The New Fiat 500 Abarth (only) Thread

I would like to see a performance comparison between the Ferrari and Abarth.

 

Here's my Abarth in Grigio. Just did the springs last night. It has the Magneti Marelli ECU and Pedal boxes, window tint and XPEL clear bra so far.
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Has anyone bumped into a schematic of the engine with dimensions on it while looking into upgrades? If so, could you share?

 

Looks awesome!

 

Very nice. What springs and drop? Thanks.

 

Thanks! I went with the Eibach Sportline springs (from Luke at TireRack) which dropped it about 1.3" front / 1.5" rear. There are a couple other options out there for another $100 to drop it another .5" in the rear, but I didn't think it was worth it and I like it sitting the way it is now. Plus, there's a few other things on the list to do on this car...ceramic brake pads, shorter/smaller shifter, hard wire the Valentine 1, upgrade the Beats by Dr. Dre stereo, etc.

 

Having my first issue with the Abarth. I noticed this week that it felt and sounded a little weak on the upper end of the power band. I started watching the boost gauge and noticed its not making full boost. In first, the needle won't cross 12psi, but in other gears it may get up to about 16psi. In the higher gears, when it does spool up to about 16psi, it gradually starts to lose boost as the RPMs climb. I think there's a turbo leak, it sounds like something's not right. It's going into the dealer on Tuesday.

Any tips or hints, I'm all ears.


Mark

 

I've had no issue with A/C, but then again, I live in Wisconsin. I just open the top, put the A/C on full blast, and its cool in pretty short order. The heat, on the other hand, sucks. The car won't blow hot air until the car reaches a certain temp. In Wisconsin winters, when its double digits below zero, that five to seven minutes before the heat comes in feel like forever.


Mark

 

Have it checked. One of the things I brag about on this car is well the a/c works and I live in south Florida.

 

I spent about 3 hours on the interstate in my Sport yesterday and was a bit disappointed in the a/c. I'm in SE Louisiana and the weather was low 90's with a heat index around 100 ().

Short version...In my other vehicles it seems I can use the high setting to cool down the interior and a lower setting (usually on recirc) to maintain the temp but I couldn't do that yesterday.

Bit longer version...I have the manual a/c and I was constantly switching b/w the two highest settings (3 & 4). 4 was great at first because it fairly quickly overcame the heat but then I found the fan speed too high and the air a bit too cool. I switched it to 3 (with recirc on) and that was too little fan and too little cool so I'd go back to 4 for a while. IMHO there is too big a gap b/w settings 3 & 4...assuming Brownie's a/c is working properly...and my internal temperature controls are too.

I'm thinking about getting the windows tinted, which should help.

On a related note...check out the temp gauge a few days ago...note this was after 5 PM...
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Much better marketing effort than J Lo!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM0XViFp1M0]STUNT DRIVING EDITION | Dude Perfect - YouTube[/ame]

 

Any updates?

 

None yet, it's going into Fiat today at noon. The problem seems to fluctuate, sometimes its worse, sometimes a little better, it's always worst in first gear. It's my only car, so I've had to drive it when weather wouldn't permit me to take my Ducati. I've noticed I have to hold in more gas to maintain speed on the highway, and it really seems flat on the upper end of the power band. Depending on traffic, I may try to get a video of what the boost gauge is doing on my way to drop it off today.


Mark

 

I've always been wary of turbocharged cars in terms of longevity. Keep us in the loop, hope yours is a one-off problem and it gets back to 100% ASAP.

 

They called me at the end of the day today. Mechanics couldn't find any loose connections in the turbo systems and it didn't throw any codes. They then took it for a test ride and it was making boost, but it still sounded like a couple of psi short of what is was making before. Service dept. said they felt like it was driving normal. They assured me they would do a recheck tomorrow morning. If they find nothing, I'll go get it and see what it does. I'll admit, it did feel better when I was driving it to the dealer, but not totally normal. Maybe there was some issue that cleared itself.


Mark

 

Mrs SMS' little Abarth held it's own last weekend in some nice company.
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Latest update: After telling service basically to go back and check again, they checked all connections to the turbo system and said they tightened some connctions. They also reflashed the ECU with the latest software update. After a test drive, the tech said he had no problems getting it to boost to 18 psi; 19 psi is about the max it ever went to since the ECU reflash recall back at the end of 2012.

Given that it was maxing out at 12 psi the other day and acting funny, I know something wasn't right. I'm hoping their reflash and plumbing tightening did actually correct something even if it was minute.

We'll see when I pick it up tonight.


Mark

 

We just went and test drove the Abarths this weekend..great little car.

I was surprised at how stiff it was sprung and by the amount of torque available.

The salesperson also knocked $4k off sticker immediately which was unexpected.

LS

 

Wow, $4k off. Is that on a heavily optioned one?

 

It didn't have stripes or 17s but had everything else...

It was also already on the lot so they were motivated.

LS

 

Anyone have real world MPG data?

What's a decent mix number to expect?

LS

 

Update: Picked it up last night and it was behaving much better. Either the ECU reflash or tightening the plumbing seems to have helped. I'm satisfied.

I get a combined ~ 28mpg. My commute is a mix of highway and stop and go and I imagine I drive a little harder than most (always in sport mode). On longer trips where it's mostly open highway, I've had no problem averaging in the middle 30's in sport mode.


Mark

 

Good to hear!

 

Glad to hear. Sounded like a loose intercooler pipe to me.