Coupe ownership started with a slight hitch

Hello everyone,

Some of you will know that I have been shopping around for a new coupe for a few months now. Well I finally found the one and went to see it today. Vinci Grey LE with a few nice mods, but at a nice price due to some minor mechanical and bodywork jobs to do.

I was careful and checked it over properly but unfortunately coming off the M25 onto the A41, the drive shaft went so the rest of the journey was completed on the.... all too familier to coupe owners.....recovery truck.

While I was trying to work out what the problem was (Not easy when your not very mechanically minded) who drives by..the famous Mr Barnicle. Not only did he drive past but he went to the next turn off and turned round to come and help me. Very much appreciated and testament to the helpful nature of the club faithful.

The car was recovered to Solo (Where it was going anyway on Monday or Tuesday next week) where it will be getting a lot of love and attention and probably a bit more money than I had hoped chucked at it.

My mate said that I spent the whole time while we were following the recovery truck going on about how good the coop was until the (potential) driveshaft problem with a great big smile on my face.

God I love coupes...I dont car what anyone says and I know all my friends who dont understand my feelings for these cars will be taking the mick for weeks, but I'm still smiling now

I OWN A VINCI GREY LE

Let me know when youre finished with it.

Welcome again matey
Hope the damage is not too bad and you are back on the road soon.
Paul

cheers spit....fingers crossed its not too bad....and legs crossed.........toes....eyes...and whatever else I can cross

i wonder if breaking down an hour after buying is a record?

no - i got 5 mins from the guy's house i bought my first one from and a boost pipe blew off. he'd secured a couple of pipes with shoe laces...

thats really bad....at least should be nothing that Alistair could have known about

That's not good

still, at least it's going to a specialist and you'll have it back on the road in no time.

I've just done a 350 mile round trip to buy a car off JohnnyBravoTurbo, the coop didn't miss a beat.

You would not expect anything else of John though

The soundtrack of owning what is the best type of Fiat Coupe ever.

I'll have to keep an eye out for your coop, i work in Brackley.
Hopefully you won't have too many breakdowns, can't say i've ever had my coop on a recovery truck. (should i have really said that ????)

great video and great tune......great car

edit that post quickly richard........your tempting fate

Glad you found a lovely vinci LE djmobi, at least now you can make the car perfect for you - Its yours

Good luck with it mate, get some pics up ASAP - We need to see her too you know!

yeah, what you need to do now is turn it into a plus!!

Hey, no worries, DJ! I saw you too late as I came off the roundabout, hence the zoom up to the turnoff... Really odd that I knew the number from somewhere, but I can't remember where!

Did the pickup confirm the driveshaft problem?

Not biting Mr Proccy! Wait till you see what I post tomorrow though - You'll LOVE IT

Hey, I saw you guys pulled over, two coupes and another car! You looked like you had it all in hand.
Welcome to the LE ownership woes, everyone wants them but hardly anyone spends any money on up keep. What number have you got?

Congrats on getting yourself the best coloured LE , welcome along for the ride

glad you have one mate like i said just see it as an ongoing project and everytime you have cash do another little job and eventually you will be able to start over as in the forth bridge

hey peeps...thanks for your kind words. The driveshaft problem isnt confirmed yet, but Rick at Solo seemed to think that was a likely explanation.

I will get some pics up as soon as I can, although the for sale thread has a lot of pictures on it. The bodywork looks ever so slightly worse than in the pictures and it doesn't show that the wheels need a refurb, but other than that the description was pretty much perfect. I took my mate with me who has a mobile, dent/scratch/body repair type business and he seems to think it wont cost too much. Concentrating on mechanicals first though.

There were a few nice surprises as well like the forge re-circ which sounds amazing and the Hybrid turbo is described as follows on the receipt..CHRA, STD SWA, 360 & 60 trim comp wheel....my limited mechanical knowledge tells me that it will be worth putting an FMIC on it?????

Its LE number 179........will put it on the new register when its ready

That spec used to be known as the GTiR turbo, dont know if it still is since torque italia stopped doing them... I would put a FMIC and SIP on it and run 1.3 bar

Pondman......I put your number plate into the DVLA reg website a few weeks ago and it told me that it wasn;t available.....I wondered if a forum member would have it......Let me know if your ever going sell it.....unlikely I know but it doesn;t hurt to ask

Hmmm......
Djmobi, I'll bear it in mind when the worlds oil supplies run out or I don't want my LE anymore thanks all the same, I've only had the reg. 6 months or so sorry mate but glad to see we've both got good taste

thought that might be your answer

Anyway just imagine by looking at my car what yours would look like
There are other options available re. reg plates out there, it took me a while to decide on this one, but I'm glad I did

Mine has already got a decent numberplate on it......just not as good as yours.........mine is L3 TUR, which I like to think means LE Turbo.

I saw your le at oxford yesterday.In the Solo garage.I had a quick look but it was pouring down.

I bet it looked really sorry for itself...........little does it know its getting a load of money spent on it to make it feel better....then next week the grooming begins.

Notice I am calling it an "it". Is a coop a he or a she???

A she when driving well, and a male B**tard* when not!!

Mines defintely the second one at the moment then

Vinci Grey LE, drools.....:)

Feel hemmed in?

Hows the coupe?Did you get the big bill you were expecting?

