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Fiat Bravo T-Jet 150 (2010)

17K views 36 replies 11 participants last post by  stevensullivan90 
#1 ·
Intro

I'm pleased to say that the project car merry-go-round continues and so it's time to introduce a new addition. The previous car, a VW Golf came and went quite quickly (see here for that one) and that had given me an idea. Could I buy and sell 4 cars in one year, or to put it another way could I drive a different car in every quarter of the year? Mmmm, interesting, so I've decided to give it a go.

Now I never intended to buy the Golf, but it did prove that having a small-ish runaround in the household was useful and as always with cars that are already a little down at heel it's very liberating being able to park them wherever and whenever the need arises. I like owning a nice car, but there is always the concern that something will happen to it and whilst "that's what insurance is for" it's the aggro that surrounds dealing with it that causes the grief.

And finally, I noticed when running through my car back catalogue that I've had some brands twice, (Vauxhall, Honda, Mazda, Mercedes, Audi, VW), some a lot (BMW) and some I've only had once (Fiat, Porsche, MG, Subaru, Alpina, Mini) - assuming you don't count those last two as BMWs.

So the hunt was on for a five door hatchback that was quicker than a 1.6 VW Golf, had ISOFIX and was less than £2,0000. From my list of previous brands that eliminated Porsche, MG (no ISOFIX), Alpina and Mini (no 5 door options in budget) The Subaru option is an entry level hatchback circa 2008, but I've had a WRX-S version of that so getting a slower model of a car I have already had didn't appeal. Thinking I was out of options I did briefly consider a Peugeot 308 with the 1.6 THP engine but they don't seem to come up often, but from there I was reminded about the 2nd gen Fiat Bravo via a road test between one of them and a 308 from AutoExpress from back in 2007. I say reminded, as I barely even knew they existed and I had no idea about engine options, but it turns out they could be had with a 1.4 Turbo unit that, if the first owner chose wisely, gave a respectable 150hp.

As an aside, if you can't picture a 1st gen Bravo this was mine, a car that I took from 49k miles to 113k miles in 4 years and that was genuinely a pleasure to own. Even back in 2003 I liked a clean car!



So the search was on and the first car I found was local and so I arranged to go and see it, which was all done via Facebook with somebody who seemed to be Eastern European. I was told to go to an address that didn't correspond with his Facebook Marketplace address and I was given a phone number that also was different. On arrival I can't find the car, and the person I spoke with on the number I'd been given didn't speak English. But eventually we found each other and I was directed to behind some flats not far from the A30 as it runs through Camberley.



While he went to get the keys I had a quick look around and it was quickly obvious it wasn't the car for me. I hadn't spotted the aftermarket alloys in the advert (it should have wheel trims but they look a lot like this) and it had lots of lacquer missing and generally was very unloved. I don't mind down at heel but I'm not after a total shed either.

I soon become aware that I had been on my own a while, enough to do a full inspection of the bodywork, tyres (ditchfinders, obvs) and run the MOT history so I went looking for my "handler". I eventually found him in a backstreet garage about 50m away whereupon I was handed a mobile phone and indicated to talk, as if I was expected to conduct some kind of hostage negotiation to get access to a leggy old Fiat. Turns out the person on the other end of the phone was the Facebook marketplace seller, but it wasn't his car, and the person whose car it was wasn't the man stood in front of me who couldn't find the keys either. In a word, shenanigans. I had anticipated this to some extent but how person A expects to sell person B's car via person C without a set of keys or a grasp of English is beyond me. I was given lots of promises by the man on the phone about finding them but by this point I was ignoring everything being said, so handed the phone back and got the hell out of there.

