Good morning gentleman,
Sorry for this essay. I have bought myself a Abarth 124 Spider (2017 version) and i enjoy it pretty much so far. I got it through a dealer in munich with 10k on it and its a pleasure to drive it.
After 2 months i have noticed some things that trouble me a little bit. Because i have to change the oil in the gearbox and motorblock it might be an issue with it but i just wanted to confirm if there could be something wrong with it. So if anyone has a little bit of spare time to answer my questions i would really appreciate it:
First question: I noticed sometimes even if i completely press down the clutch the transmission/gearchange is a bit "clunky" to say the least, other times its hard to get the correct gear in. Its like the mechanics are somewhat blocked or the shift is stuck (mostly from first to second). If i get it into neutral and try again 1 out of 2 times it then works after that flawlessly for the rest of the drive. Is there a common problem when they rolled it out or might it be that on the previouse 10k mileage someone just pretty much nailed it to the floor? Just to add the hair to the soup: i sometimes hear that clunkyness below me, where it sounds like the teeth are grinding against one another even though i have the clutch completely pressed to the floor and then trying to change the gear. Otherwise i have to change the clutch kit. Even though i doubt that after now 17k mileage the clutches are already worn out.
Second question: sometimes, also not always, if i drive lets say 20 km/h in first gear, then try to slowly remove my feet from the clutch pedal, to get the motor to break in and slow me down, the car is celebrating a mating dance like 3-5 times before it calms down. Is that just an issue with gas/air-mixture, where the turbo kicked in even though the rpm is not reached where it should activate or is it smth with the motor? I have around 45km to work, the first 10km over land, some 30km over highway and then around 5km city. When im stuck in traffic, uphill, downhill or straight, having to accelerate on first gear, then trying to use the motorbreak and letting the other behind me think im on adderall and trying to procrastinate with him is not something i always wish when i look in the mirror, so maybe someone had this issue and could explain to me if its normal, im just not accustomed to the car enough or i should just not do it with this car. I drive a Ford Transit as a work car and there is never an issue with it, so i dont (?) think its and issue with my driving style.
Third question, which im pretty sure the first comment will direct me to an already posted thread, is about the overall acceleration/noise. I already saw the video on the multiair-head where he disassembled it and showed why the multiair fails/might get blocked up, so if there are responses where they had the same issue down below and point theyre fingers to it i will have to get that checked. Anyway:
Its about the motorsound. I noticed that, for some reasons, the motor sounds like its trying its hardest to breath but fails in a span of...well, 10 seconds, i think? Its mostly after i come from the highway down, mostly restricted to 120km/h, and when i drive to a hill, it sounds like a bit rough and has hiccups, after a short while, like 1-2 minutes, it goes back to normal. Did someone had a similar problem?
Well, its mostly guesswork, im sorry if its a bit rough on the information side. Just for information: its a 02/2017 Abarth 124 Spider Tourismo with 170bhp and no modification done to it. So no new airfilter, no new multiair, no modifications to the air system, exhaust system, no motorchiptuning or anything else. The only thing i did was change the sparkplugs 4 weeks ago, because the old ones were not recommended (IKR9J8 instead of SIKR9A7 ).
Now here is something that might be the point where i could have saved you time and just wrote it up there, but that would be too easy:
when i changed the sparkplugs, i noticed oil-residues inside cylinder 2, above the sparkplug. I also had some still liquid oil inside the spark plug connector. I cleaned it up and when i tried removing the spark plug i noticed that it was not tightly screwed it. To say the least, it was pretty easy. Its like 1-2 turns too far out and it had oil residues on it. Now, this might be where the alarm bells ring, but if someone overfilled the oil (as far as i know the multiair holds 200-300ml in it? Maybe he didnt knew it.) is there a common issue with the motorblock-seal or other seal´s that due to the overpressure are leaking gas/oil/air out? Or am i overthinking this?
I have some basic knowledge about motors, but they are generally the ground basics and im not the type of guy that will, without trying it out on a car where it doesnt matter, just disassemble the whole motorblock or check the boreholes for damage (i dont even have the right tool for it). So if there are mechanics here that are not as grounded as me i would appreciate it if there are some tips or ideas that, if i have to take it to a dealer, i can ask if they look through the guesswork here and check them. I would like to drive it to its 100k and then use it as just a summer car, but for the next 4-5 years i will use it as a daily driver, so any future or permanent damage now could result in quite a heavy payment down the road, which i would like avoid.
Thank you very much for reading through this arbitrary long text and regardless if you can help me i wish you a beautiful day.
