Searching for a Fiat 500 manual/stick 'Plague' car (1 Viewer)

[Francois Caron]

Do you mean you might have a parking issue at your dwelling for the car?

Yep! Part of the garage in my apartment building is now under renovation until the end of August, so they squeezed all of the existing tenants to all available parking spots. There are currently no spots available.

Ironically, I might be able to park my car at my office!

 

[Francois Caron]

It's official. More pictures in a week or two after I take possession of the car following its safety check, registration, plating and final touch-ups.

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[ManW_TheUncool]

Congrats! Looks like a very fun, cool car! And a great way to start the summer, especially plowing thru and out of this "plague" me thinks!

Hmmm... wonder how Woody and Jesse would look and do revving this up in and thru Zombieland, LOL!

Have a blast!!!

_Man_

 

[Jeffrey D]

Congrats! Looks like a very fun, cool car! And a great way to start the summer, especially plowing thru and out of this "plague" me thinks!

Hmmm... wonder how Woody and Jesse would look and do revving this up in and thru Zombieland, LOL!

Have a blast!!!

_Man_

Not much room to transport Twinkies.

 

[Francois Caron]

Not much room to transport Twinkies.

There will be once you put the rear seats down.

Even with the seats up, you can still squeeze in a lot of junk in the trunk! This is from a business trip back in 2012. Even when factoring in the sub and the amp, all this will still fit in the back.

 

[Francois Caron]

I started the car today before leaving the dealer so I could take a picture of the odometer just to check if anyone goes joyriding with the car before I take possession of it. There should only be a few kilometers added to the odometer during the safety check.

What's wrong with this picture?

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Anyone who says it's in a language other than English gets ten lashes with a fistful of wet noodles!

 

[Mike2001]

-2 c? If that is the temperature, brrrrrr!! (from a Californian).

We are out back barbecuing chicken thighs and thinking it’s cold at 63 deg f.

 

[Mike2001]

Congratulations on the car! Hope you enjoy it.

 

[Francois Caron]

We are out back barbecuing chicken thighs and thinking it’s cold at 63 deg f.

The car was in an air conditioned garage and it was about 77F (25C).

I'll keep an eye on this. It's not unusual for the ambient air temperature sensor in the right side mirror to deliver a reading well below the actual temperature for a few minutes after starting the engine. But if the sensor goes completely wonky, it can activate the "check engine" light.

Replacing the sensor by itself doesn't seem to be possible. What I found online indicates the entire right side mirror has to be replaced, and you have to remove the door panel because the wiring connector's inside the door!

All that just to replace a broken thermistor?

Italian engineering at its finest! I'm gonna have a lot of fun with this car!

 

[LeoA]

If it's anything like my Impala, 4 times out of 5 you'll have to drive 5 or 6 blocks before the ambient air temperature sensor settles down to the correct temperature.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

All that just to replace a broken thermistor?

Sometimes the engineers just don't think about how a car will be serviced. I owned a 2002 Nissan Altima with V6 engine where you had to remove an incredible amount of crap under the hood in order to replace a front headlight bulb. The kicker was that there was a defect in the headlight assembly which caused the headlights to burn out quickly. The first time one of the headlights burned out, I picked up a new one at the local auto parts store, opened the hood, and tried to figure out how to get the light out. After struggling for several minutes, I pulled out the owner's manual (when all else fails, read the instructions ) and for the front headlight replacement it said only "dealer replacement only". I then did an Internet search, and found out why.

Our local Belle Tire repair shop replaced the headlight the first time. I then found out there was a "silent recall" for this defect, so after the second burn out I took it to the dealership for the recall repair.

That was the only car I owned where I could not change a light bulb myself. What a stupid design.

A buddy had an old Ford Mustang (I think it was an early '80's model) where we could not get to one of the spark plugs to change it. The plug was buried in the back, and impossible to reach with any tool.

 

[English Invader]

Cool car, but at 6' 6" I could get about one leg into it.

Or you could pull the front seats out and drive from the back like Hightower in Police Academy.

On the subject of reliability, one of the best examples I can think of is my father's old London Taxi (Austin FX4):

Austin FX4 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Not everyone realises how much more mileage a cab driver does compared to most people; for my dad, it was an hour each way for the commute and then 12 hours or more driving around London (while most people are doing something that doesn't involve a vehicle) and the FX4 took all that no questions asked as well as any family outings we went on. These things were built like tanks (and they also happened to have automatic transmission which is very handy for all the stopping and starting around London).

 

[Francois Caron]

If it's anything like my Impala, 4 times out of 5 you'll have to drive 5 or 6 blocks before the ambient air temperature sensor settles down to the correct temperature.

