Fiat Panda 100HP - Electroclash grey

[redandwhite]

Here is my Fiat Panda 100HP, this thread will document my maintenance / ownership experiences. I have owned a few Fiats in the past (Bravo HGT, HLX, JTD, Coupe, Uno) but never a Panda.

Lots more updates to come (servicing and cambelt)

Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

[Kswap]

I drove one for 40,000 miles. It was a great car.
It had Koni coil overs and was a right hoot only weighing a ton.
Unfortunately met it’s demise when I rolled it

[gtidriver]

I had mine in free white, it had the sunroof and side airbags as options I think, I bought it as a school run car and did over 20000miles a year in it. Amazing little car, I loved screaming round the back roads in it. The wife chopped it in for a BMW 125i, no where near as good..

[InitialDave]

They're fantastic little cars, great fun.

[pd2]

I picked up a black 07 plate one just at the end of November there to use as a daily shed / winter hack. There great wee things, only downside is the 100hp tax on parts.

I had a blue one before, one of the first ones in the UK as a demo car when I worked for fiat. Loved it then that’s why I picked the black one up when it appeared locally.

I’ve just changed the coolant and thermostat on mine as it was playing up. Going to do the suspension, exhaust and timing belt kit and hopefully keep it for a few years.

If your not already, join the www.fiatforum.com the guys have been great on there.

Paul.

[Cambs_Stuart]

Great little car. Looking forward to seeing how you get on it with it.

[Chunkychucky]

Interesting mix of pre- and post- "facelift" badges front and rear!

I had a 54 reg Punto with the same engine/gearbox and that was a good laugh to thrash along, been looking at these Pandas recently as something the sort of size even the missus would be capable of parking. Look forward to seeing how your journey with the car progresses

[ScoobyChris]

I bought a facelift one new in 2007 (also electroclash grey) and racked up almost 60k miles in the 3 years I had it. Great little car and fun to rev out through the nice notchy gearbox and pretty cheap to run aside from the clutch release bearing which failed at 54k miles and predictably wasn't covered by warranty and required a whole new clutch assembly.

If you plan to mod it, the two things it needed, imvho, were better damping in the suspension to avoid it getting unsettled on anything other than smooth tarmac, and more power (back then I think there was a bolt-on turbo kit available which lifted power to around 120-130bhp but these days you might be able to look at the 500 power plants instead)

Enjoy!

Chris

[Andrew D]

Love these. Watching with interest.

My first car was a Cinquecento Sporting so I often find myself browsing 100HP's on AT.

[mat205125]

My sister had a black one of these, and it was simply brilliant. Such good fun, and cost free to run

She got it through an offer deal where it wasnt much more than £8250 brand new

Protected her adequately when someone pulling of of a junction totalled it too

[Zlat502]

OP,

What has your experiences been like with your Fiats? have they proved reliable etc?

[lb3nson]

Love my 100HP, really simple and fun little car. Definitely recommend a good set of dampers as they can be a bit crashy on rough roads.
Running costs have been very cheap, parts are cheap and easy to find and easily gets over 40mpg.
Only selling mine as I’ve ordered a new car and my wife won’t let me keep 2 cars

[_Yeti]

Don't think the girlfriend would forgive me if I swapped the Volvo for one of these... But there's something really special about these cars, love the looks and the idea of wringing the neck of 100hp is just fantastic. Hope it treats you well OP!

[Court_S]

That’s very cool.

I’ve tried many times to get my other half to have one (so I can also enjoy it) but she hates them and refuses point blank to even consider one.

I’ve not seen a normal one for ages let alone the 100hp version.

[redandwhite]

Large update incoming, full service and cambelt kit with waterpump. This will be split into 3 parts

part 1 - oil & filter
part 2 - cambelt
part 3 - spark plugs, air filter, pollen filter,wiper blades

#1 - oil & filter
jacked up and engine run up to temperature
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

genuine filter and 5w40 fully synthetic
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

ready for the drain
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

honda civic oil filter tool coming in handy in the tight space
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

old vs new
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

torquing up
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

cleaned up an oil weep on the left hand side of the sump - something to keep an eye on
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

2.5L of oil measured out and going in
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[redandwhite]

part 2 - cambelt

jacked up, drivers side roadwheel removed
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

plastic cover to be removed
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

which exposes the crank pulley / aux belt setup
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

taking the tension off the aux belt tensioner to allow the belt to be removed
by Montana BI, on Flickr

aux belt off
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

cheap ebay impact wrench did the trick on the crank pulley bolts
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pulley removed
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

unbolt lower cambelt cover
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

carefully jack up the sump which will help with the next part - engine mount removal
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

in the engine bay, remove the 3 bolts holding the air filter box on
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

unclip a pipe running across the top of the air box and it will be free!
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

which exposed some bodgery on one of the coilpacks (will come back to that later)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

remove coolant bottle bolt
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

at this point i opted to remove the lower hose as i would be draining/flushing the coolant anyway
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

coolant collected in a very useful house box
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

coolant bottle moved out of the way
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

the engine mount is now exposed
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

remove these 3 bolts to the engine block
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

then these on the chassis
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

with the bolts removed, lift it off
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

now you need to remove the bolts holding the mount to the engine in order to get to the cambelt, there are 6 in total - you can see a few of them here
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

lift the engine to give easier access
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

space is tight but perfectly manageable
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

breaking a lower one free
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

for the bottom one nearest the bulkhead i opted to go from the bottom
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

all 6 bolts out but still struggling to remove, so took the upper cambelt cover off
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

exposing the belt
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

the task - i was glad to see tippex here, backing up what i saw in the service history
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

i rotated the crank to get the crank locking tool in place (it was a £30 amazon jobbie)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

however could only get 2/3 bolts in place which was enough to stop things moving but not ideal
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

view from the top with the crank locking tool in place
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

i removed the previous tippex markings...
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

...and made new ones to keep the cam pulley orientated
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

removing the tensioner
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

belt coming off, no turning back now!
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

old dayco belt, no sign of cracking on the inside face (this was last changed in 2016)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

new SKF one
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

quick check it 'looks' right
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waterpump removal
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

pump removed
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

lots of sealent left behind, face all cleaned up ready for the new one
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

old versus new
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

new waterpump and tensioner back in
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

along with the new cambelt
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

setting the tensioner
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

crank locking tool removed and engine rotated 2 full revolutions
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

lower cambelt cover back on
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

I also planned to change the aux belt and tensioner whilst here. old vs new belt
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

new belt on and running true
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

I had an issue with the aux belt tensioner, having previously replaced one on a Mito using my standard allen keys, there is less room in the Panda so a set of stubby allen keys will be ordered to tackle the tensioner at a later date.

At this stage, i needed to leave the coolant to set before i could refill and check all was ok with the cambelt change, so left it for the afternoon and came back later (in the dark)

struggled to remove the quick release hose from the bottom of the radiator, so focused on the clip
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

hose removed and the residual coolant from the radiator drained, at this point 7 hours had elapsed, so refilled with water (not coolant)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

filled to the max ready for the first start
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

all good
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

the engine was then run up to temp and then coolant drained (twice) to flush any old coolant out - it was later refilled with the Prestone all in one once i was happy there were no leaks from either the waterpump or bottom hose
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

All in all it was a success, the main bottlenecks were on the removal of the engine mount & cleaning the face of the block which were a time sap - all in all took me 5 hours.

Edited by redandwhite on Monday 10th January 20:01

[redandwhite]

part 3 - spark plugs, air filter, pollen filter,wiper blades

air filter change
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

unfortunately i had been supplied with an incorrect replacement, however the one in there looked like new, so that went back in!
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

spark plug change next
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

all clips removed (including the cable tie bodgery)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

plugs removed
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

my plug didnt have the rubber insert to allow easy removal so made my own out of blue tack (take out when tightening)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

old vs new - old plugs had this 'burn' ring around the ceramic - replaced with like for like (NGK DPR7E-N-10)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

torqued up
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

at this point took the oppourtunity to protect the exposed wiring (not pretty but effective)
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

time to reproduce the cable tie bodgery seen earlier
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

factory fresh!
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

also took the oppourtunity to protect some exposed wire at the cam cover side
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

new bosch wipers on the front
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

and a insert on the rear
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

pollen filter old vs new - simple job on these
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

Edited by redandwhite on Monday 10th January 20:09

[redandwhite]

I had a rear knock, examining the rear shock top mounts it was clear why with the perished bush
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

with the Panda jacked up (wheels still on) i set about replacing the rear shocks

a bit of plus gas to help things along
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

end of life!
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

i needed some replacements sharpish, so went to GSF (i know, a Panda is italian) and got some Amtec ones for £37 a pair which with a 12 month guarantee suited me
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

both rear dampers replaced and torqued up
Untitled by Montana BI, on Flickr

[300sl-24]

Bookmarked!

This is mine


Good job with the cam belt, waterpump and auxiliary belt. Mine has done 42k miles and I’ve just paid £370 at a fiat specialist to have this done.
It was on the original belt, the teeth get hard and get stripped by the pulleys apparently.

[redandwhite]

pd2 said:

I picked up a black 07 plate one just at the end of November there to use as a daily shed / winter hack. There great wee things, only downside is the 100hp tax on parts.

I had a blue one before, one of the first ones in the UK as a demo car when I worked for fiat. Loved it then that’s why I picked the black one up when it appeared locally.

I’ve just changed the coolant and thermostat on mine as it was playing up. Going to do the suspension, exhaust and timing belt kit and hopefully keep it for a few years.

If your not already, join the www.fiatforum.com the guys have been great on there.

Paul.

Yes, have a mirror thread up on there also, cheers

Cambs_Stuart said:

Great little car. Looking forward to seeing how you get on it with it.

Chunkychucky said:

Interesting mix of pre- and post- "facelift" badges front and rear!
I had a 54 reg Punto with the same engine/gearbox and that was a good laugh to thrash along, been looking at these Pandas recently as something the sort of size even the missus would be capable of parking. Look forward to seeing how your journey with the car progresses

Thanks - will keep the thread updated

ScoobyChris said:

I bought a facelift one new in 2007 (also electroclash grey) and racked up almost 60k miles in the 3 years I had it. Great little car and fun to rev out through the nice notchy gearbox and pretty cheap to run aside from the clutch release bearing which failed at 54k miles and predictably wasn't covered by warranty and required a whole new clutch assembly.
If you plan to mod it, the two things it needed, imvho, were better damping in the suspension to avoid it getting unsettled on anything other than smooth tarmac, and more power (back then I think there was a bolt-on turbo kit available which lifted power to around 120-130bhp but these days you might be able to look at the 500 power plants instead)

Enjoy!
Chris

Thanks - no plans to modify at this stage

Zlat502 said:

OP,

What has your experiences been like with your Fiats? have they proved reliable etc?

No isses, my first car was a Fiat Uno so i have a soft spot for Fiats , the pick of the bunch has got to be the Bravo HGT with the 5 cyl growl! The 100HP is such a quirky car though

lb3nson said:

Love my 100HP, really simple and fun little car. Definitely recommend a good set of dampers as they can be a bit crashy on rough roads.
Running costs have been very cheap, parts are cheap and easy to find and easily gets over 40mpg.
Only selling mine as I’ve ordered a new car and my wife won’t let me keep 2 cars

Yeah agreed it can be firm, however it rides better than my old civic FN2 (that had new dampers) so no issues for me

_Yeti said:

Don't think the girlfriend would forgive me if I swapped the Volvo for one of these... But there's something really special about these cars, love the looks and the idea of wringing the neck of 100hp is just fantastic. Hope it treats you well OP!

If you see my other threads i have had a journey via a few volvos to the 100HP (Volvo V50 - Volvo XC90 - Honda Civic FN2 - Volvo XC70 - BMW 320D - Panda 100HP) but circumstances as they are i am doing a handful of miles per day - the panda fits the bill perfectly.

300sl-24 said:

Bookmarked!

This is mine


Good job with the cam belt, waterpump and auxiliary belt. Mine has done 42k miles and I’ve just paid £370 at a fiat specialist to have this done.
It was on the original belt, the teeth get hard and get stripped by the pulleys apparently.

thanks - do you have a thread?