have been offered a 1998 20v. Its had one genuine lady owner from new and only has 25K on the clock (genuine MOTs to prove) For the last 10 years it has been serviced annually by a private mechanic but I think only for straightforward items. It has NEVER had a cambelt change. Paintwork is faded red with a bit of lacquer peel but otherwise it seems in fantastic nick. Inside is mint and it drives like a brand new car, really tight with no rattles. Engine is really smooth and quiet with no oily bit that I could see. I'm looking for it as a lightweight retirement project. Is there anything else I should be looking for. Appreciate any pointers that you could give.

You will need a full cambelt change as a must as the interval is 60k miles or every 6 years whichever is sooner, so add £600 to the price and get it done asap. Sounds good, but at what price?

Thanks for the advice. I haven't settled on the price yet so its a bargaining tool. Starting price is £800 which seemed good given the mileage and general condition. I loved the car but an trying not to let the heart rule the head.

Does anybody know a good specialist in the East London/SW Essex area. I came across a firm called Clovertech in Dagenham through a Google search which looks a possible. Anybody used them.

£800 for a car of that low mileage is a no brainer, even factoring in the belt change. Check for tin worm, brake line wear too.

Roger at Poweritalia would be an excellent choice of specialist local to you (years of positive experience with Coupes), and he's an offer for belts and full service and health check that would cover a check of the car, which at £650 would be a wise investment on top of the minimal purchase price outlay.

http://www.poweritalia.com/

Good luck, and let us know how you get on

Get your timing/cam belt changed here http://www.poweritalia.com/service-fiat £490 all in, (Laindon, Essex) and Roger is a member of this very site. (Rog20VT)

I thought the recommended interval was 50,000 Miles or 5 years? between changes??

Thanks Charlie, I'll look him up

Well Dan beat me to it
Yes, the offer for £650 for health check, service and timing belt change is a good buy

Oh and welcome to the Forum I am in Essex, near Southend

Hi & welcome Epping.
Another +1 for Rog at PowerItalia.
If you can, see if you can get it to him for a check prior to purchase. If anyone is going to find an issue he will. But hopefully not. But definately get the belts done asap! Does the engine have a dark grey cam cover or a metal one? This will either make it a VIS or a NA accordingly. A VIS is slightly more desirable due to being a newer style induction manifold and engine management system. But either way, that's amazingly low milage, go for it.

Yes, that's my understanding also. Custards was changed in April 2010, so would need changing in 2015.

Good shout Ross - NA engine type didn't even cross my mind.

I'd buy it. Why the 'ell not?

My recent buy was more expensive and higher miles... and still needs the cam belt doing.

£850 is cheap for any car.

Cambelt change was 6 years or 72k miles on 20v and 20v turbo originally.

Yep, my personal recommendation is 5 years or 50k.

I'd buy it but would drive it or best trailer it straight to a speacilist. If that belt goes then the low miles are worthless. If you can make the journey John (JBT) does the belt service for around £300 iirc, he's a thouroughly decent chap and will point out any other little bits to amke your coupe a1 again. (I got a list a mile long )

Yep like its going to fall to bits because of a new owner !
Lets all get real here !
Can we have the views of how many coupe owners here that had belt changes and at what mileage ?

Or for that matter how many coups have not yet had one ?

I began my Coupe journey three years ago and now have three (all 20 valve turbos). I've had the belts done on all three by JBT. I only do about 5000 miles per annum in each; I have a comprehensive service history with two of them and had the belts changed after 4 years regardless of mileage. My first one had no history at all (you live and learn), so I had the belts changed pronto on the advice from this forum. The youngest one is still over 13 years old, and bearing in mind relatively small outlay (£300 every four years) I would sooner be safe than sorry. A belt failure can be VERY expensive... .

Back on topic, it is difficult to see where Epping can go wrong with this 20V. Sounds like a great buy, and with a belt change, a proper service by one of our specialists (DON'T GO TO A FIAT GARAGE) and maybe a lick of paint this will be a cracking car giving lots of ...

Epping, just out of interest sake, how many PMs have you had asking for second option if you decide not to buy it

That should give you an indication that it is a good deal

Btw, please add me to the extensive list as I would sell my grandmother and grab it in a heartbeat if you don't

Looking at autotrader, the prices on the turbo version are climbing rapidly since the Top Gear article last month about cars with character that featured the Coop.

Hmmm, just noticed it is a 20V and not a 20VT. Not as great a deal, but still pretty good. Won't sell the grandmother, but the wife is up for offers!

Sadly looks like I waited too long and missed the boat, unless the other guy does not come up with the cash. Thanks everybody for your advice. This really is a great forum, maybe another day ;-(

Good to see you back on here!

And how many belts HAVE failed? My first coupe snapped it's belt in the hands of the garage that sold it to me, so it would suggest that sods law does come into play every now and again.
It's a fool who ignores cam belt changes on ANY car (with a belt of course).

Rule of thumb: on the 20v/vt the cam belt will last pretty much forever if it's used: five years/72k is probably not unreasonable. What dies there is the aux belt and it takes everything else out, so change that yearly.

On the 16/vt the belt is a *lot* thinner and even though I'm barely using the coupe these days, it's still a belt at two years/24k if I can afford it or three years/36k whether I can afford it or not.

There is a modification for the 16v engine to use a wider belt available, but it requires removal of the balance shafts and means the cam belt cover no longer fits. It's a recent(ish) design for the Lancia if I recall correctly.

btw - more belts break at low speed than high speed... the tension on the belt is between the torque of the engine and the spring pressure on the cam shafts. Even a modest acceleration from low revs is a significant instantaneous change in tension; much more going from 1500 to 2000 than from 6000 to 6500.

Are you saying Barnacle the aux belts need replacing on a 20vt after 12 months even if the car has covered less than 2k?

I have to agree with Barnacle, 12 months is about right.
I have now done over 380,000 miles in a coupe (that sounds wrong, but working it out it is right). And would say every year aux belt. Every two the whole set and water pump etc

Also allow for a few wheel bearings if it has done so little work, they don't like lack of use. I bought a little used coupe a while back and in the last 20,000 miles I have needed to replace all 4.

Just buy it, they are such a nice car

Roy

Hi RoyH, very interesting. Mine probably needs new wheel bearings, but I hadn't realised it was down to little use!

Living in Ludlow who do you use to do the work or do you diy? My post should have read 2k miles since the belts where last changed.

Mark

Yes, more likely to fail after prolonged lack of use. I was surprised to find that wheel bearings in Coupé are angular contact ball bearings and not taper roller bearings, but this is the fashion in all modern cars now.

Less rolling resistance, but less load carrying capability and being point contact, more chance of brunelling the inner and outer race under the heavy static load caused by a stationary Coupé.

This is perhaps one of the main reasons to leave an unused car on axle stands, so that the static load on the bearings is only the weight of wheel and tyre.

A Brunelled bearing will very quickly start to rumble and won't take too long to fail.

Brunelled? Brinnelled? The second rings a bell but I don't recall coming across term... (Just that hardness is measured with a Brinnel number).

Brilly - 2k in a year, I probably wouldn't bother. My kit's only done a couple of hundred miles (look, no summer!) and I'm not planning on changing the belts on that. Given the potential for damage, though, I'd change at two years, at least on inspection.

Is it possible to easily change the aux belt on it's own without moving the engine, or is it really an "all or nothing" with cambelt etc. job too?

The Aux belt can be changed without moving the engine.
If you have AC there are 2 belts, and it is the shorter one called the PS belt that gets most of the strain.

You're right of course!

4 years training as a mech eng, 7 years practical and 17 years in the bearing industry, including 5 working for SKF and I get this wrong! Couldn't find the embarrassed smiley, so I'm going to bang my head against the wall 100 times and say "Brinnelled, not Brunelled."

"Brinnelled" from Swedish engineer Johan August Brinnell.

"Brunelled" me thinking of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Wrong engineer, sorry.

Still, what I said is correct. Don't leave your Coupé idle for too long, because it will lead to wheel bearing failure in due course.