New Member & First Coupe! Good, bad & expensive :(

Hi everyone, I'm Lawrence, I'm 22 and currently live in County Durham but moving to North Yorkshire in the coming weeks.

I bought my first Fiat Coupe 20VT last month and paid £1500 for it. 67k miles, Sprint Blue, tan leather interior and sunroof.

I was aware that the clutch was slipping when I bought it, and that the lacquer was peeling off the roof and boot lid, but other than that everything seemed fine. I drove it 250 miles back from London and had no issues whatsoever.

The same evening, I took it out for a drive, boosted in 1st gear and tonnes of white smoke came out the back of the exhaust.

Noticed there was coolant leaking and thought I'd blown the head gasket or a cylinder head.

Thankfully it wasn't the head, it was the radiator, however when I took the knackered one out, someone had filled 3 big holes in the radiator with cement! After scratching my head, I put new one in, I reversed the car out of the garage...then I lost all gears... I've just head to replace the clutch, master and slave cylinder -.- My wallet is very sore right now.
Hopefully that's that for now, then next thing will be a good service and the timing belt.

I've spent £758 on parts and labour, so £2258 altogether including what I paid for the car. Did I still get a decent price for the car considering what I've paid out for so far?

Congrats on getting a sprinty! Mine is 21 years old now and I have just replaced the radiator and all the hoses. In reality I haven't spent much on it but I suspect that with age it will require more TLC. Great car and still turns heads. Enjoy and get a bigger wallet!

Thanks! I love modern classic cars. I had a Volvo 480 before which was quirky and a real head turner. I was looking for something with a bit more power and for a decent price, then came across the Fiat Coupe. That 5-cylinder soundtrack is priceless!
I'm in the midst of getting a new job, so more money for the coupe!

Yes, you got the car for a good price. And you're working through the list of jobs which need doing to a car of this age.

As well as the cam belt, failure of the Chod (coolant hose of death) , round the back of the engine, and rusty oil cooler pipes which can fail, are ways your Coupe can fail expensively.

Lovely colour combo, your car.

Get it on a ramp and spend money on the underneath before spending out on a respray on top.

An exciting time for you, starting out on a rolling resto.

Enjoy

Still a good buy. Once the major work is out of the way then its just general maintenance, as with any car.
With the big jobs done you can use the car as a daily driver with great reliability and a load of fun too.

Sounds good, best colour too. I echo above before you do anything if it is to be a keeper check out infamous locations on the car for tin worm and get them sorted. Get yourself aquainted with a Specialist who knows their way aroud the Coupe and will save you ££'s in the long term.

Before spending more money some of the hot spots for rust you can find yourself. Strip the back of the interior out and look for rust around inside of the interior rear wings. Rusts from the inside out. Take out the boot lining and trim and look for a brown line along the seams. Rusts from outside between the wheel arch lining and boot floor structure usually worst on drivers side. Front wheel arch liners remove and check rust. Can do all this yourself. Then get it down a garage and check the floors.

Thanks for the tips HiraethHuw. The cam belt will be next on the agenda.

I've noticed my boost gauge is sitting at about 2.2 bar, is this normal as standard? It seems quite high in my opinion as my friend is running 1.8 bar in his diesel PD130.

The respray will be the last thing on the list. It doesn't bother me as the car moves too quick for people to notice ha.

French_coupe, my idea is to use it as a daily. I'd rather enjoy driving too and from work.

Thanks for the advice Submariner & Richie007. When I get chance I'll take a look at these spots. It was dry stored for 8 years before I bought the car so fingers crossed these notorious rust spots aren't an issue.

There is something very wrong if you have 2.2 bar on a boost gauge.

What should it be at magooagain?

If it's a standard car then it should be no more than 1.1 or less I seem to recall.

Oh... There must be something wrong then Do you reckon there could be an issue with the boost gauge itself?

It's possible. It's not a constant 2.2 surely? Is it just spiking up to 2.2?

