Category: fiat 500

the life of a grippy

As always I am going to keep you guys posted on what’s going on over here. It’s been busy lately so my updates have been more spread out, but I figured I put a few things together real quick. I recently took on a 4 month old puppy which takes a chunk of your time in itself. He’s learned so much already, and has turned out to be an awesome dog. His name is Max.

The car stuff will always be my passion. Once the E30 got messed up a bit from my travels up to the Bay Area I figured it was time to just fix it for now and park it. Take it off of daily driver duties and keep it for special purposes.

I quickly ordered up stuff when I got my Fiat 500 to get it low and looking good. There was a few things I didn’t know about the car when getting it. It’s not the easiest vehicle to get low, and then it’s difficult to drive at any height that would be considered that. The rear is a solid beam setup which runs out of travel very quickly, and the front of the cars subframe sits extremely low even at moderate heights. If you want to tuck tire you will certainly lay frame on nearly flat ground. The BC coilovers I ordered have been great, but I felt there was a few things they could improve on. I think they set the suspension up to be safe still at maximum dropped levels, but for guys like myself sometimes you just want to turn down the coilovers to an unreasonable height for a meet or show. The length of the front coilover spring and collar adjustability leaves you wanting a little more. I ordered some new shorter front coilover springs which are just slightly uprated. I wanted to do the same for the rear, but the awkward spring size is making it nearly impossible without spending a ton to have something manufactured. For now I’ll just have to play with the rear collars like I did before.

I decided if I lightened the duties of my E30 I would need something fun but cheap with some potential. I’ve always wanted to mess around with a Cressida. I found a great price on one so I grabbed it before it was too late. It’s turned out to be a good running car so far. It is definitely a beater in the strongest sense. There isn’t hardly a panel, switch, lock, handle, or speaker that hasn’t been destroyed. The paint is faded, but the body is straight. The motor and trans seem to be smooth so that’s good enough for me. I’ll be able to get this sitting low and somewhat fitted on the cheap, and that’s the only real plans for it now.

fiat 500 oil

I read up on the Fiat forums on how to do an oil change on the Fiat 500 before I did one myself. From what the write-ups said it looked like it would be the worst oil change ever. Well once I opened the hood and began to wrench I realized quickly there was way too many steps written up. I decided to post a quick pic with a little more info to help anyone that might come this way from searching on the net. You can keep the general idea going from the write-up but the part with removing the airbox to make more room is wrong. You will not gain any room from removing the whole thing since you will still be having to stick a wrench tightly between the motor to get to the oil filter. The front portion of the airbox is made to easily come apart so you can change air filters. It’s three quick screws once you pop off the engine cover and take off the little intake snorkel. You can simple slide it out of the way to the right side, and you will have the same amount of space as before. Obviously the best route would be simply to spend a little extra money if you plan on doing your own oil changes on this car and just get a real long extension for your socket wrench and a u-joint. The way I explained with just removing the front airbox portion simplifies this oil change. Here’s the original oil change link Fiat 500 Oil change DIY.