Coupeversary

Turns out I bought my Coupé one year ago today, so this is my Coupé anniversary.

It’s been a fun car to own so far, with minimal issues. I realise that’s mostly down to buying one that was well sorted by Motormech rather than one I sourced for myself. Always trust the professionals!

My bodywork is a mess, thanks to the car being crashed into a couple of times while parked outside my house (it’s a tight street for parking on). It was never 100% to begin with, so I’m not overly upset about that.

Careless parkers aside, how has year one gone?

I bought my 20vT from Motormech with a swapped engine, so the engine was perfect from day one. Everything checked and renewed before it was fitted. I picked it up from them in Brum and drove it straight home to Glasgow. It felt smooth, ran great, and the nice long journey let me get to grips with the car. I was comfortable in it by the time I was home.

Through the forum I reconnected with my old friend GrahamL and he gave my new car a thorough once-over and a clean bill of health. We put a Gtech chip in it there and then, transforming the low-end acceleration and making the car much more my style. A great start. I have Graham to thank for regular advice and the occasional loan of tools (and a second pair of hands) when working on the car since. A new clutch slave cylinder is the worst thing I’ve had to fit. Not exactly the end of the world.

I swapped out the cloth interior for a full leather one. That was easy, apart form the part where I tore the skin off the back of one of my hands. C’est la vie …

I found an original LE strut brace on eBay and (eventually, with Graham’s help) got it to fit. I can’t really quantify how much difference it made, but I feel a bit more confident throwing the car into fast corners than I did without it. New tyres helped there too.

I originally bought the car because I needed something for regular weekend drives into the Cairngorms – long, fun journeys up and down mountain passes. And nobody wants to do that in a boring car. After four months though, I stopped needing to do that journey. So now the Coupé is a rarely-used town car. It takes me to the shops, and on short commutes over to Edinburgh and back for nights out. I think less use is detrimental to smooth running … since leaving it parked up for longer periods, I’m having more issues with the car.

So … here’s the list of current bugbears:

• Smoking more than I’d like on start-up. I suspect turbo seals.
• Noisy on boost (whining/whooshing). I suspect a boost leak, Graham suspects a loose belt. He’s more likely to be right than I am. Need to find time to diagnose.
• Feels a little down on power. But I’m only doing town/motorway drives, so it’s hard to tell.
• The windows steam up a bit too easily. Not sure I’m worried enough about that to trace which seal/s need replacing.

Generally then, for a cheap fun car that lives out in the street, it’s doing well after a year. And it still draws admiring glances, despite the dents and scrapes.

Great to hear you're still enjoying it - can't believe its been a year already

PS -if Graham suspects a belt, you should inspect the aux belt ASAP - they have a habit of deteriorating and then jumping off the pulleys - its a 50/50 as to which way they fall off, but if they go inboard, it will take out your cambelt with predictable consequences for the valves

Worth looking into sooner rather than later then. Thanks.

Still can’t find any windscreen washer jets, by the way … they seem to be rarer than hen’s teeth!

There's a complete set of wiper arms/blades on ebay , # 272127374295 , which appear to have the washer jets included.

Or search for "Fiat coupe breaking" on ebay and ask the sellers if they'll sell the washer jets separately.

I haven't heard the whining noise yet but thought it might be a belt tensioner, having had to replace my power steering pump tensioner/belt last year. That changed from a slight whine when cold to a constant, horrendous squeal within a couple of months. It can be hard to tell the exact source of these things until they get worse.

I’ve had no luck asking people with breakers to sell me the washer jets. Weird really, you’d think it would be an easy few quid since they’ll fit in an envelope.

I think I will have to just buy a set of arms etc, so thanks for pointing those out!

I’ll definitely give you a shout when I’ve chance to pop over. Might not be for another week or two though, I seem to have a hectic time just now …

Have you asked Joe Countrycruising on here poprock?

Nope, I didn’t. I started a ‘wanted’ thread and got no replies.

I’ll drop him a PM, ta.

A second for GrahamL, poprock, he's more than generous with his time and knowledge

You've had the belt opinions so I'll leave that one....the misting up could be several things:

1. Windscreen: heater matrix leaking, possibly at pipe joints - you might find a sticky anti-freeze scented residue on your front footwell near the centre is a giveaway, as is the greasy "bloom" on your screen which never quite seems to go away

2. damp carpets anywhere else - check door seals and shower screens

3. leaky bootseal - Joe at FCSS has replacements of these

Apart from that, glad you're in coupe heaven

Very helpful, thanks! Good to have a checklist for next time I use the car. Something around the front of the car is most likely for the misting – the dash clock fogs up as well, and even the instrument pod in some extreme cases.

Joe has come up trumps on washer jets. Great stuff!

Addendum - if the screen has ever been replaced there's a chance it could be leaking if not fitted perfectly.

Speaking of wiper jets (Mine aren't great anymore) - doesn't the Alfa GTV have a wiper arm with jets? I seem to recall that those where a bit more effective than the coop's. Would these fit? or be made to fit? Ebay