That's why I need to keep an eye on this. The fix could be as simple as that. In fact, the ECM never threw a permanent error, just a pending one.

Sometimes the engineers just don't think about how a car will be serviced. I owned a 2002 Nissan Altima with V6 engine where you had to remove an incredible amount of crap under the hood in order to replace a front headlight bulb.

I could learn a lot about bad engineering just by working on this car. Replacing the alternator requires removing the right wheel, brake rotor and cowling, then unbolting the engine block and pushing it to one side!

Even the highly popular 2.5 litre 4 cylinder Toyota Camry engine like the one in the Scion tC I've test driven a couple of weeks ago made changing the oil a difficult process. The engine uses an oil filter cartridge placed inside a permanent canister instead of using an easily replaceable metal canister unit. You need a special tool just to open the canister!

To make things worse, the canister is installed under the Toyota engine pointing downwards, and you need another tool included with the replacement filter cartridge to empty the residual oil inside the canister without it spilling all over the place.

The Fiat 500 also uses the same permanent canister, but it's accessed from the top, so any oil inside the canister will drain down into the engine. It's still not the best solution when compared with a disposable canister, but at least the permanent canister's reachable and won't splash you with dirty oil.

To reach the drain plug on the 500 however, you still have to remove the skirt underneath held in place by six screws. Not an easy thing to do without a proper hoist.

Unfortunately, bad car engineering has become a pandemic on its own, and many people believe it's being done deliberately to prevent people from repairing their own cars. I tend to agree with this assumption because this engineering is all needlessly complicated for no valid reason.

I might still be able to fix the thermistor in the mirror by spicing a replacement thermistor salvaged from a totaled Fiat 500, but I might as well replace the entire mirror while I'm at it since I'm not even sure the thermistor's removable at all.

EDIT:

I just checked all of the images of Fiat 500s for sale that I had collected during the last two months. A lot of them have bad temperature readings, including a 2016 Abarth located North of Toronto being sold for $20 grand Canadian.

https://www.vellasauto.com/used/vehicle/2016-fiat-500-abarth-id9956987.htm

This one was in consideration, but definitely not at that price. I didn't want something so expensive that I'd be afraid to drive it. I can live with a few minor warts.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Gotta love the (un)planned obsolescence (and nuisance)...

_Man_

 

[Francois Caron]

The car delivery to the inspection dealer has been delayed. The "Check Engine" light was active. The selling dealer's investigating this right now. It's nice that it was caught before the delivery and not after. They know that if the car had failed its safety inspection, I would have sent the car right back to them.

I suspect it's the ambient air temperature sensor that might have become completely wonky. They'll have to replace the right side mirror just to replace the sensor.

 

[LeoA]

Your luck sure beats mine. If it were me, it would've turned on the first time I pulled out of my driveway.

Hopefully they'll have it all fixed up and delivered soon, so you can get some use and fun out of it with the short summer we get up in this part of the world (I'm in Potsdam NY, which is only about 50 miles or so south of Ottawa).

 

[Francois Caron]

Your luck sure beats mine. If it were me, it would've turned on the first time I pulled out of my driveway.

It's a Fiat. It might still do that.

I'm already shopping around for the replacement part. I might be able to find the thermistor on its own. I already know it's suppose to be 10Kohm at 25C with a tolerance of 3%.

 

[Brian L]

It's a Fiat. It might still do that.

I'm already shopping around for the replacement part. I might be able to find the thermistor on its own. I already know it's suppose to be 10Kohm at 25C with a tolerance of 3%.

That’s a very common range in the HVAC controls world.

https://www.workaci.com/sites/default/files/product_cutsheet/Thermistors%20Raw%20Potted.pdf

A raw sensor should be well under $10US. Of course, they may have it embedded into some sort of custom housing. No clue about that.

 

[Francois Caron]

A raw sensor should be well under $10US. Of course, they may have it embedded into some sort of custom housing. No clue about that.

It's this thing.

Kit for temperature sensor replacement FIAT 500, 500X, 500L

Kit for temperature sensor replacement for FIAT 500, 500L, 500X

www.elkab2.com

And here it is as installed inside the right side mirror.



Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a way to order the thermistor by itself. In fact, you normally need to buy a replacement core mirror component just to replace the thermistor, and remove the door panel to get to the cable connector.

I could always try splicing in a raw thermistor and bury it in some epoxy. Heck, I could order many more accurate thermistors locally for a few cents apiece!

 

[Francois Caron]

After the pandemic is over and after I'm bored with the Fiat 500 Abarth, I'm moving to Japan so I can drive this thing!

Toyota Copen GR Sport Is an Adorably Aggressive Tiny Roadster

Gazoo Racing performance in 660-cc kei-car fun size.

www.caranddriver.com