I’ll change the oil this weekend, that’ll be fun. I know I’m looking for the sump plug I think. I’ll undo that and probably get covered in oil :). I’ll have a friend look at the head, he used to work with cars and can probably tell me.
One more thing. If there is too much oil in there why would that be a problem? Would it not just burn it off?
You can probably tell I don’t care much about my car :). As long as it gets me to work I don’t care.
ACK!!
Yes, check the oil level(have friend if you must) for pete’s sake. To much oil is a bad thing. And while your at it, change the black/brown sludge that it is now. I feel for this little car, I do. After changing the oil (and FILTER), you might want to get a pressure test done to your cooling system. There probably is a leak somewhere. Change your coolant as well. You are supposed to change that everyear (again debatable) too. If you want that fiat to keep getting you where you need to go, you need to take care of it or you will be scanning the paper for a new one.
{hijack}
Sounds a lot like many 500$ (or beaters) I have owned. The 500$ car is the best investment you can make in transportation. If it runs for more than 3 months you are a head. I bought an '85 chevy sprint for 500 once. Drove it for almost 2 years back forth to work and then sold it for 300$ If you do the maintence yourself and pick a fairly reliable car, you can save a bundle. I love beaters. GREAT winter cars. In fact, I think I’m gonna go find me another for this winter so I can save my baby(2000 VW Golf 1.8T).
{/hijack}
dead0man
Check this out. You might want to read some of the other columns by these guys…You will learn a lot, and they are entertaining.
Quite a good site. Maybe I could find one for EU cars though I guess it’s all the same princible.
Thanks again everyone.
I went out on my dinner hour to check my radiator level. To my horror it’d nearly all gone.
I looked around and saw some drips. To me this means I have a leak. We have some stuff over here in the UK called Rad Weld, for leaky radiators. Has anyone used it? Is it any good?
Thanks again.
It might workm but its no substitute for a permenant repair. Take it to a shop.
Get them to change the oil while they’re at it. 
Also, it may be a hose leak rather than a radiator leak. Those cylinders of junk that you dump in your radiator also tend to plug up your heater core, making it less effective and sometimes completely knackered.
Buy some anti-freeze, mix it in a 1:1 ratio with water and fill your radiator and overflow tank (if you have one). Start your car and look at the hoses attached to the top and bottom of the radiator for leaks.
Good luck!
Concur-I used some of that once. Fixed my radiator leak pretty well, then my heater core conked out a couple of weeks later. This sort of thing does not save you money in the long run, believe me.
Not only that, but they are not friendly to a Water Pump either.
Bottom line, you seem to be quite unsure of your way around your car. Take it to somebody that does.
Yup. And since you cannot find any puddles under the car, to me, this means you have either a busted cylinder head, or cylinder head gasket. You are losing your radiator juice into the combustion chambers and dispelling it through the exhaust. You need to have a qualified mechanic run a compression test.
Yes and no. Too much oil will eventually burn off, but at the expense of fouling the ignition system and exhaust/intake valves. You will simply have too much oil in the combustion chambers (cylinders). Burning this stuff results in a mess of sticky, gooey sludge that collects on the valves (the things that allow oxygen in—and exhaust out of—the cylinders) and spark plugs.
You said that you just added water when the coolant was low. Since it is all gone now, it makes no difference, but never just add water. You need antifreeze also, not only for its antifreeze properties, but it also prevents corrosion.
You really should get a simple book, such as “Car Repair for Dummies” to get familiar with cars. But a Fiat is not really a car. It’s a demon posing as a car. It’s an acronym for “Fix it again, Tony.” (It’s really an acronym for the Italian manufacturer, whose name I have happily forgot.)
I had a Fiat Spider (convertible) once. What a disaster. The electric system was going haywire (no pun intended) every other month. They stopped distributing them here in the States - for good reason! What really surprised me is that they were awarded some kind of monorail contract, or something like that, a few years ago: a company that can’t even get the electrical system in an auto right!
A nice Manchester guy like you should get a good English car.
If the level of oil in the oilpan is too high the crankshaft and the rod caps will com into contact with the oil. This can tend to whip up the oil into a bubbly froth which is not good.