2001 Fiat Multipla 1.9 JTD ELX

Sounds about right , worked for me on the Polo and the T4 .
Loving this so far Emdee , I'll be keeping an eye on this thread

The paint* & wheel colour combo is spot on. Always liked these (pre-facelift) Multiplas - the looks are best described as distinctive, but imho it makes much more sense when thought of as a piece of product design rather than as an exercise in automotive styling.

*What exact colour actually is it? Can't tell clearly from the pics - in some it looks black, but in others deep brown or deep aubergine...

Looks fab!

Finally, I can admit on a public forum that I have always liked the Multipla!!

I feel so much better now, that was a very cathartic experience!




that's not a bad air filter, this is a bad air filter:





courtesy of my late Rover 420 diesel. I obviously felt a bit peckish and fancied eating the filter......

This looks cool. The black on gold is a winning combo

The Multipla is not a pretty car, but it is a distinctive car which I applaud. I can't think of too many other people carriers from the early 21st century that I'd be entertained reading a build thread about

I get a funny feeling I'll be sat here thinking the same thing about a Citroen C4 Cactus in about 15 years

Good question! It says black on the V5. It looks black but is actually a really dark red metallic.

village Yeah the pic I took doesn't really show how bad the filter was, it was actually dirtier than the pic of yours, but admittedly not eaten!

duncanmartin not doing anything else with the interior really. It's quite clean - although I have shampooed the seats. Took some pics today.

bstardchild Tried the left and right placement before deciding on the middle, sounded better than it looked


So anyway, I'm off on a roadtrip up to Scotland with my little family tomorrow and I've been busy today. We'll start where I left off with the stereo. Got the surround out the dishwasher and chucked it in.



Interior doesn't really look that bad after the shampoo.



After I gave the thing a good wash with a pressure washer (first time), it was obvious that the paint needs a bit of help.

Check out the bonnet:





^ You're meant to be able to see me taking a phone pic in the reflection! So since I don't even own a proper posh polisher, I used a doodah on the end of my drill - poor man spec.



I hadn't used it before except for on the Polo engine for polishing the rocker cover. I was a bit worried about it destroying the bearings in the drill, but it seems to work pretty well and the drill is still fine - I always try not to apply any lateral pressure.

Pretty soon it looked like this:





Managed to get rid of quite a few scratches down the sides too, looks far better.

Next up, I put some 20mm spacers on the back which I had lying around.

From



to



Far betterer from every angle.

Also changed the bolts on the front wheels for slightly longer ones which I got from... Halfords!? Believe it or not, I was picking up my mate who works there and while I was waiting I spotted these on a CLEARANCE shelf. They're Fiat threaded wobble bolts (AKA an "alloy wheel fitting kit" including 3 spigot rings!?) and were reduced from some ridiculous price down to £20. I asked him what he'd do them for and I got them for £3!





It was around about now I had a little mini drama when an axle stand slipped off the subframe as I was jacking up the other side! Plonker.



Pretty lucky really, it could have gone much worse.

Whilst I had the front wheels off, I hit the front calipers with some hi-temp paint I had lying around from my misspent youth.

Take the calipers off? Don't be such a pansy.





As I was checking the fluids, I was looking at how the air feed works. There is a pipe running along the front of the grille into The Holy Box of Air. Thing is, I think there's a bit missing off the end or something. You can see it in this pic here:





Notice the front bumper has part of the grille bit blanked off? Well I'm fairly sure the team of engineers at Fiat had no clue what they were doing , so I took a Dremel to it.



That should hopefully get a bit more cold air in there. Racepeoplecarrier innit.

Then I went out and took a few pictures while it was still clean.











^ Gah forgot to do the antenna!

Looks a bit high up in those pics. Think it's how I was parked and that it'd just come down off the jack. Do wish it was lower, but it drives fantastically well. Happy man, and the little 'un likes it too.



"Why we has not got moar boost Dad?"

Without doubt one of the ugliest cars ever, however you've made this one actually very nice to look at and it's also a great read! Top work sir

That looks really good. And the interior looks pretty mint too. The polishing worked really well as well. When's it getting chipped?
The bumper blanking removal might increase the amount of air getting through that hole, but maybe it will just go around the radiator now?
The interior in mine's completely knackered (it was a parts chaser for 6 years for a garage) and the rubberising stuff is coming off all the dash surfaces. I was going to carbon wrap the bonnet, and I even got as far as buying a big roll of cheap vinyl, but it's such a big panel I keep wussing out! Maybe I should do something straightforward like the fuel filler cap first (actually, I need to fix the boot catch first - some tyre fitter monkey broke the mounting for the interior one and the boot one's never worked!).
Cheers
Duncan

It's just an import sized plate. I got it from my work, so it has our company name on it and cost me around £7 for the pair. Sadly I can't take orders but I'm sure you can get them from Halfords or somewhere if you can convince them you drive an import


Not sure if I can afford a remap right now, but I'd love to get a bigger turbo, some injectors and a front mount before doing that. Also another reason I'm glad this has a new clutch.
The air flow will no doubt go behind the rad, but The Holy Box is behind there though so no issue - in fact at the moment I'm not really taking this whole tuning thing seriously anyway.
That rubberising stuff is a right pain in the backside. I've never seen one of these more than 4 years old with a perfect interior. I imagine it's similar to plasti-dip? That might be an option for refurbing it?



Got back from Scotland yesterday and it was a fantastic drive back. It just loves to sit at high speed on the motorway, you've got to keep an eye on the speedo though, it's dead easy to creep up to 3 figures without realising. In fact it's better at high speed because it reduces the drone from that exhaust! There were some funny looks coming from other motorists, which is something I've always loved about these cars. 

Of course since we were headed up to my homeland, I knew not to leave without getting some new wipers. Ordered them ages ago and found them waiting for me when I got back - luckily the weather was BANGIN!



This also gives me an excuse to post a picture of my crack on the internets:



^ Those wiper arms are disgusting, there's a can of satin black in the garage with their name written all over it.







Edit:

Thought I'd add a bonus pic for mylittletony of some Alfa wheel test-fitting