Discussion
So whilst my E46 was off the road to get various bits sorted i decided to buy this as my cheap runabout till the E46 was back on the road. It is a 2001 Punto Mk2 HGT 1.8L 16V with about 82k miles on the clock and feels like it has been hammered for most of its life.
It cost me £400 with 12 months MOT, to be expected it is was in a sorry state both inside/out but the engine and gearbox pulled fine which is what i cared about as was only meant as a stop-gap car.
After a couple of months i finally got my daily back on the road so i had to make a choice to either sell it or keep it. Thankfully i had just got a promotion so decided to keep it as a track car project but decided that it still had to be road legal so could use it to get to work if needed.
First things to get fixed was its coolant temp sensor as it was all over the place and to replace the EPS motor as being a FIAT it would randomly decide if it wanted to let you have power steering or not. Both were sourced for only £40 in total and only took about 30 mins to replace. Next on the list was to strip out any unnecessary weight which revealed more things wrong with the car.
Found the previous owner had hacked the wiring loom in the back, left broken glass under the back seats and left several holes open in the floor which was letting in water causing rust on the inside. I made the wiring safe but have to wait for the next day that its dry so can finish the wiring off and tidy up the rest of the interior, in total i reckon i removed about 40-50 kg worth of weight which should make it a bit faster off the line. Thanks for reading.
It cost me £400 with 12 months MOT, to be expected it is was in a sorry state both inside/out but the engine and gearbox pulled fine which is what i cared about as was only meant as a stop-gap car.
After a couple of months i finally got my daily back on the road so i had to make a choice to either sell it or keep it. Thankfully i had just got a promotion so decided to keep it as a track car project but decided that it still had to be road legal so could use it to get to work if needed.
First things to get fixed was its coolant temp sensor as it was all over the place and to replace the EPS motor as being a FIAT it would randomly decide if it wanted to let you have power steering or not. Both were sourced for only £40 in total and only took about 30 mins to replace. Next on the list was to strip out any unnecessary weight which revealed more things wrong with the car.
Found the previous owner had hacked the wiring loom in the back, left broken glass under the back seats and left several holes open in the floor which was letting in water causing rust on the inside. I made the wiring safe but have to wait for the next day that its dry so can finish the wiring off and tidy up the rest of the interior, in total i reckon i removed about 40-50 kg worth of weight which should make it a bit faster off the line. Thanks for reading.
Edited by CJ1987 on Friday 25th August 16:52
C70R said:
Take one average hatchback, add mediocre large engine - hey presto, 'warm hatch'. It's exactly the same formula as used in my 206 GTi trackday car, and it generally makes for a pretty reliable (and low-stressed) package. Any plans to get it on track?
I do plan to take it on a few track days but i want to sort the suspension, brakes and some decent tyres beforehand as the previous owner has just bought the cheapest available so wouldnt want to go hammering it around a track until they are up to a good standardCJ1987 said:
C70R said:
Take one average hatchback, add mediocre large engine - hey presto, 'warm hatch'. It's exactly the same formula as used in my 206 GTi trackday car, and it generally makes for a pretty reliable (and low-stressed) package. Any plans to get it on track?
I do plan to take it on a few track days but i want to sort the suspension, brakes and some decent tyres beforehand as the previous owner has just bought the cheapest available so wouldnt want to go hammering it around a track until they are up to a good standard- Get scouring Ebay for some part-worn tyres from a decent brand - buy as few as you can get away with.
- Check your brakes over, and replace anything that's needed.
clarki said:
One of my good friends had one of those when they were new.
Handled well and surprisingly quick for a little Punto. Broke down all the time though!!
They are under-appreciated little cars compared to fiestas etc. It's a FIAT so it's meant to breakdown or through random warning lights Handled well and surprisingly quick for a little Punto. Broke down all the time though!!
Totally forgot about these! Must be quite rare now, can't remember the last time i saw one and for sale.
The Corsa SRi of the same period had a 1.8L 120bhp Engine aswell and back in the day i thought that was fast and more than enough power. How times of changed subjectively for the better or worse.
The Corsa SRi of the same period had a 1.8L 120bhp Engine aswell and back in the day i thought that was fast and more than enough power. How times of changed subjectively for the better or worse.
Mike1990 said:
Totally forgot about these! Must be quite rare now, can't remember the last time i saw one and for sale.
The Corsa SRi of the same period had a 1.8L 120bhp Engine aswell and back in the day i thought that was fast and more than enough power. How times of changed subjectively for the better or worse.
They are hard to find, did a search once using eBay, Gumtree and autotrader and the most I found was 3 for sale across the UK in total. It's fairly quick off the line but does start to lose puff at the top end but will be a good car to learn with on track days The Corsa SRi of the same period had a 1.8L 120bhp Engine aswell and back in the day i thought that was fast and more than enough power. How times of changed subjectively for the better or worse.
clarki said:
One of my good friends had one of those when they were new.
Handled well and surprisingly quick for a little Punto. Broke down all the time though!!
Bought a new one which I had intended to keep for up to a couple of years - but stuck with it for about 3.5 years as it was so little trouble !Handled well and surprisingly quick for a little Punto. Broke down all the time though!!
Only 2 things needed attention in that time - electric power steering failed and the timing variator became noisy at start up. Both common issues and sorted without any fuss at all by the dealer.
Was a great little decently equipped hatch at the time for not a huge amount of money.
exgtt said:
Think this is the Alfa 1.8 twinspark motor? How does it handle? Nearly bought one but bottled it, hope it treats you well.
Not sure, I know it's used in the Barchetta and a couple others I think. It handles ok as it's got some crappy after market suspension which has no give in it so roundabouts are lively but should be good when it's sorted. Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff