131mirafiori forum

You know how it is - you go out to check over your favourite beastie prior to the next MoT/certificate of roadworthness, etc, thinking that generally all is well, except perhaps for a slight exhaust leak from a joint on your expensive stainless system, only to find that a solid stainless bracket has sheared clean in two! :o :o This has got to have been the worst 'investment' I have ever made! >:(

To start at the beginning. When I first purchased my 131 Abarth way back in July 2004 I thought it would be a nice idea to get the exhaust system replaced with a custom made stainless system, from manifold to tail pipe, so I looked at a few websites and spoke to a few owners, and settled on the purchase of a Longlife Stainless Steel Exhausts installation. So in early October 04 I had the work carried out and parted with a not inconsiderable slice of my hard earned cash! ::) It has been a tale of disasters ever since!

On the journey home ? >:( the car died because they failed to replace the leads to the coil correctly after installing the manifold. On Christmas Eve the same year the only joint in the system fell apart leaving me limping home in Yuletide traffic. Ever since the system has rattled and vibrated like a hammer drill at certain revs - a total disappointment and a real waste of money >:(

Now the final insult - a broken bracket on the rear silencer! >:( How annoyed am I?!?

So...the car is booked in again to have yet another repair carried out, (free of charge of course!) prior to me getting an MoT done on it.

I shall keep you posted!

Stainless exhausts seem to be a subject of great discussion in motoring gatherigs. Most people rate them very highly (probably because they cost a lot of money) and others don't.  I am somewhere in-between and think that it depends on the quality of the steel used and the quality of the work in making it. I don't have a car with a full stainless system but I do have two cars both with part-stainless systems. Incidentally, my 131 is fitted with  a Janspeed 4-2-1 manifold/downpipes up to the first silencer (middle box) and then it's a bog-standard middle and back box (with a reducer to get the pipe diameter of the standard system to fit the wider bore of the  Janspeed). But I digress, back to stainless systems. My personal view of stainless systems is that the majority of them sound very "tinny" and they crack! I've heard this from a lot of people. Mild steel is a lot more flexible than stainless so it will flex quite happily while a stainless system, especially if it's made of thin metal to save some money, doesn't flex and it cracks. That has been my personal experience with my Gamma that has a stainless front end (four 'down' pipes into central 4-1 connection). It's always sounded very "tinny" and it keeps cracking in different places and I keep having to get it welded. Recently, the complete 2.5" pipe just after the 4-1 union has snapped! I am sure the fact that the car was running on 3 cylinders for a while has not helped but I am also sure a mild steel system in good condition would have survived the shaking and flexing of an engine running on 3 cylinders.   

My other car with a part-stainless system is my Maserati on which I fitted a stainless back box. And I did that because I got fed up of having to replace the mild steel standard system so often and at great expense. The back box on Maserati Biturbos is fitted at a slight upward angle which means any condensation collects at the back of the box and stays there 'eating' the soft mild-steel metal from the inside.  So after having to replace the back box several times, all with a hole at the same place, I decided to fit a stainless back box which I must admit has lasted a very long time.

So, Simon, coming back to your broken bracket problem, I think it's one of those things that you are likely to get often with a stainless steel exhaust. You should ask the garage doing the repair to look into fitting more flexible 'hangers' for your exhaust and hope that will stop it from cracking.

 ??? HI ALL, on 130 cars,members seem to have no prob with them,maybe they just cruise along?

Hello Stiggy and welcome to our forum.  :D
I am somewhat confused with the 031 though! Is that meant to be 130 backwards or have you got an 031?  ???

 :D THANKS FOR THE WELCOME THEO, NEAREST THING I HAVE TO A 031 IS THE
 ENGINE AND BOX!  :D ;D

Hello Stiggy,

Welcome to our forum.? ;D ;D Great to have you along for the ride!

You're on the wrong forum to sing the praises of the Fiat 130 matey ;D ;D We are all dedicated 131 nutters on here - but we do very much welcome 'nutters'? ;) :D ;D

Simon

An update on the exhaust situation.

I took the car back to the system manufacturer, albeit a different, more local branch than before, and they appear to have done a sterling job in sorting out both the weak brackets and the leaking olive joint.

The old brackets were hacked off the system with a saw and new ones were fabricated from M12 solid stainless rod - so these shouldn't move again! The faulty joint was stripped and cleaned and the olive was replaced. The whole system sounds much sweeter now ;D ;D I'd almost say that I was 'happy'! :o ;D

The truly bad news however is that the car failed it's MoT on Saturday! >:( I am livid and was shaking with rage and frustration at the time. >:(

So, the car will once again be returning to Italian Race Services near Basildon, Essex in the vain hope that they will be able to repair and re-test the car (long) before the 3MA.

Gutted from Farnborough

A further update on the status of my Abarth.

Good news at last ;D The car has now passed it's MoT after a little more fettling.? ;D I have no idea how much it will finally cost me but I should find out when I collect the car Sunday lunchtime, from Basildon.

So, Cinderella will go the Ball!.......erm, I mean "my Abarth will go to Ireland"!

The only slight problem that I now have centres (not for the first time) on the regulator on the alternator. During my drive to Italian Race Services a few weeks ago I noticed that the volt meter was reading lower than usual, right up until I was a few miles from my destination, at which point it went back to showing the 14V or so I have become used to.

So, to be on the safe side I will have to remove the alternator again and get it bench tested again. Could be though that there is something else causing the current/volt drain ::) Let's hope that it's only the regulator! :-\

If it's a Bosch alternator on your Abarth, just change the regulator, they are cheap and notorious for going wrong (although normally they stop regulating so you get 17-20 Volts which blows all the bulbs and boils your battery  :o ). A low reading on a car that had not been used for a while, i.e. with a partly drained battery, is quite normal so maybe you shouldn't try to fix something which is not broken. 

Collected the car from Basildon yesterday afternoon at 2pm and drove it the 131.3km home!!? ;D Without mishap I might add!? ;D ;D

The car is now fully road legal again and was a joy to drive. I had just driven in excess of 100 miles from Grantham, Lincs., in my modern six cylinder BMW and the Abarth was slightly ::) more noisy in the cabin than the BM! ;D

The volt meter read a steady 14V virtually all the way home, so Theo, I shall not be taking the alternator off the car for a bench test - unless anything untoward happens during the trip to and from Brooklands on Saturday.

It now only remains for me to polish up the paintwork and sort out a few trim bits and pieces before the 'epic' trip to Ireland! ;D

Started the polishing exercise on Monday evening - something that I was dreading. I'd never been able to get the bodywork to shine enough in the past but last year the kids bought me an electrical 'mop' for Father's Day which I thought I'd use.

It's a two handed electrical appliance which runs off the mains and I'd have to say I didn't really hold out much hope of it working, but I though "what the heck!".

I am amazed at the results! :o I should have used one of these things ages ago! Whilst the paint can never be called 'showroom', the body is a whole lot more presentable even after the first use. After a few more uses the reults should be something to behold - well, when compared with the dull and lifeless finish I've been used to of late. ::)

This is what I call forward planning: Having proven his Abarth is ready for the 3MA by driving it  to Brooklands today for the Auto Italia Spring Italian Car Day, Simon (wearing the latest in fashion, a 3MA T-Shirt) is studying the 3MA Routebook.   ;D  I think I'll follow him during the 3MA...  ;)

Nice photo - Is that a genuine Abarth or a converted Sport? - Looks like the latter as the seats have been kept original!!!!

 ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

I'm for it now!!!

You obviously like living very dangerously Kevin! ;D

Yeah - it's a converted Sport Kevin, just like yours is a converted bus! ::)