With Greetings.
Sorry for this essay. I have bought myself a Abarth 124 Spider (2017 version) and i enjoy it pretty much so far. I got it through a dealer in munich with 10k on it and its a pleasure to drive it.
After 2 months i have noticed some things that trouble me a little bit. Because i have to change the oil in the gearbox and motorblock it might be an issue with it but i just wanted to confirm if there could be something wrong with it. So if anyone has a little bit of spare time to answer my questions i would really appreciate it:
First question: I noticed sometimes even if i completely press down the clutch the transmission/gearchange is a bit "clunky" to say the least, other times its hard to get the correct gear in. Its like the mechanics are somewhat blocked or the shift is stuck (mostly from first to second). If i get it into neutral and try again 1 out of 2 times it then works after that flawlessly for the rest of the drive. Is there a common problem when they rolled it out or might it be that on the previouse 10k mileage someone just pretty much nailed it to the floor? Just to add the hair to the soup: i sometimes hear that clunkyness below me, where it sounds like the teeth are grinding against one another even though i have the clutch completely pressed to the floor and then trying to change the gear. Otherwise i have to change the clutch kit. Even though i doubt that after now 17k mileage the clutches are already worn out.
Second question: sometimes, also not always, if i drive lets say 20 km/h in first gear, then try to slowly remove my feet from the clutch pedal, to get the motor to break in and slow me down, the car is celebrating a mating dance like 3-5 times before it calms down. Is that just an issue with gas/air-mixture, where the turbo kicked in even though the rpm is not reached where it should activate or is it smth with the motor? I have around 45km to work, the first 10km over land, some 30km over highway and then around 5km city. When im stuck in traffic, uphill, downhill or straight, having to accelerate on first gear, then trying to use the motorbreak and letting the other behind me think im on adderall and trying to procrastinate with him is not something i always wish when i look in the mirror, so maybe someone had this issue and could explain to me if its normal, im just not accustomed to the car enough or i should just not do it with this car. I drive a Ford Transit as a work car and there is never an issue with it, so i dont (?) think its and issue with my driving style.
Third question, which im pretty sure the first comment will direct me to an already posted thread, is about the overall acceleration/noise. I already saw the video on the multiair-head where he disassembled it and showed why the multiair fails/might get blocked up, so if there are responses where they had the same issue down below and point theyre fingers to it i will have to get that checked. Anyway:
Its about the motorsound. I noticed that, for some reasons, the motor sounds like its trying its hardest to breath but fails in a span of...well, 10 seconds, i think? Its mostly after i come from the highway down, mostly restricted to 120km/h, and when i drive to a hill, it sounds like a bit rough and has hiccups, after a short while, like 1-2 minutes, it goes back to normal. Did someone had a similar problem?
Well, its mostly guesswork, im sorry if its a bit rough on the information side. Just for information: its a 02/2017 Abarth 124 Spider Tourismo with 170bhp and no modification done to it. So no new airfilter, no new multiair, no modifications to the air system, exhaust system, no motorchiptuning or anything else. The only thing i did was change the sparkplugs 4 weeks ago, because the old ones were not recommended (IKR9J8 instead of SIKR9A7 ).
Now here is something that might be the point where i could have saved you time and just wrote it up there, but that would be too easy:
when i changed the sparkplugs, i noticed oil-residues inside cylinder 2, above the sparkplug. I also had some still liquid oil inside the spark plug connector. I cleaned it up and when i tried removing the spark plug i noticed that it was not tightly screwed it. To say the least, it was pretty easy. Its like 1-2 turns too far out and it had oil residues on it. Now, this might be where the alarm bells ring, but if someone overfilled the oil (as far as i know the multiair holds 200-300ml in it? Maybe he didnt knew it.) is there a common issue with the motorblock-seal or other seal´s that due to the overpressure are leaking gas/oil/air out? Or am i overthinking this?
I have some basic knowledge about motors, but they are generally the ground basics and im not the type of guy that will, without trying it out on a car where it doesnt matter, just disassemble the whole motorblock or check the boreholes for damage (i dont even have the right tool for it). So if there are mechanics here that are not as grounded as me i would appreciate it if there are some tips or ideas that, if i have to take it to a dealer, i can ask if they look through the guesswork here and check them. I would like to drive it to its 100k and then use it as just a summer car, but for the next 4-5 years i will use it as a daily driver, so any future or permanent damage now could result in quite a heavy payment down the road, which i would like avoid.
Thank you very much for reading through this arbitrary long text and regardless if you can help me i wish you a beautiful day.
With Greetings.