A few days later this one turned up and by this point the Golf was for sale but hadn't sold:





As you can see, it's in much better shape (these are my photos) but inevitably there are some challenges. I've concluded that sellers at this end of the market are either just lazy and/or aren't that bothered in doing much of a job, so for example this is the entirety of the advert for this car:



It is what you might call "light on detail". I asked a few questions via Messenger but there's no substitute for being there and seeing it in person, so that's what I did and headed off in the direction of Gatwick. On arrival the first challenge is that it isn't taxed and so I can only drive it around a yard. The 2nd challenge is that the guy selling isn't the guy on the V5C, but has apparently taken it in part-ex. He runs a bodyshop so he's at least sort of in the motor trade, but he can't really answer any of my questions as he doesn't know, like why has it only done 1,000 miles in the last year. Still, it all looks reasonably promising with only one mis-matched tyre, both keys and a recent cambelt and waterpump. I'd have preferred a more interesting colour but beggars can't be choosers. I drive it 200m in 1st gear and then reverse it back 200m and they both work so we are getting somewhere. It has a full toolkit, the alloys aren't too bad and the few marks I notice don't concern me. I tell him that I'm interested and if the Golf sells quickly I'll call for a chat about the price.

Well, the Golf did sell quickly, three days later in fact and so that Thursday evening I call him back and we agree at £1,700 and that I will collect after the bank holiday.

And so just four days after selling the Golf and 18 years after selling my last one, I am now once again a Fiat owner.

Collection day coming up...
 
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#2 ·
I'll admit I saw the first photo and got excited, I had a Mk1 Bravo like that except in Heraldic Blue. I'd love to get my hands on another one as the HLX was my first car, followed by an HGT. I'd quite like a Tipo too for that matter. There was something about the shape of those original Bravos that really set them apart from everything else that was out there, until of course the Mk1 Focus was released a few years later! The halo ring tail lights were just so stylish.
 
#6 ·
Oh I agree and the HLX was good value at the time, being reasonably nippy without costing a fortune to insure. Mine had aircon, sunroof and heated seats which was quite unusual at the time, although I'd have traded it all for an HGT and that 5 cylinder soundtrack!

I'm trying to work out the silver car behind though-Chrysler Neon perhaps? :confused:
I was thinking Vauxhall Omega...
In the words of Roy Walker, it's good, but it's not right. :lol: It's a 2001 Honda Accord SE and belonged to my father. He had had three Toyotas previously and had decided to try something new, but has since had three more Toyotas so I don't think he liked it that much!

Hope it goes well :thumb:
Thanks Andy :thumb:
 
#7 ·
Collection Day

So a week ago, as agreed with the seller, I hopped on a train and headed back toward Gatwick. Well I say hopped, my first train was cancelled so I sat on a freezing cold platform for the next hour waiting until another train arrived, but eventually I got to Redhill, and then a quick change to Horley before getting in an Uber for the last two miles. Oddly at Redhill I arrived on Platform 0 which I don't think I've ever seen before:



Once there the paperwork was all done on line in about 15 minutes and I was on my way. Inevitably the fuel light was on:



So that meant a trip to the nearest Shell and a chance for the typical "new car in petrol station" photo:



I also couldn't stand the cloying scent from the air freshener so that was dropped in to the bin at the same time.



Once home I fitted the children's car seats and it was immediately pressed in to service.



I also checked the tyre pressures all round and I found one that was well down at 17psi. Sadly it seems it had been running around like this for a while as evidenced by half the sidewall text having been scrubbed off.



The next morning was frosty and so it was a chance to confirm that the rear window defrost works.



And although it has come with both keys, only one of them is a remote, and that one doesn't work. I phoned my local Fiat dealer to confirm that what I had received was correct (it was) and the price for a new working key. Including 30 minutes of labour to programme it they quoted, with out flinching I must point out, £569.23 inc VAT.....:doublesho. Quite how that can be justified is anyone's guess, but it's too rich for me so I got out the screwdrivers and went to investigate.





The obvious stuff was all fine though, so I will investigate some of the aftermarket repair options as having to open the car by inserting a key in the lock is beginning to get a bit annoying. This does seem to be an issue with older cars though, a number of my previous BMWs had remote keys that wouldn't remote unlock.

