[SteveP.]

For those of you who are looking for a perfect oiler for our purposes and have not bought one yet, I like this one a lot! Perfect shaped slim tip for depressing the check ball and getting oil in, and not on the brick. It has a metal flexible spout that is slim and durable, and all metal construction. Should last nearly forever. It is a Dutton-Lainson Goldenrod #707. Made in USA. It is available through some local hardware stores and auto parts stores, available on Amazon, and from " www.dutton-lainson.com ". Happy Spidering, Best, s

 

[Fortuna]

For those of you who are looking for a perfect oiler for our purposes and have not bought one yet, I like this one a lot! Perfect shaped slim tip for depressing the check ball and getting oil in, and not on the brick. It has a metal flexible spout that is slim and durable, and all metal construction. Should last nearly forever. It is a Dutton-Lainson Goldenrod #707. Made in USA. It is available through some local hardware stores and auto parts stores, available on Amazon, and from " www.dutton-lainson.com ". Happy Spidering, Best, s

Awesome, thanks for this.
Here is a pic for us visual people 🤪

 

[SteveP.]

Awesome, thanks for this.
Here is a pic for us visual people 🤪
View attachment 93080

Ooops! Sorry! I really did mean to show a pic! (I'm duly embarrassed! ) Happy you like it, I sure do!

Best, s

 

[e9coupe]

I'm not a Fiat guy, don't know much about them, but the business I work at buys salvage from auctions and resells them as project cars. When we buy Fiats with the Multiair motors they come in with the valve oil brick pressure thing problem. (those are my technical terms) One came in that just would not start no matter what we did, so as a last resort I put the compressed air nozzle in the oil filler and wrapped a rag around it to "seal" it as best I could. Cranked the motor, hit the air chuck and the motor fired right up. We've done this several times since and it works every time. Of course this doesn't help if you're somewhere without compressed air but I thought I'd share just in case it helps someone.

 

[Fortuna]

Cool! Tips like that always help.

 

[andiamo]

I've had my car since June 2017, and for the first time in 5 years, I let it sit for two months (extended vacation), and upon my return, the car did not start. I followed this thread and simply used Tip #2 in the "Re-establishing oil flow..." post, and this worked perfectly. I purchased a small oil can with a fine tip, and Mobil 1 5w-40 EURO, and squirted maybe 5-6 times into the 'ball valve" under the oil cap, and the car started on the fourth turn. On the first two tries, I held the gas pedal all the way down to prevent fuel flow and to build pressure in the brick. On the third try, I heard some compression but no start. Car started on the fourth try! I did have it hooked up to a battery charger while doing this (on the 'engine start' setting). I also checked the oil on the dipstick and the level was perfect. I know the oil in the brick comes from the block and takes time to get there and get pressurized, so I figured I should make sure the oil level in the engine was good.

In this process, I also learned about oil specs for this car. I always have the dealer change the oil. I could not locate an oil that meets MS-12991 locally, so I used Mobil 1 EURO. I probably added maybe 5-6 oz. I am not concerned about this at all. Next oil change later in the year will be done at dealer. Car is running tip-top now. I also learned I need to drive it more! Car has 5,500 miles on it in 5 yrs.

Thanks to all who contributed info and experiences regarding this problem.

 

[Kain]

I also learned I need to drive it more! Car has 5,500 miles on it in 5 yrs.

Yeesh, don't know how you guys do it. I have just a tick under 10k miles in almost 2.5 years and I think I don't drive it enough.

 

[b4mky]

I've had my car since June 2017, and for the first time in 5 years, I let it sit for two months (extended vacation), and upon my return, the car did not start. I followed this thread and simply used Tip #2 in the "Re-establishing oil flow..." post, and this worked perfectly. I purchased a small oil can with a fine tip, and Mobil 1 5w-40 EURO, and squirted maybe 5-6 times into the 'ball valve" under the oil cap, and the car started on the fourth turn. On the first two tries, I held the gas pedal all the way down to prevent fuel flow and to build pressure in the brick. On the third try, I heard some compression but no start. Car started on the fourth try! I did have it hooked up to a battery charger while doing this (on the 'engine start' setting). I also checked the oil on the dipstick and the level was perfect. I know the oil in the brick comes from the block and takes time to get there and get pressurized, so I figured I should make sure the oil level in the engine was good.