Got any pics of the car

R48VKK?

Hi Lawrence and welcome to the forum

Maybe confusing the oil pressure gauge with a boost gauge? There is no boost gauge as standard. Is this gauge at left side of instrument cluster, with an oil can symbol, next to either a voltmeter or oil temp gauge? Or a totally separate gauge off by itself somewhere?

Yes, I've just confused the oil pressure gauge with a boost gauge Have a chuckle if you must.

Also what's the best way to upload photos onto the forum? I don't use Photobucket.

Try tinypic - but they do turn out er, large

Thanks Edinburgh, I will upload some photos of my car tomorrow as these photo sharing sites are blocked where I work so can't put them up at the minute

Here are some pictures of my Coupe;
https://flic.kr/p/25uqgUC
https://flic.kr/p/25uqgLm
https://flic.kr/p/25uqgCf

Very smart

If that's where you normally keep it, being weather-shielded is half the battle.

Nice, especially in the 3rd picture- tan interior suits that colour.

Nice to see the sunroof extended- you may want to make sure the runners are gently greased/lubricated to keep it opening and closing smoothly.

I think she looks rather jaunty and good spirited!

Now just to smother her with TLC as they hate any mechanical attention!

MM

Thanks Edinburgh, I was meeting with my friends at a multi-story car park in Darlington. Unfortunately at the minute I don't have a garage where I live, but the house I'm moving into next month does, so i'm hoping it doesn't rain much in the meantime.

Thanks for the tip Mariner. She's making a name for herself where I live already. I had a remapped Skoda Fabia VRS try keep up with me today and just left him. Pulled up at some lights eventually and the lad was just looking thinking "what the f%*k is that?".

They tend to do that.

It does make you very aware that your flying the flag of the coop when your out driving.

Not that anyone sensible looks to race -its not quite what we are about imhv. But should you need to...."express yourself" The coop is an unknown to many and even the standard performance is a revelation.

Check your oil level. Lol.

MM

It's an absolute pleasure to drive. The handling for a FWD car with 220bhp is absolutely amazing.

I'm going to take it for a run out over the weekend, up the A686 (Hartside Pass), then across the North Pennines.

I've got a considerably heavy foot so "expressing myself" happens quite often. And yes I will be checking my oil in the morning.

Hi Lawrence, No such thing as a good buy I'm afraid. If it seems cheap, there probably is something wrong with it and it sounds like you're slowly uncovering the usual coupe gremlins. Hopefully you've just experienced someone who knew a few things were failing and got rid before much more went wrong. You should be fine if you maintain the coupe but it does come at a price I'm afraid. Good look with project but I would turn your immediate attention to oil/filter, air filter, CHOD, timing and aux belt replacement before anything else. PS I'm based in Eaglescliffe, Stockton so hopefully see you about sometime

Hi Clintos, I think I've spoken to you on the Facebook group. You have the Moon Grey coupe. I've seen your car sat on your drive a few times. I was over that way today but didn't see your coupe.

I'll be giving her a good service when I get the chance. Yes everyone keeps mentioning the "coolant hose of death". I'll get it checked out and see whether it's worth replacing.

Yes Ive got the crono grey coupe and its in storage when I'm at work or during the winter from now on......The storage facility allow me to leave one car there and take the other away which means I can take the coupe away for a nice weekend and just return it after Ive had some fun and given it a clean and polish

Lovely Sprinty! Have fun!

Nice Coupe there, hope it treats you well! I used to be up in Darlo too, but have now moved (just a little bit) south. See you at the Yorkshire meet with a bit of luck!!

Id worry even if it spiked above 1.3 bar nevermind 2.2

I seem to remember the 20vt overboosts as standard with the OE EBV? Can't remember as so long (2006) that I stuck a PRV and set the boost at 1.2 with a Gtec and a gauge. If it is running increased boost and holding such without proper mods then enjoy the car quickly!