Initial Assessement

At the weekend I got the chance to have a proper look over the car, so here's what I have. Firstly the bodywork presents well from a distance:





But on closer inspection it has lots of shallow dents everywhere, like here around the boot badge (which is also badly faded)



And about 6 or 7 on the roof, consistent with it having been peppered by footballs.... Hard to photograph though.



Neither of these things did I notice in my original viewing, but then I rarely look closely at the roof of a car in that scenario as usually there is more going on elsewhere.

I did seen these marks though, so not surprises there:





And these yellowing foglights. Odd.



In more positive news it has matching front and rear numberplates, presumably original:





Plus a recent coolant change and confirmation of the cambelt change aligning with the stamp in the book.





And a complete toolkit:



It is generally quite dirty though and the window rubbers are surprisingly bad. I know from the paperwork that it sat on a dealer forecourt for the six months from March 2020 to September 2020 unsold so that won't have helped I am sure.



I also have some leaks in the engine area, first being the hydraulic engine mount and then a small water leak from the water pump area, both of which I'll look to resolve ASAP.







And finally, the interior is very dusty and it seems that the car has been used by somebody who's job was gardening/landscaping as there is fine soil dust everywhere, and particularly in the boot.











None of this concerns me though, and those dents aside, I am sure it will clean up easily. The good news is that is feels everyone of its 150hp and it revs really cleanly so it's a lot of fun to drive. The ride isn't quite as comfort orientated as the Golf, but it's still very good.

So overall I am very pleased. I think I overpaid by £200 but then it was local and available there and then and whilst it's always tempting to wait for the best examples, that's not what these projects cars are about for me.

Clean up to come next, but I couldn't resist a quick fall out remover test on one of the alloys.



Thanks for reading.
 
#12 ·
Fixing Begins

After my previous post, I gave the car a thorough wash and vacuum out. I took photos on my Nikon SLR and I reviewed them when the job was done. But then, at some point between ejecting the SD card and going to view them on my PC they had all gone. I used some recovery software and managed to extract them, but the quality wasn't any good so I'll have to do them again on the next wash. Frustrating!

Next up I took to sorting out some of the more obvious jobs. First up was the seat belt and the small button that holds the clip at the right height had gone for a walk.



I've had this once before and thankfully they are cheap via eBay (£2 delivered for two) and so this was an easy one and makes a surprising difference to how you feel about something when it is sorted. Prior to that getting in the car and setting off was always a bit annoying!



Next was fixing the remote key case. Mine was missing the outer shell and was held together with tape so I ordered a repair kit for £6 and swapped the internals over in to the new shell, seen here on the right. It also came with a new badge and microswitches, which I didn't need.



I also remembered I had a Fiat key ring in a drawer somewhere from my original Bravo so I rescued that and pressed it in to service.



One of the reasons for having a 2nd car is that my Audi isn't great for carrying stuff, being a saloon, and so when I needed to collect a 2nd hand BBQ the Fiat was perfect for the job:



That had required me to move the children's car seats so I took the opportunity to give everything a good clean at the back. Fairly grim under the rear bench:



As always there was a small financial reward:



And also it's a chance to determine the likely period of manufacture, this car being registered March 2010. More on that later:



All back together clean and ready for car seat re-installation:



Engine Mount Replacement

I'd previously mentioned that one of the engine mounts looked a bit sad for itself, and had a black fluid leaking from it. A few people on the Fiat FB pages challenged whether I was seeing things as they couldn't believe it was a hydraulic mount, but I can't see any other explanation for it:



I've never changed an engine mount before but removing it was a nice simple job which involved supporting the engine from underneath, swinging the expansion bottle out of the way and then removing 3 nuts and 3 bolts. Here you can see the legacy left from the fluid that has been escaping. It wouldn't clean off with brake fluid cleaner either.



Some more shots of the mount:





And here is the new one, which was £168 from my local Fiat dealer. There are plenty of aftermarket options for £100 ish from the likes of Lemforder and Febi but nobody had anything in stock whereas Fiat got this in the next day. That said, despite using the chassis number the parts guy couldn't give me 100% confidence that he'd get me the right part as their parts diagrams don't show this part. Weird.



