1989 Lancia Prisma Symbol

[xbo11ox]

New arrival in the bo11ox workshop last night......





A-framed it back from St. Lawrence bay in Essex, what a place! I didnt think such desolation existed any more in the SE of england. Very cool place. The car is pretty good too, have not started it yet, apparently it has a fuel leak. Brakes, fuel pipes, a 'running fault' when cold, non-opening passenger door, and missing drivers mirror are apparently the obstacles preventing it hitting the road. Bodywork is very clean but the roof, bonnet and boot have got a 'sandblasted' surface finish to the paint. hopefully the old polishing mop can improve that. 56000 miles and one owner till last year too.... winnAr!

[arthurbrown]

I like it!

Prisma Integrale please.

[DutyFreeSaviour]

Looks good - parts easy over there? Loads of Lancias running here if you need anything..... just give the nod and I'll do some hunting.

[flairline]

I'd love to know how you fund all these great cars Mr B!

[Robinxr4i]

Slam it, some euro style wheels job done!

[street]

Thats quite nice, and plenty obscure! Good purchase!

[Mark]

Awesome work!

[michiel]

Goodgoodgood!

[sav]

Looks nice that does
It's the "posher" Symbol edition as well. ;D

Had quite a few of these passed round the family over the years, and I liked them a lot. They drive really nicely, and are reasonably powerful.
The "Check Panel" on the dash usually throws up a random LED or three whenever it feels like it.
Had a cold start idle fault on one, think it was something to do with the throttle potentiometer IIRC.
Exterior door handles are known to break if treated roughly, same as the Delta.
I may have some bits and pieces still stashed away somewhere for Prismas, although I did sell off the Delta shared parts on ebay.

Best of luck.

[xbo11ox]

Funny you should say that sav, this one apparently has a cold start idle fault.

[Stu]

What an obscure vehicle - excellent work!
What's the spec on that bad boy?

[qwerty]

Looks ace!! I'm imagining it to look like a Delta Saloon??

[xbo11ox]

Thats exactly what it is! From the rear pillars forward its the same as a Delta. 1600 twink, about 110 bhp I think.

[sav]

Remembered a bit more about that idle fault.

Throttle potentiometer was initially part of the problem due to a bodge (possibly in search of a cure for the idle problem itself)
I seem to remember it may well have been the idle control valve which was actually at fault, but was harder to trace because the previous owner had messed with the mixture probably in an attempt to increase idle when cold.........making it "idle" at nearly 3000rpm when hot!
I even swapped the bloody ECU trying to find the problem at first.
It's a Weber IAW system on these cars, which controls fuel and ignition.

I've been told that 8 valve Integrale injectors and ECU can be swapped into this system, but never read up on that any further.
Pretty sure the non-turbo Croma and Thema used a similar system as well.

Noticed you say it has a possible fuel leak, so I suppose it's going to need that looked at first before moving on with further diagnosis.

"Might" have a driver's door mirror lying around for it as well, need to have look.

There was a 2000 4WD/Integrale version available, saw these in Italy, basically Delta HF 4x4 running gear with the 2 litre engine from the Thema.
Certainly the later models were badged Integrale in line with the Deltas.

[Hirst]

Lovely stuff, I inspected a particularly dusty long-term parked one of these in Greece.

Perhaps you could just stick any old mirror on the driver side and go for the same stylish look as my Charmant.

[charlie]

Sorry Mr B but that is a dog. Good luck with it.


Charlie

[xbo11ox]

^LoLZ! Well fair enough its not everyones cup of tea, I like rubbish cars though so I'm well chuffed with it.

Did some work on it last night, cured the fuel leaks, cobbled a battery on and fired it up. To my surprise it fired up straight away and sounded ace, mileage is in fact 51k so it should not be completely worn out yet. There is somethign wrong with the injection, it will not tick over when cold, then when it is warm the tickover is hunting up and down and the car is very smelly (too rich). Also if you pull the wire off the 5th injector it dies, suggesting that it is operating all the time. Its probably a coolant or air temp sensor fault making it think the engine is permanently cold. I will investigate next week.

Here is some more footage of the awesome machine.


The injection fault could possibly be the work of the resident squirrel which has been living in the engine bay - check out his nut stash between the cams here.




Bodywork is very smart, can't wait to get the polishing mop on it. roof, bonnet and bootlid are a bit flat. There is a bit of grot in the boot floor, not MOT fail but I will do it anyway, i think the rest of the car justifies it.


Interior is clean and tidy, original Blaupunkt radio and so on. all elec windows and other bits + bobs seem to be working OK.

Sav, if you've got a mirror for one of these, i'd be interested in getting my hands on it! There is one on teh bAy at the moment though so I will keep an eye on that.

[sav]

No problem, I'll have a look and see if I can find one anyway just in case.

Your Prisma looks pretty tidy right enough, 51k isn't a big mileage at all.

Will let you know what I dig up

[Deleted]

Those alloys look identical to the ones on that Delta I destroyed Good work for saving another unloved old motor, you should be knighted or something for services to wibblepoo

[xbo11ox]

Yeah I wish I'd had them doors off you now! Would have given me a mirror and a door handle (one of these is bust)