lambda sensor caused us problems in starting from cold and a little eractic idling and can cause a build up of soot on plugs.

Lambda sensors aren't active until the engine has reached temperature, no? I was told it was at least 15 minutes before they were taken into account. At least that's what I've been told. Also, wouldn't it have shown up on the OBDII scan?

Had problem starting and running car and wanted it remapped but had to sort out problem first. I rung red dot racing about trouble and they pointed me to lambda or temp sensor. changed lambda problem sorted, when done research on checking lambda faults I found that until it's complete naff will not always show on obdII, they however should be changed every 50k and not overlooked.

Not saying this is your problem but maybe is not an easyone

Damn :-( I replaced one, but there's still another two in there at £70 a piece. ****ing Barchetta

Theres only 1 lambda at back of engine on exhaust after cat are we talking about same thing

Nope, two in the manifold and one just before the rear box on my B. £210 for three of them. I'm starting to resent ever spending a penny on this thing now.

wow on my 95 b had just the one cost me £56 what years your b?

late 2001

knew I bought an old mark1 for a reason. I hope you get it sorted.

have a look here for their price
http://www.lambdasensor.co.uk/main/fiatntk.htm
thought this might help in lambda workings
http://www.ngkntk.co.uk/working/FileLib/Lambda%20Catalogue.pdf

Yeah, that's where I bought it from. Would I be able to test the lambda sensors by disconnecting all of them and seeing how it ran?

the other link shows how to test lambds and other info maybe of help

According to the mechanic my inlet thing blew up because of the a dodgy fuel pump. When he measured it it had 1.5bar instead of 3.5 as it was meant to.... since you have had similar problems to min it might be worth testing out...

Crawled under the car, disconnected all three lambda sensor - no discernible difference. So it's not the lambdas. Anyway to diagnose a fuel pump other than via OBDII? My suspicion is that it's running too rich in fuel, so surely it can't be the pump? Also, it seems ok at highish RPM (3K and up). Doesn't high RPM put more stress on the fuel pump? (all serious questions - I really don't know the answer, not trying to be dismissive).

Major question though, what special tools are required for fitting a cam belt to a Barchetta?

hi I think You only need the camshaft locking tool to make life easy. Done my sons 1.8 bravo without anything special not even camshaft locking tool but would have helped

Hmm, I was thinking maybe there is some kind of gauge you need to use to get it done precisely.

Funkstar De Luxe said:

Crawled under the car, disconnected all three lambda sensor - no discernible difference. So it's not the lambdas. Anyway to diagnose a fuel pump other than via OBDII? My suspicion is that it's running too rich in fuel, so surely it can't be the pump? Also, it seems ok at highish RPM (3K and up). Doesn't high RPM put more stress on the fuel pump? (all serious questions - I really don't know the answer, not trying to be dismissive).

Major question though, what special tools are required for fitting a cam belt to a Barchetta?

Click to expand...

If it is overfuelling, it could be the fuel pressure regulator which has allowed the fuel pressure to rise. The fuel pressure regulator keeps the fuel pressure at a steady 3 bar, if this fails pressure will rise to about 5 bar plus, it will also have a pulsating flow instead of a steady flow.

To change the cambelt you will need a dti gauge and cam lock tools.

Funkstar De Luxe said:

Hmm, I was thinking maybe there is some kind of gauge you need to use to get it done precisely.

Click to expand...

Theoretically these are the basic steps required:

1) Romove belt cover and cam cover
2) Hand cylce engine to TDC
3) Fit cam shaft locking tools on inlet & exhaust cam shafts
4) Undo inlet cam shaft spocket so it is ffree to rotate
5) Remove & fit & tension new cam belt
6) Re-tighten inlet cam shaft sprocket
7) Remove cam shaft locks
8) Hand cycle engine gently over about 5+ revolutions and check enverything is OK timing wise and belt tension wise.
9) Refit all covers and take for test drive

The setting of the variator is what makes the fitting of a cam belt on the Barchetta (and other similarly equipped Fiats) a bit more tedious.

When the engine is built/setup in the factory then they correctly follow the whole procedure as they are starting from scratch.

IF, and only IF you can guarantee that the cam belt has never been replaced on you car from new, and/or by you, then you can cheat a little by hand cycling the engine to TDC (use flywheel timing notch on flywheel visible from top of gearbox bell housing timing/inspection hole), making belt and pulley positions (tooth counting helps) and then remove old belt and replace with new belt without disturbing any positions/angles.

Soem people have come unstuck with this latter process because previous cam belt changes have NOT been done with due care and attention.

I don't think anyone should advise the latter method.

afroking said:

I don't think anyone should advise the latter method.

Click to expand...

I totally agree with you. I mention the alternative based on many years of Fiat engine timing experience.

Go back to Strada Abarth era and Fiat would have you remove the cylinder head, use a depth guage with engine set to 90 degrees off TDC (requires a special tool) etc. Theoretically setting TDC at 90 degrees off TDC is as accurate as you will ever get. If you can't see/understand this then you have no business in timing any engine regardless of the tools provided.

Often the formal instructions/guides are well and truly excessive in their requirements. They set the base, unambiguous and definitive 100% perfect timing criteria etc. In reality, depending on "circumstances", then alternative simpler methods are perfectly valid and just as accurate.

If you know the baseline (history) and know what you are doing then you can bypass/take short cuts over the "100% perfect" guidelines. Sadly many garages/even main dealers take these shortcuts and totally screw the timing of the car. 9 times out of 10 they get away with it, save themselves loads of money and time, bill you for the "full" job cost with no short cuts and possibly add cam cover gasket cost (NOT cheap) onto the bill, which they never replaced anyway.