Possibly the confusion is that the original part has been superseded but the only change I can see is a mounting point on the shoulder, which my car doesn't use anyway.

Thankfully the new part fitted absolutely fine and it was bolted down in no time at all.



Since I had removed the undertray to support the engine it seemed a good idea to clean it up a little. Before:



And after a go over with some APC:



Looking more closely shows that this part was made in November 2008:



This is the oldest part I have found on the car so I assume it was built sometime after that, perhaps early 2009 but didn't get registered until March 2010. I've also been told that my car is unusual as it is a pre-facelift but on a 10 plate and the facelift cars were introduced for MY10, which is from September 2009 onwards. I suspect then that my car sat around for a year or so early on in its life, perhaps because it has the more powerful petrol engine (as normally found in a Sport) but in the more comfort orientated Dynamic spec. This may explain why all the Fiat badges around the car are so badly faded!

Anyway, everything went back together nicely, I dropped it off axles stands and was ready for a test drive.



While I didn't have any nasty noises the gearstick would noticeably move forward or backward when taking up power or decelerating. With the new mount that has now gone completely and everything feels much tighter. So not a cheap fix, and perhaps not essential either, but nice to have a marked improvement nonetheless.

Thanks, as always, for reading.
 
#15 ·
Thanks. Re the mount, the parts guy I collected from didn't seem to know, unfortunately. As part of research in to what part I needed I did read on an Alfa forum that it is hydraulic (this part is shared with the Giulietta) and that somebody paid £330 for their dealer to swap theirs, which seems about right given what I paid and labour rates.

Love these bread and butter car threads :thumb:

What's the annual road tax on this model?

It just occurred to me , you just don't see new Fiats on the road these days :confused:
Thanks. RFL is £210 per year, which is a bit cheaper than the Golf, which was £240.

You see loads of 500s of course, but definitely not any of the other models. I saw one of the "new" Spider models yesterday and I haven't seen one of those in the wild for at least a year or so.
 
#18 ·
One month since my last update and the current progress with the Bravo.

I'd washed it shortly after buying it but it was time to bring some life back to the paint with a polishing session, meaning it was out with the snow foam:



I then went over it with iron fall out remover and tar-remover. There wasn't much showing though, this being the worst of it:



It was a similar story with the clay bar, this being from the passenger side rear door, not much to report.



That left me with this. There's clear evidence of a respray on the rear hatch (colour match issue gives that away) and the bonnet but I think the rest of the paint is original.





I then put it in the garage and over the next week's worth of evenings got on with the preparation and polishing:





I only took these two photos as it's the 10pm - midnight slot each night, plus my SLR can't really cope with the poor light conditions. I used some Sonax Perfect Finish on a medium cut pad (orange) and then some old Menzerna Final Finish on a light polishing pad (white) and this seemed to give me some good results. I then wiped down with IPA and applied some Sonax Xtreme Protect sealant which again I've always had good results from.

Once the week was over I did some other finer details, including removing the front numberplate. I was please to see that nobody had created any bodgery behind as there were just numberplate screw holes rather than the usual plethora. This was cleaned up and given a light polish too:



I also spent time adjusting the bonnet, which was sitting too low down on one side:



That involved tweaking these bonnet mounting bolts:



It's better, but still not perfect so perhaps I'll have another go:



And because this is DW I couldn't have this....



...without giving it a little clean up too, amongst other things.



That then left things looking like this:



Neither the Sonax nor the Menzerna polish create that much dust so all I then needed was some time and good weather to bring it out, wipe it down with some detailing spray and do the finishing touches like dress the trim and the tyres. Once done, that left it like this:

















Because I work on the car in bite size chunks of time it's always a surprise when I add up the hours it's taken to achieve this, which in this case ran to 16 hours. Broken down it looks like this:

2 hours - Initial wash and de-contamination
8 hours - Paint correction (over four evenings)
2 hours - IPA wipe down, sealant applications, dressing trim
2 hours - Hoover out, dust surfaces, clean glass, APC any dirty areas
2 hours - Detailing spray, dress tyres, tidy engine bay

I've noticed I still need to clean up the pedal rubbers and there's a few other marks on the interior showing up with the camera that aren't as obvious with the naked eye, which I will get to.