In this process, I also learned about oil specs for this car. I always have the dealer change the oil. I could not locate an oil that meets MS-12991 locally, so I used Mobil 1 EURO. I probably added maybe 5-6 oz. I am not concerned about this at all. Next oil change later in the year will be done at dealer. Car is running tip-top now. I also learned I need to drive it more! Car has 5,500 miles on it in 5 yrs.

Thanks to all who contributed info and experiences regarding this problem.

Hi, Yes you are right, forget trying to burn the starter motor out !!
Buy a new cheap old fashioned oil can, if you can get one with a rubber tip all the better.
I had to pump my can about 50-55 times, then tried to start it immediately starting on 1 cylinder than the rest came in 20 seconds later turning the starter with quarter to half throttle on and off etc etc ....
I let it run for 5 minutes, tried again later and it has perfect ever since.
All this nonsense about putting your foot flat to the floor etc etc, forget it, get the oil can with a chamfered tip and pump away, mine had not started for about 9 months and so all or most of the oil had gone back to the sump
These engines as mentioned elsewhere do not self prime, if your car had only been standing for 6- 12 weeks you may be lucky without using the oil can.
I wasted £70 on new plugs, bought a new £110 battery and all for nothing !
One last point get your oil level back to normal level with 'sucker' or a more pain in the backside, you'll have to jack up and take some out of the sump.
All the best to Abarth and Fiat owners [some Jeep models have the same problem !]
Contact me here or on [email protected]

 

[SailCat]

My car sat all winter and I would avoid going more than 3 weeks at a time without taking it out for enough of a drive to warm up - maybe 20-30 mins every few weeks.
Then come summer it needed an oil change, so I took it to a reputable dealer that someone on here mentioned to me when I first joined. Drove that home (about 30 mins) and parked it in the garage and then had to go on a week long trip - maybe week and a half before I got around to starting the car again.

Doesn't start - sounds like the behavior mentioned here.

I b ought a pump to get oil out as well as the can recently mentioned above. Since those are not here yet I tried all of the other things mentioned here and in the blog post, nothing so far as worked.

Just wanted to add a data point here that if the oil is fresh and it is hot out (we went through a heat wave, was over 100, but car was garaged - still easily gets into 90s in the garage though), apparently doesn't even need more than 3 weeks - as little as a week may do it.

When I get the can and pump in, I will go back to trying to get it working again. Absolutely infuriating and definitely makes me want to sell it if it cannot even go a week sitting.

 

[SailCat]

Just for good measure, used a Bluedriver to read the codes off the car. Something about low oil pressure (likely the issue) and something cryptic that likely was from when I pulled the fuse to the fuel pump earlier in my attempts to resolve this. So can rule out anything else.

Oil can delivered - poured in about 1/3 of a qt of new oil into it, and pumped about 15 pumps (which is far from the full container amount) into the magic button. Left the cap off the oil entrance and tried to start the car - no go. Put the cap on, tried again - finally started. Sounded and smelled bad, but it started. I let it run for a bit but was gassing myself out in the garage, so killed it. Will check back on it again tonight and go get gas.

I will note that when I went to put the oil cap back on, it looked like some oil had shown up in there that wasn't there prior to the (failed) start - looked black even though just had an oil change and the oil on the dipstick is clear.

My current two concerns:
1) how bad is the extra oil in there? I know that overfilling oil can result in oil getting into areas it shouldn't and frothing up - no idea how much oil that requires though - also the dipstick in this car is incredibly hard for me to read, particularly when the oil is brand new

2) I put a battery tender on this and it showed as low after the first round of trying to start it - seems fine since I was trying many times - so I let that sit several nights to charge the battery up and do any maintenance it needed (used the NOCO Genius 10 on 12v mode). It was the lowest red after the first bout of trying - was on solid green when I checked back today. But after a single attempt at starting it today, it dropped down to the lowest red again - is that to be expected to really hit the battery that hard on a single start? is that a sign to get a new battery?

 

[jl-c]

I appreciate this is ebay.uk but buy yourself one of these. Cheap and will answer your battery questions. tester