Poorly punto,need help

[RVVUNM]

I have a Fiat Punto 1.2 billy basic 2000 W as a run around and it has a problem. Approx 2 miles after starting from cold it sometimes dips to about half power,if I stop the engine them sometimes it runs normal for the rest of the journey and sometimes not.There is no obvious reason ie when wet, after a bend,after the brakes are applied. I was wondering if there may be a fuel fault or dirt in the filter.

Has anyone had the same fault?
Does it have a fuel filter?
If so where, is it?

Thanks

[flat16]

Back in the days when I were a lad, carburettor-based engines would have similar issues due to fuel vaporisation.

Your Punto has FI, so I could be way off the mark.

If you try a Google, the first hit is from PH: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=fuel+va...


Best of luck with it!

Edited by flat16 on Tuesday 16th October 13:13

[Wombat Rick]

Is it OK when starting from hot? If it's only a problem when starting from cold it may be the temp sender to the ECU. It's quite a common fault on Alfa Twin Sparks too. Cheap to replace. Think it was about a tenner when I got one.

[RVVUNM]

Wombat Rick said:

Is it OK when starting from hot? If it's only a problem when starting from cold it may be the temp sender to the ECU. It's quite a common fault on Alfa Twin Sparks too. Cheap to replace. Think it was about a tenner when I got one.

It doesn't always cure it by restarting when warm,it can take 4-5 restarts before it will run properly.

[thepickle]

Just on the fuel filter point, it's integrated with the fuel pump and doesn't ever need renewing like a "seperate" filter might.

[Spiderdan]

Do any of the engine management lights come on?

dan

[RVVUNM]

No lights come on when the fault occurs.

[Dave Brand]

It sounds suspiciously like a faulty lambda probe. The system ignores lambda readings until the engine reaches around 70 degrees, to allow the rich mixture needed by a cold engine. A faulty lambda probe may result in too lean a mixture between that temperature & fully warm, resulting in a loss of power - the same effect as pushing the choke in too soon on a carburettor engine.

It's worth getting a diagnostic check done - that will flag up a faulty lambda probe, or several other possible causes, such as a faulty temperature sender.

[RVVUNM]

Thank you for that,it sounds good to me.I'm off to speak to Mr Fiat,will let you know.

[Ian Lusso]

I would suspect the fuel filter as this has happened to me on two occasions with 2 different cars: An Alfa as well as a Fiat. The fact that the filter "does not normally require replacement" odes not mean that it doesn;t get blocked. It just means that the factory finds it justifiable to replace the entire fuel pump at 100000 miles when the filter becomes blocked...

These filters may be replaceable as one of my older cars with a tank mounted pump had a replaceable filter inside.

[thepickle]

I’ve had the fuel pump out on mine, trouble is, mine is the earlier model with the “separate” filter, although it still has a “tea-bag” filter in it. Can’t be that different though can it? Not sure how familiar you are with it, but if you get to the stage of wanting to take the pump out to see if that’s the fault, I can post some pics up from when I did mine if that would be helpful.