Last weekend I serviced a friends 500 Sporting. Mostly routine stuff but there are a couple of things that are noteworthy.
At service time I always take the opportunity to do a bit of preventative maintenance. The bleed nipples in FIAT calipers for example are prone to seizing and either snapping or stripping out the threads on alloy calipers. So they always get removed, wire brushed and copper greased before reassembly.
I also take the opportunity to cover key areas with a liberal coating of Waxoyl. All the threads that I’m likely to have to tackle in the future. Track rods, strut bolts and suspension mounting bolts. Steel brake pipes and unions. One day in the future I’ll reap the benefits of being able to remove these items with ease, because I had the foresight to do this now. 
You also learn to spot design flaws that will give problems in the future. The 500 has a big one behind each front strut!
Where the chassis leg meets the inner wing behind the front suspension there is a ledge on top of the box section with a half inch lip on the outside. This traps all of the crap thrown up by the front wheels. If I didn’t dig the road dirt out every 12k miles I swear you could grow plants in it like a window box!
So I dig it out with a small scraper then give a good brush out with a stiff bristled brush before lathering it with 
Waxoyl. By doing this every time I take the front wheels off, a future disaster is likely to be averted.
On the subject of disasters, on the morning that Phil brought his 500 over for service his driver side door handle broke! His car is only a 2007 model so we were a little disappointed by this.
The hinge at the front of the handle has seized on it’s pivot and continuous flexing had snapped the aluminium casting. He’s managed to continue using it carefully and I got him a replacement handle today. It turns out that the front hinge is actually screwed to the handle and can be replaced without replacing the whole handle. A nice design which I think just about redeems them for our disappointment with the original breaking. Another valuable lesson learned about preventative maintenance though. I’ll be sure to direct some white grease into the hinge at every service now too.
Next weekend it’s the turn of my nephews Honda to get a service. Then our own 500. Then I might get back to some restoration…..
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