suspension and steering

[tomviam]

Hi there!

Recently I have acquired a Fiat 126 (1978) de ville version.

I have no idea about mechanics and I dont know any other person with this car so I cant compare...lets see if you can help me out here.

The point is, when I cross a street bumper, you know, those b*******s to slow the cars down, the car literally bounces,making it even slower to get back on track, from my point of view, the suspension is veeery soft, thats why the car bounces that much, lets say it gets hard to recover till the car is stable... now I dont know if thats normal because of the mechanical part of this car or the absorbers must be replaced... I dont hear any noise though...

The second question is about the steering wheel, its not straight I had a car, Opel astra with the same problem time ago, but I didnt care...with the fiat I do care so is it a problem of the steering knuckle or can it be adjusted somehow?

Thanks!

[Joe Webb]

You can adjust the steering wheel on the steering column by taking it off and repositioning it. Very straightforward, I've had to do it a bunch of times.

But i guess it's possible that the allignment is really far out.

Most likely the wheel has been off at some point and the owner couldn't be bothered to replace it correctly

[tomviam]

You can adjust the steering wheel on the steering column by taking it off and repositioning it. Very straightforward, I've had to do it a bunch of times.

But i guess it's possible that the allignment is really far out.

Most likely the wheel has been off at some point and the owner couldn't be bothered to replace it correctly

hi, thanks for the answer.

Okay, I didnt know that had something to do with the steering wheel. I will do it and see if it helps, hopefully...cause if it has something to do with the steering...I guess it will be expensive to fix.

Any tips about the suspension? is it normal to be so soft?

[Joe Webb]

I'm no expert and it's hard to gauge your suspension feel from a post lol, but I think that sounds like the shock absorbers have gone. You can inspect the springs front and back to make sure they are ok, but shock absorbers prevent cars from bouncing around so that would be my guess.

My car goes over speed bumps fine.

[Joe Webb]

Also, there is very little on the fiat 126 that is expensive to fix haha, most parts are incredibly cheap and they are quite easy to work on yourself even for an amateur mechanic

Good luck with it

[tomviam]

I'm no expert and it's hard to gauge your suspension feel from a post lol, but I think that sounds like the shock absorbers have gone. You can inspect the springs front and back to make sure they are ok, but shock absorbers prevent cars from bouncing around so that would be my guess.

My car goes over speed bumps fine.

damn, thats my guess...the absorbers are gone...well I will try at least to take it to the service so they will know if they have to be replaced at least

Thanks!