Hello my dear friends and barchetta lovers. I would like to ask for some help and advice. There are few issues with my little silver B and I would like to deal with them now during the cold weather so the B will be perfect in the spring

1st: My barchetta is doing high intense whistle noise after startup. No matter if it is hot or cold outside, it always do that for few seconds (maybe 5 - 10 sec). It is also changing the rpm a little bit and the noise is a little bit louder when the rpm are higher. I replaced the angular belt, as I have a feeling that the noise come out from that part of engine, but it did not help. Any suggestions?

2nd: The engine itself has a strange knocking noise. It is not a variator, I changed it because of the diesel sound. The barchetta was running very nice but after a short trip it started to do the clapping noise and now it just does not sound very nice.

3rd: With the bad noise comes bad power. I have a feeling like myB is running on the 1/2 - 3/4 of its actual power. I guess it has something to do with the problem with sound (?) Also it eats more fuel. The air sonde is ok I guess, I have it cleaned with the cleaning spray and it looks allright.

4th: During the wet weather is the B doing some strange noise from the back. It is like it is coming from the wheel/suspension but during the dry weather it is ok.

5th: the barchetta is kinda unconfortable and terribly noisy. I was driving another one and it is like two times more comfortable than mine and far less noisy. The car does not feel so solid and after driving over any "hole" in the road it sounds like a piece of crap. Even with the roof down. The worst nightmare comes with hardtop on. Every noise if more louder. Changet the window fittment, so the sound from the outside is almost minimal, but the inner sounds are really strong.

6th: changing the oil in gearbox. Is it really neccesary? The car has 150k km I have it for about 20k. I dont know when the oil was changed and I did not changed it yet.

7: I have problems with starting up the engine. I thought it was because of the battery, so I charged it, but barchetta starts a little harder. It is always on the first attempt, but not so nice and quick as it used to.

8: My key started to do some problems. I have the key + code light very often and I have to remove the key and insert it again to be able tostart the car.



Thank you all for answers and help!

Hi,
Concerning the problems with engine, did theoroblems start after you changed the variator? Is the timing correct after the variator was installed?
The whistling sound... Are there any splits in the air intake hoses, is the airfilter cover seated correctly?
The lambada sensor (sonde) may look good and clean but may be defective, I don't know how to test this.
Knocking from the front could be anything from simply a loose battery, engine mounts loose or new ones needed to suspension or wheel bearings very difficult to asses from afar. Is the knocking sound low down, can you put your hand on the engine cam cover and feel if the knocking is close or low down or from the sides where suspension mounts are?
Rear knocking again could be the suspension or bushes or simply the exhaust hangers need changing as they are stretched or perished/degraded. If it only happens in the rain, is it because water is being sprayed through a (dare I say it) rust hole in the wheel arch and making a noise? If the knocking is a tinny/rattle sound could be the exhaust shield rattling in above the exhaust silencer to the rear of the car or theheat shield over the exhaust down pipe at the engine.
The key and starting problem, perhaps remove the electric plug connectors to the ECU at the back of the engine and put it back this may clear a dirty connection.

Sorry if I am shooting in the dark but just some thoughts that may help you, hopefully someone on the forum will add help.
SteveD

Hello, thank you for the quick answer. I know that it is very difficult to solve and diagnose the problems through the internet so thanks for your opinion! No, the problems did not started directly after the variator change, the B was running smoothly after the change for quite long time so I assume that this is not the problem.

The whisle sound comes more from the left side of the engine so I guess the part withair flowing is ok,I installed the short pipe and sport air filter so that part should be ok.

The opinion about the exhaust making the sound in the wet weather sounds like a goodidea,I will check it, this can be the problem, thanks! The shield for the exhaust was removed by me (in the front) because it wasdoing terrible noise

And the ECU connector sounds like a nice try, I will give it a shot for shure! Thank you!