Vinci Greys really are ... just fantastic.

still havent got the bill yet........starting to get coupe withdrawl as well which makes the waiting even harder.

Still get to look at the pictures I have though

do you know what was wrong with it when you had to get it towed Mobi ?
What will solo be doing to it....they must have told you something by now ?

Im not saying it but this year i would have owned Angelica for wait for it 6 YEARS!!! and i love her to bits!!!
ut i have to admit it really me of when my mates take the pee out of me for owning a Fiat and saying "fix it again tomorrow" and "Fiat's always break down" yet (touch wood and whistle) the only time i have seen the hard shoulder in the majority of cases has been related to being in a Ford........ so there

CONGRATS on your purchase and i hope its nothing too major - incidentally what actually happended did you have a noise or did the drive to the front wheel/wheels stop? as i have an awful noise on mine but its when your braking coming to a slow stop that you can hear it and feel it through the pedal.
Personally i think its the o/s/f wheel bearing breaking up as i bought the car on 62,000 and she's now on 116,000 and ive not replaced the front wheel bearings just the rears as they were whining so thats my thinking .....

I was coming off of the A41/M25 Junction and when I pulled away (Quite energetically) I went to change into second and there was a big clunking noise in the drivers footwell. After this point I had no drive and as I cruise to a stop on the side of the road there was a slightly quieter clunking noise until I came to a stop.

Being an LE and not having the wiring mod (on the list of things for Solo to do) it wouldnt start for about 10 mins. I was crapping myself thinking that the engine had died or something at which point Neil pulled over behind me. He gave it a check and asked me some questions and wasnt too sure what the problem was. We checked to make sure it still went into gear and eventually when the engine started it sounded fine and revved nicely.

At this point we decided I should try and limp up the road to a service station (A mile or so up the road). As soon as I very gently tried to crawl forward a little, the clunky noise form the footwell was still there. Neil had a go at moving it forward a little as well and seemed to think driveshaft was a possible cause.

Solo are proper rammed at the moment so they have had the car for a week without having a chance to look it over. I'm hoping that tomorrow I will get a call with a breakdown of what needs to be done on top of what I was taking it to them for on the Monday anyway. My list was this:

Front disks and pads (Brembo drilled and fiat pad standard set up)
Starter button wiring mod
Full service
General check up concentrating on oil pressure and squeek in suspension

I am hoping that it will just be the driveshaft thing to add to this as I'm told this is probably the cheapest potential cause of the breakdown.

Anyone have any opinions on the problem from my description?

No idea what the cause could be mate but think I would leave the list of extras to be done until you know what the damage is......financially and mechanically.
Paul

unfortunately the list is all needed as well................i have put my modding list on hold though

Sent Gaz a message today to see if they had started work on my car yet and apparently she is driving again. By the sounds of it they havent had a chance to do the other work yet, but thats a big step forward........I feel like a dog with 6 you know whats.

Still dont know what was up with it though....will call them in the morning....might even get it back tomorrow

turns out it was the drivers side engine mount that had sheared some bolts..........got to call them in the morning but it sounds cheaper than a driveshaft

fingers crossed mate!!

i hope its sorted soon mate as i want to have a look myself... its looking likely that i will be turning up at a meet of some sort shortly (i'll be looking for one your attending) in my new le which i have now agreed terms on..although i wont be using it for long as the engine is going in my red 20vt it will be interesting to see what i nearly bought ...it may be interesting for you to see what i turned up after much searching and not the budget i would have liked to have had, so in a way its a compromise but one i am happy with so be seeing you soon !

I've just been told by Rick that I can have it back today with all the other stuff on my list done as well so it should be in good order for AutoItalia.

Glad to hear you found another LE KTM.......I thought you might take Brads off him as that looked like a good one for a good price.

You'll have to let me know what meets your planning on going to and I'll try and get to one. If your at Autoitalia in a few weeks I will be there.

Marco - I found the Sainsbury's we're meeting at on Google Maps, so I will be there for 8am.........you'll have to send me your mobile number so that I can give you a shout if i'm running alittle late or something.

I am proper excited

Just got my car back from Solo....running like a dream with nice new brakes, fixed engine mount, full service and the wiring mod so it actualy starts when hot.

Will be adding a a note in the Solo section as the work was amazing and the price was even better.

Roll on AutoItalia

nice one matey, good end to the story (so far )

shame you're not coming to spa to show her off!

I will send you my number in a min mate!
Good times on getting your coupe back!! Look forward to meeting you!

cant afford Spa proccy, but you will see her at brooklands.

She still needs tidying, but Gaz said the engine is strong....the oil pressure is better now she has had a full service.

Cost me a lot less than I thought it would, but I've still got a list of things for them to do over the next few months.

My plan is to have her mint by the AGM.

The Miltek exhaust sounds amazing.........did strange things to me

Got your number now Marco, i'll see you in a couple of weeks. going be a blast

shame i'm not going to brooklands, but on track at mallory that day

see you motor mech the following week then

same day most probably, i know all the aa patrolmen now

thought I saw your name on the list.....on track at Mallory Park sounds like a bloody good reason though.

I'll be going to as many meets as possible....cant wait to look over other peoples cars and get some ideas

yeah i wanted to go, but i'd double booked