Fiat Barchetta oil recommendation

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
May 10, 2015
Messages
1,548
Location
Brittany / Canada
Hi There!

Long time lurker, but first post here, so please be indulgent
smile.gif


I recently bought a 1996 Fiat Barchetta:


Looks nice! Just kidding, this is not mine. Mine looks a bit more like that:
(greasy hands, not good for taking pictures, sorry. Also it was taken at the place I bought it, now it is a bit less dusty and has wheels)



Well, as the subject says, I'm looking for oil recommendation. I live in Europe so I have a somewhat more limited choice than most on the forum.

I have no owner manual (haven't succeeded in founding one online yet), and don't know much about this car and it's motor (a pretty simple 4cyl/1747cm3, except is it using the same phase phase variator as some alfa romeo motors (like the 1600cm3 in the Alfa 147), which apparently needs a certain old viscosity when cold (true or not ? Specs for Alfa 147 motor are sometimes 0W60 oil, and the ref of the phase variator is the same that the one on the Barchetta).

Guys on some local Barchetta forum says 10Wxx or 15Wxx is the recommended viscosity. Mobil 1 website says 0W40 for first choice, and some 10W40 second choice. Fiat recommendation (sticker under the hood) is some Selenia stuff, and my local Fiat agent doesn't know what it is (in fact they don't have spare parts anymore for the Barchetta, really a shame for a not that old car).

For the moment I only did a oil change with Shell Helix HX7 (semi-synthetic), I bought the car on picture and brought my oil with me to get it back home, a 700Km trip with an almost wrecked car, lol, but everything went fine).

Soooo, sorry for the long post. Car has now almost 145000Km, I've done around 3000Km since the last OC (many of them while fixing motor issues, many sensors replaced, etc.), and I feel it is time to do an OC, especially since I'm going to change the timing belt and two remaining possibly faulty sensors tomorrow!

I got some Mobil 1 0W40 oil on hand, and some Total Quartz 10W60, but I can also bought something else, no problem. The car will mostly be used for small distance (my work is ~10Km from home and I plan to use this car to go to work), many cold start, and from time to time some highway (motor is noisy and the wing in the rooftop too!). Temperatures here are very gentle (from -5°C to ~35°C).

What type of oil are you recommending? Considering the age of the vehicle and the numbers of cold start I do, maybe Mobil 1 5W50 could be fine? Don't know if the phase variator really really need thick oil when cold. 5W50 seems like best of both words isn't it?
Also what interval between OC?

Edit: don't know if important, block appears to be cast iron (rusty!) and head is aluminium. Car doesn't seem to eat oil and doesn't smoke. Pollution report came back ok at the MOT.

Sorry again for long post, now looking forward to hear from you
smile.gif


PS: I also need recommendation for my other car, should I need another thread? I don't want to flood forum.
 
Last edited:
10w40 was the viscosity back in 1997. if you had a lot of oil burning, or if you tracked the car, 10w60 was recommended.

That said, I used 5w40 in mine always, and consumption dropped in the course of 1 oci (20,000 km) to almost nothing. Also, the diesel like sound due to variator at startup (for a few seconds) also disappeared. I had a 145 1.4 TS, smaller displacement version of the same engine.

The dealership I worked for at the time let me have the Total quartz 9000 for about 3 euro per litre, so that went in it, but the Mobil 1 will be perfect for it. Save the 10w60 for topping up, should you need to.
 
Welcome
I worked on this cars often in the past. When new this cars used 10w40 full synthetic pr 10w60 if car was used on track or hard. Those recommendations changed after to 5w40 for all 16 and 20 valves petrols with hydraulic adjusters. Castrol 0w40, M1 0w40 or Helix Ultra 5w40 would be my pick. MANN or Knecht oil filter, avoid cheapos for this car.
Cambelt,tensioner and water pump is a must every 80k km. It's smart to change variator at same time. Repair kit doesn't work, so just buy new.
Suspension have a weak spot, rear trailing arms bearings. Kit for repair is cheap and works great. Basically all of suspension is from Punto Sporting /GT including wishbones and steering rack. Engine is shared with Coupe 1.8.
Cheers
 
Thank you for your answers.

In fact I also happen to have some Total Activa (= Quartz) 9000 5W40, but it is semi-synthetic stuff
smirk.gif

If you say I'll be safe with 0W40, then I'll go with it. I don't live in the UK (next to it, Brittany, the UKest part of France, but still with grumpy French people unfortunately), but I have some Bardahl pre OC engine cleaner somewhere, useful? Bought it but never used it.

Regarding oil filter, I have a Purflux filter (a French brand, good reputation here, don't know if justified or not), but have easy access to MANNfilter, will try next OC.

Variator was already changed by previous owner, but tensioner and water pump weren't, hence the complete change I'll do tomorrow (will keep the current variator though, sounds very healthy, no diesel sound at all, also I don't have tools and/or skills to do it myself). Accessory belt and tensionner will be changed too. Power steering pump doesn't sound too good, but it will do for now.
Rear trailing arms looks recent (probably already replaced), but front suspension bearing are dead dead dead, and I can't source viable replacement parts. I opened (well, it opened itself in fact) one of the bearing and put some grease in it, but it isn't a reliable fix...better than nothing for the moment. Owning a Barchetta is like owning a collector, except it is not, it's difficult finding some specific parts.