Minor issues like that aside it's been a nice job with no issues and I'm really pleased with how it looks. The paint correction has got rid of a lot of the marks around the bodywork and now the car looks much more like it's 62k miles than it did previously. It also continues to drive well too plus the aircon is lovely and cold and generally it's a great thing to have in the household for all the short journeys that we are doing at the moment.

Thanks as always for reading.
 
#23 ·
Thanks Danny, I will investigate and report back.

Nice update, what's wrong with the rear passenger wheel? Looks stained on the picture.

Some going that James.
Ah yes, that's my fault. When I was doing the initial wash I focused my time on the paintwork and only gave the wheels a quick going over and it seems I have missed a bit. So not staining, just brake dust.... (hangs head in shame)
 
#25 ·
Following the tip from LincolnDanny I went off to investigate options for dealing with the bonnet fitment. I quickly found this bung, which I had assumed was fixed, but which actually has some adjustment in it:



And bingo, a quick twist and the bonnet is sitting perfectly. Thanks Danny :thumb:





While out I also took a moment to fit a dashcam, which the insurance company had indicated was a requirement and which I had forgotten to do. I need to hard wire it in to the fusebox as for now it's running off the cigarette lighter.



I had also been getting an intermittent brake light warning on the dash from the passenger side, so I pulled the lamp unit to investigate:



In the true style of Italian electrics there was nothing wrong with the bulbs (my Audi plays this game with me too in fairness to the Fiat):



So I unseated and re-seated all the bulbs and took the chance to give everything behind a good clean up.





Since I had the tools out it made sense to do the same on the other side, especially as the lamp units are very easy to remove.





And all back together. Such a shame about the poor colour match on that hatch though...

 
#28 · (Edited)
So the Fiat has blotted its copy book recently. It was a Monday and I needed to head to town to run a few errands. Normally I'd walk but I had my 6 year old with me and going in the car is just quicker. 500m in to the journey and all of a sudden there's a bit more noise from the exhaust and then 200m later there's the inevitable sound of metal hitting the road. I nurse it to a car park, do what I need to and then head (very slowly) home to be greeted with this:



The mid pipe has rusted out right at the join with its front flange. I jack up the car to investigate but inevitably everything is totally rusted together and the nuts round off instantly.



So I drop it back down, head to my local exhaust place who declared the whole system as junk and that I need a new one for £340. But they don't have one in stock (is it me or do car exhausts not fail as often as they used to - I'm sure it was almost a service item when I first started driving) so I head home to consider options.

A few days later it's back up on stands and as you can see, I need to separate the flange joint but with rusty rounded nuts it's not easy.





After trying various combinations I settle on an angle grinder and a thin cutting/slicing blade and after 15 minutes the flange is free. I had also bought a repair pipe ready to go on.



I cut the mid pipe back a few inches to give me some room but because I am working under a car that is only a few inches off the ground it's quite a challenge. As a result, I don't quite manage a nice straight cut....



Still, no matter and the test fit shows everything to be fine.



And here it is all tightened up. I didn't have any exhaust paste at the time so it's not perfectly gas tight but it now drives as it should with plenty of boost and of course without the sound of the flexi pipe bouncing along the road.



I have today bought some exhaust paste so will finish it off this weekend. In the end, assuming that works, it's cost £21 for everything to fix it which is clearly much more palatable than £340.

Sadly though it's time for the Fiat to go. I like it and it's perfect for what we use it for (local errands basically) but my wife would like another Mini. We went to see one recently, in this case a Cooper Clubman with the auto gearbox:



It looked nice but it was the usual dreadful independent 2nd hand car dealer experience with nobody around to help. Plus 4 different brands of tyre, missing paperwork, white smoke from the exhaust (head gasket probably), aircon not working and so on. So the search continues.