Regarding the noises from underneath, depending on how much chassis work has been done before, after that kind of mileage there are likely to be quite a few parts which need replacing. At the rear - shock absorbers, trailing arm bearings and subframe bushes, possibly wheel bearings too. At the front - shock absorbers, balljoints, wishbone bushes, top mount bearings, possibly wheel bearings again. Not to mention more minor possible issues such as noises from exhaust hangers, heat shields... And the outer brake pads can rattle annoyingly in each caliper on some cars. There's quite a list of possibilities which I've spent the last few months working my way through. I now have the quiet Barchetta I always wanted, but at quite a cost ! Eventually I gave up trying to identify individual noises and just replaced all the likely causes. Personally I'd start with replacing the shock absorbers front and rear and the top mount bearings above the front shocks, they probably made the biggest differences on my car, along with the brake pad issue. I hope that helps !

Thank you vry much, I will give it a look! is there any way how to identify if the shock absorbers are dead please?

thank you!

Forgot to comment on the gearbox oil change. My opinion is change the oil now and you will feel the difference and know when it was last changed.
Good luck with the car.
SteveD

Regarding the whistling noise, I also asked this question a few years ago. And the replies were that they all do this on start up, or at least the ones that have cone type air filters. The whistling stops after a short while.

Hi. Regarding the whistle noise, it could be a dry bearing on the auxiliary belt tensioner (item 2 on diagram). I found this on my own B when I changed my timing belt earlier this year. Also possible is noise from a dry bearing in the starter motor, mine does this occasionally.
Noise from rear could be from shocks or their mountings. I would jack it up, take the wheels off, take the shocks off, take the springs out and check for play in the suspension arms.

Attempted to add pic from manual but its not having it! Look at page 18 of workshop manual 1st engine folder.

Item 5 "car uncomfortable". Has it been lowered? Shorter, harder springs wont give you a comfortable ride. Any comments from lowered B owners?

Davefridge said:

Item 5 "car uncomfortable". Has it been lowered? Shorter, harder springs wont give you a comfortable ride. Any comments from lowered B owners?

Click to expand...

I agree Dave, depending on road conditions the ride is less smooth over uneven roads surfaces, however I replaced all bushes and shocks so no clunks and bangs. If you just put lowering springs on without consideration for the rest of the suspension, you can expect quite a bit of a racket.

Sorry just saw your question on shock noise. On mine the tired shocks made a clonking noise but then so did the dead top mounts.


Here's a paste of an old post I did on the subject of noises underneath -


Just a quick update in case it helps anyone else who's fed up with knocking and rattling noises. Okay my B still thumps into bumps and refuses to absorb any of them, but at least there are no longer any crashes, rattles, knocks or clonks when it does. Quick summary - rattle from the front was the outer pad in the offside caliper (see previous posts). Knocking from the front was the balljoints (complete replacement wishbones with new bushes and balljoints have been fitted, along with track rod ends and new shocks). And a loud clonking from behind the dash was the top mounts, replaced thanks to Henk at Barchettaparts but the new bearings weren't cheap. At the rear, new shocks got rid of the clonking from that area, one of the old ones had clearly burst a while ago and shed its oil. Plus the heatshield on the second to last silencer box was too close to the rear ARB, bending the shield away from it stopped the noise that was causing. My car's not high mileage, just over 39,000 miles, so I'm guessing there could be a fair few B's suffering from these noise issues. What made things worse was that I'd fitted a hardtop and the new-found lack of wind noise really emphasised the banging from underneath. All is calm now, but I'm still zig-zagging wherever I can to avoid potholes - no way am I re-doing all this in a year's time !


Since that post I've also replaced the rear trailing arms which are pre-fitted with new bearings, which has improved things still further. Plus there are 'repair cups' which you can get on eBay and which fit easily over the rear subframe bushes, they take up any slack from worn bushes and avoid the hassle/cost of removing the subframe and doing a bush replacement. Apparently it was adopted by Fiat as an 'official' fix and is often used on old Mark I Punto's where bush replacement would cost more than the car's value. My bushes didn't seem to be worn but I fitted the cups anyway to try and stop wear developing. Sadly this process has become a bit of an obsession.

Hello friends, thank you very much for your answers, I guess that I have many of the issues mentioned here, probably Cribus is right in many cases. I guess that the repairing wont be cheap :bang: but anyway, I love my B so I will have to do it :slayer:

Any opinions about less power ?

Thanks!