Wish me luck for the timing belt tomorrow!

Edit: blue is more discreet than red, and my colleagues are already making fun of me for my "weird small car"
grin2.gif
 
Last edited:
Popsy, all of mechanics are shared with rest of the fiat range of that period. You shouldn't have problems with sourcing front bearings, probably they are the same as Punto GT or Coupe natural aspirated. As for filter, Purflux is a good stuff, just isn't common here, so didn't remember to mention it. It's good your rear suspension is tight, it can be pain to change bearings if rusty.
Other than cambelt rest of the car is pretty bulletproof, and when well sorted it's great to drive on b roads. Just be sure not to crash it, back in a day body panels costed a lot for this car.

Edit: for gearbox only use GL5 MTF ,SAE 75w80 or 80w90. Motul gear 300 worked great in my twin spark with similar box.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the tips
smile.gif


It seems though the front suspension bearing (not the wheel bearings, the bearings that are on top of suspensions arm, sorry for bad english) are no more available. But that's off-topic and I apologize for that.

I was considering Motylgear, Motul gear 300 and Castrol syntrax in 75W90 for gearbox, looks like you answered that question too
smile.gif
 
Last edited:
Sorry,didn't realise you've meant top strut mounting / bearing. I can't remember correctly, but there's something telling me that you could fit those from Punto mk1. It's the same chassis and long ago I had Punto with bilsteins from Barchetta.
 
I just had a look for this parts for Punto, no more available on the spare parts websites I had a look
frown.gif

Fiat says it is no more available, but I'll continue searching, in fact I bought some dead bearing on ebay very cheap to see if the inside of the bearing could be fixed, waiting for them now!


Just a think I forgot ; how often should I change motor oil (and gear oil)? Car won't see more than 7-8000Km a year I think (hope so because it is insured for 8000Km a year!)
I think Fiat recommendation back in the day were 20000Km/1 year, but that seems a lot.
 
I'm sure strut bearings will be available from the auto part stores, the non OEM ones for Punto i know they are. Second option is a scrapyard, this things rarely went wrong. Just make sure the Punto part fits before buying.
You've said car will be used for short trips, so I wouldn't go over 15k. For gearbox 80-100k interval is fine.
 
The original Selenia oil was a 10w40 long life product. It was described as a semi synthetic containing 2 synthetic base oils and a mineral oil to disperse the additives. Today this would likely be called a full synthetic. With a recommended 15,000km interval I would only use Edge, Mobil or similar 0w40 A3/B4. Something 10w40 A3/B4 like Helix HX7 or Magnatec would be a suitable alternative at shorter intervals.

These engines also came in many variants and Fiat/Alfa recommended Selenia Racing 10w60 for "sporty" driving on many models. The 2.0L Alfas were also revised to 10w60 only, likely for high oil consumption. I owned an Alfa 147 2.0 TS, it didn't have an oil consumption problem but the dealer used nothing but 10w60.

I've also seen a number of these on the inside and common trend is high wear so 10w60 is not a bad idea.
 
Argh, now I'm confused
cry.gif


A friend of mine has an Alfa 147 1,6TS, HUGE oil consumption with xx40, he uses 10W60, 5000Km OCI, and it is still using some oil.

My motor is older, but doesn't seem to use much oil, level hasn't changed in 3000Km, also the motor is quite "rev eager" in such a small car (and also quite weak at low rpm) so now I'm hesitating between 0W40 and 10W60. 0W40 would be common sense for city use and many cold start, but 10W60 for wear? Really useful?
 
Last edited:
Fiat back specified all petrol engines with hydro adjusters to use 5w40. If you were living in Sicily or Australian bush I would say 10w60 would be appropriate. But in a northern France, day to day driving, no.
 
Sorry to dig the topic, but I need your help guys
wink.gif


I finally finished (with the help of a friend) changing the timing belt, water pump, etc, and motor was running smoothly, sounding surprisingly "modern" and not a bit rough like before (cam sensor is in my opinion responsible for that, now all sensors but detonation sensor are brand new)

Then today I changed the oil to Mobil 1 0W40, and now I have a concerto of hydraulic lifter between ~1500 and 3000rpm. I suspect only one or two hydraulic lifter are noisy, since it doesn't make much much noise. My friend, which is very knowledgeable but a bit old fashioned regarding oil, advised me to put Motul 300V 15W50, to silence the hydraulic lifter.

While 300V appears to be a nice oil, I don't want to put some 15Wxx in a car which will be used for small distance mainly. He also said 10W60 will be too thick (because it won't often be at operating temperature with my short trips) and will lead to more wear.

I respectfully disagree with him, but need your advice now...

- I thought more fluid oil was better for hydraulic lifters?
- 15Wxx oil is out of the question
shocked.gif

- I have some 10W60, but I just ruined some perfectly good 0W40 so don't want to waste anymore oil
- Maybe 5W50 oild could be good? (back to step one, lol)

- maybe (probably) I need to change hydraulic lifter, but they were not noisy before oil change???

What do you think?
 
Last edited:
take off the valve cover, and push with your finger on the hydraulic tappets. they should feel hard as a rock, but some won't esp if the engine had a bit of oil abuse. change the offending tappets and be done.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top