Thanks for reading and I'll update with the final cost figures once it's sold.
 
#30 ·
So, it's closing time at Casa Fiat Bravo but before we get unceremoniously kicked out on to the street, there's time for one final update.

The Last Fix

I'd mentioned in a previous post that the exhaust was still blowing slightly after the repair, as I'd not used any exhaust sealant.

With the car advertised for sale and some interest coming through it was time to get it back in the air and fix it once and for all. Since its replacement had already arrived this meant doing things on the road, rather than in the garage.



With it up on stands I could remove the repair section and then was able to apply some Holts Exhaust paste (a bargain at £2.89 from ECP).



In the instructions it says to run the engine for a few minutes after application to heat it up and let it cure. Which I duly did. At this point I noticed the passenger side wheel turning, even though it wasn't in gear. Not sure why that was happening - anybody know?



That minor issue aside, the paste seemed to work and the exhaust was much quieter.

The Sale

I'd advertised the car on Pistonheads and also Facebook Market Place for £1,800. I wasn't expecting much of the former (and proven) but the latter brought some people my way. Having set the advert live on Friday evening I had my first viewing on Monday evening, shortly after the exhaust fix, by a young Italian couple. They liked the car but weren't happy with the price so offered at £1,500. I might have accepted but I had a few more viewings lined up.

This evening (Tuesday) a different couple arrived, took it for a drive and offered me £1,700 to account for the fact the remote key didn't work. I accepted, and within an hour of arriving they were on their way. These are the last photos I took:





So after 5 months and 2,152 miles the Bravo is gone. What is interesting is that we've clearly used it a lot (relatively) as I didn't do much more miles than that in 1 year in my Audi. But then the driving we do at the moment is all short, local journeys for which the Bravo is perfect for.

As always I like to share my costs so others can see what is involved. Here they are:

Car bought 6th April 2021 = £1,700
Car sold 7th September 2021 = £1,700
Total maintenance costs = £176, most of which was the engine mount.

Insurance was a £2 admin charge and 6 months of RFL is £120 so putting that in my spreadsheet sees me with a cost of just under £300 or 14p per mile, excluding fuel, which I am very happy with.

As mentioned right at the very beginning of the thread, this was my 2nd Fiat and I am really glad I got to experience one again. With the 150hp engine it was great fun to drive, way better than the Golf that came before it, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend one if somebody was looking for a cheap, well equipped run around that's good fun.

So what next? Well the car that replaces it arrived on Saturday and here it is:



It's a 2010 Mini Cooper Camden, which means it's got the N16 engine, good for 122hp, plus some nice extras including heated leather seats, xenons, cruise and these model specific alloy wheels. It's done 93k miles but has a full stamped history from Chandlers Mini of Worthing and seems, so far at least, to be in very good shape.

Or, if you look at it the other way, it's the same age as the Fiat, has done 30k more miles, is half as practical but cost almost twice as much!

Anyway, I don't think it's going to justify a "Projects and Restorations" thread, but I'll tidy it up and put some content in "The Showroom" when it's all done.

Thanks, as always, for reading about my adventures in bread and butter motoring and with one less thread to update, I'll be focusing on the Alpina and the Audi going forward.
 
#32 ·
That's good news on the Fiat, hopefully gone to a good home. And enjoy your new Mini :thumb:
Thanks Andy. I did think it might hang around as it isn't that obvious a choice and I'd priced it at the top end due to low miles and so on, so I was very pleased it went so soon.

It's replacing their 2009 Vauxhall Corsa as they needed more space, so ideal for them really.
 
#33 ·
the wheel turning even in neutral? it is just drag in the box. although the box is in neutral there is just enough drag for want of a better word to turn the wheel when not held by the road surface.
nothing to worry about, but keep clear as wheel spinning will hurt if you stick body parts in it
 
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