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Buyer's Guide: Engine and mechanic
The engine and chassis of the Fiat 500 and Fiat 126 are known to be quite sturdy. Nevertheless, the tight budget of many previous owners has left some traces. Here are some typical weaknesses that should be examined:
Engine & gearbox:
- Thermostat: The fin beneath the thermostat box needs to open when the engine has run warm...
... otherwise the engine is in danger of overheating during full speeds
... in Winter a cold engine and with the thermostat-fin open means no heating performance for the car interior. - Cylinder head: spark plug sockets damaged?
- Faulty or worn out valves mean problems with starting, shaky engine. If in doubt, have a compression test done.
- Oil leaks around engine and gear-box
- Carburetor: pounded-out throttle shaft
- Timing chain rattles
- Ignition distributor in worn condition
- Poorly adjusted or deteriorated ignition
- Clogged oil centrifuge
- Deteriorated or loose fan belt
- Clattering fan wheel
- Gearbox jumps out of gear when moving off or when under stress: this might be due to a gearbox fault and / or a faulty selector rod pilot bushing and / or a damaged or too deteriorated gearchange linkage snubber (= connecting piece between selector rod and gearbox)
Front axle:
- Pounded out front steering knuckles and / or transverse links cause difficult steering, little directional stability, little steering self-aligning force, one-sided wearing out of the front tires.
- Leaf spring tired out or broken; this is when the leaf spring hits the snubbers above it when standing still or cornering, insufficient suspension.
- Damaged or faulty shock-absorbers may be oil-fouled or the dust covers rusted off.
- Tires old or damaged
Rear axle:
- Drive shaft keying and / or sliding piece keying deteriorated
- Axle coupling (= torsion dampers between the wheels and sliding pieces) deteriorated
- Broken or heavily corroded coil springs
- Damaged or faulty shock-absorbers, may be oil-fouled or dust covers rusted off.
- Rear axle shock-absorber suspension rusted through
- Old or damaged tires
Brakes:
- One-sided effect, may be due to faulty brake cylinders
- Long pedal travel, may be due to worn brake shoes
- Varying pedal travel when operating the brakes several times, may be due to faulty wheel or main brake cylinder or due to a poorly vented braking system.
- Long hand brake lever travel, probably due to deteriorated rear brake shoes.
Miscellaneous:
- Fuel tank rusted and / or dirty on the inside
- Faulty or poorly discharging fuel pump
- Old / faulty battery
- Generator does not load: indicated by a red battery light on the instrument board (should not be lit up when driving with high rpm.
- Starter-engine with fault
- Faulty or deteriorated ignition parts
Of course, the conditions that Fiat 500 as well as Fiat 126 are in today can vary. A deficiency that is not mentioned above can also show up. The above mentioned list of known deficiencies need not necessarily be complete.