General Heated handbrake and other musings

[smart51]

A Bank Holiday run out to Droitwich Marina today and I've tracked down the idling problem. For the first few miles it was fine, then when it warmed up, it would either idle at a fairly high speed, or so slow it would stall. A bit of throttle or a bit of choke and it would idle stably. Looking in the back, the choke was stuck partly open. After pulling it all the way off, it ran beautifully for the rest of the trip. I need to fiddle with the cable a bit so it turns fully off when the handle is pushed down.

 

[fiat500]

A Bank Holiday run out to Droitwich Marina today and I've tracked down the idling problem. For the first few miles it was fine, then when it warmed up, it would either idle at a fairly high speed, or so slow it would stall. A bit of throttle or a bit of choke and it would idle stably. Looking in the back, the choke was stuck partly open. After pulling it all the way off, it ran beautifully for the rest of the trip. I need to fiddle with the cable a bit so it turns fully off when the handle is pushed down.

View attachment 451047

That reminds me of the opposite problem when the throttle cable is too slack and you don't get full revs.

 

[Goldnrust]

Saw you out on your run today, coming down the a38. Car was looking good

 

[smart51]

I went for a longer run today, out to Shrewsbury, a 100 mile round trip. Bridgenorth to Shrewsbury is an A road that should really be a B road, which is perfect for the 500. The way back has a 12% gradient, which saw my speed drop to 25, needing a change down from 3rd to 2nd. It got up well enough after that. The town itself is lovely, but it lacks places to park outside photogenic buildings. Here's a pic that could be anywhere.

On the road, I noticed that the headlights weren't working. A closer inspection showed that the front dipped beam worked, but the main beam, side lights, tail lights and internal tell tales don't. I think I've found why. Are these special fuses? I've never seen ones like this before.

Other than that, the car drove on top form. I've never been out in wet weather before and noticed the little holes under the windscreen let in both a cold draught and some of the rain. Aside from that, is there a useful purpose for these holes?

 

[fiat500]

That's a great report and a good run for this time of year. Can I be patronising? and say "Well done." ....there should be more of us using cars in this way.

The fuses are a normal cartridge fuse and I think they are called "Continental" type. All of the fuses would originally have been 8 amp, so uprating to 16 might indicate a previous problem with electrics.

The little dents may be an indication that your car bodywork has been fortunate, and has not rusted in that area. There are similar indentations on my 900e camper and they are to allow drainage of water from the inner channels of the window seal. It's so long since I had a Fiat 500 that still had an intact body in that area that I can't be sure if they are also involved with the drainage arrangement that was fitted in later 500s. There was a roughly oval slot in the windscreen rubber which aligned with a slot in the metal of the surrounding bodywork through which a small, plastic tube protruded ino the seal. The other end of the tube deposited drainage water into the wheelarch in order to make sure they got rusty very quickly. Obviously, the drainage pipe blocks with debris very quickly and this encourage the windscreen corners to accelerate into becoming iron oxide.

Water will always accumulate between the seal and the glass, although the use of the proper sealant will help. I got so sick of it that I have filled the whole area with PU sealant. That is a bit permanent, with o going back, and I dread the day I ever have to remove the seal or glass....but it definitely doesn't leak any more .

 

[Goldnrust]

The hole on the inside on the screen is to thread the wiring through to feed the interior light in the rear view mirror. It shouldn't lead outside, only through to the under bonnet area, so I wouldn't expect a draft?

The traditional sealant for windscreens is a non-setting type such as Arbomast. Horrible messy stuff to work with, and I applied liberal amounts on both joins, body to seal and seal to glass. I still get a few drips on my passengers lower corner, in the same spot as you, after it's been raining hard mind. (yay for rubber mat flooring, no carpet to get damp and manky!)

 

[fiat500]

The hole on the inside on the screen is to thread the wiring through to feed the interior light in the rear view mirror. It shouldn't lead outside, only through to the under bonnet area, so I wouldn't expect a draft?

The traditional sealant for windscreens is a non-setting type such as Arbomast. Horrible messy stuff to work with, and I applied liberal amounts on both joins, body to seal and seal to glass. I still get a few drips on my passengers lower corner, in the same spot as you, after it's been raining hard mind. (yay for rubber mat flooring, no carpet to get damp and manky!)

Later cars (I don't know what year) did originally have these weep holes with drainpipe each side of the screen and down into the inner arch. I initially used the non-setting stuff on the windscreen, but it didn't work for me either.

You will always get drafts which are obviouslly more noticeable when it gets colder outside. These may come around the speedo, the dashboard switches, the screw holes that secure the kneepad, and through any other used or unused or unofficial holes in the bulkhead.
The bonnet seal is next to useless, so at speed, a roaring wind gets under it. I've blobbed a bit of sealant over evry little bit of daylight that was showing thrugh the bulkhead, and that has helped a little.

 

[smart51]

I've had a poke around the wiring under the bonnet. It seems some "attention" has been paid to it in the past. It had been reassembled like Eric Morecambe plays the piano. Anyway, the dipped beam now has 1 fuse per side, instead of both going through both fuses. The two stop / tail / main beam circuits now work off their own fuses too. But one side has a short somewhere. Cheap multimeters don't measure accurately in the 1 ohm range, but there's about 1 ohm to ground with the bulbs removed. Finding the fault is made more tricky by there being several yellow / black wires everywhere.

 

[smart51]

The new fuses arrived today and everything worked, at first. I went and did a few miles with the lights off, then tested them again when I got back. The same fuse has blown, but now it is wired properly, it only affects 1 headlight, 1 tail light and the instrument cluster back light. I wonder if the wire has rubbed through somewhere it goes through a bulkhead or is clipped to the chassis.

 

[smart51]

This turned out to be the cause of the blown fuse. It looks like the wire was trapped between the fuse box and the metal bracket that holds it. The headlights all work again.

 

[fiat500]

Good detective work, and fuse doing the job designed for.

 

[smart51]

Today on What's That New Noise... what starts to go te-pe-te-pe-te-pe-te-pe mid journey, particularly at idle?

I guessed exhaust blowing but I was wrong. If you guessed oil filler cap falling off, you win today's prize of kudos.