Hi,

since autumn 2007 I noticed that the range of my Bravo 1.4 SX decreases. I used to go about 720 km with 51 litres fuel the yellow light never coming on before 600 km. Now I go about 560-580 km and the yellow light comes on already at about 440-450 km.

I noticed that engine temperature is colder than usual, it reaches almost never the mark in the middle (halfway up on the temperature gauge), that means it reaches only that mark when the car is standing and the motor idling. Otherwise, the needle stays more or less at the bottom - even when driving hundreds of kilometers on the motorway, temperature will stay way down in the lower half of the lower half.

The car starts normaly in fraction of a second, there is no loss of power or topspeed (I rather have the impression there is a little bit of extra power especially on small hill climbs with the pedal halfway down, motor seems to me to have slightly more torque but I could be mistaken there). Sometimes there is a slight gasoline smell especially if the motor is cold and I drive backwards but most of the time everything is alright. There are no drops of liquid under the car.

Since I have this problem, I spend an extra 10 Euro for fuel when I have to fill her up (in comparison to the distance the car used to run)

I own the car since 1997. What could be the problem?

It almost certainly sounds like your thermostat is not fully operating.

This is basically a valve that shuts off the front radiator. If its stuck open then the car will allow the water to fully pass through the front radiator. This is ideal if the weather is hot. however in normal conditions it will mean that the car temperature will be too low.

As a result the car will run cooler meaning the ECU will inject more fuel. This will be the reason for the higher consumption and the slightly better torque in certain conditions.

Hope this helps.

another vote for thermostat, thankfully its cheap and easy to replace.

my 96 1.4 sx has a similer problem, iv changed the thermostat and theres no change, I have spoke to alot of other people who own bravo 1.4's and they say the car is genuinly juicy.

I will support the thermostat vote also. Try changing the thermostat its easy and cheap and possibly this is your problem.

Thank you very much, guys.

I will replace the thermostat and keep you updated...

Zardo

just two more questions...

will I have to bleed the radiator completely? Or can I simply disconnect the tubes leading to the thermostat? How much liquid will get out of the motor?

As I'm quite far away of the next fiat spare part center, I've been thinking of covering about a third of the radiator with some cardboard to rise temperatur and economise some fuel... what do you think?

No you dont have to drain the system, just unscrew the old thermostat and liquid will fall but dont worry about it. Remember before putting the new one use a sandpaper to remove any old gasket or any glue remains. When done refill the waste antifreeze and do the bleeding to make sure that you have take out the air.

Zardo said:

As I'm quite far away of the next fiat spare part center, I've been thinking of covering about a third of the radiator with some cardboard to rise temperatur and economise some fuel... what do you think?

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Now thats old school, lol. A little while since the days of people doing this in winter. Would advise against it.
Most parts places/ motor factors, should be able to order in a thermostat for your car.

any motorfactor in germany will be able to supply the thermostat, they dont cost much.

Guys,

Some of you may quince when i say this....Redex. There is so many thoughts and facts and myths about this and I was wondering if anyone has seen any results from this?

I have used it and it worked on my 1.1 Metro but seems to have no effect on me Brava 1.4 12v.

Not doing too well on the juice either, had a service 2months ago.

Any ideas welcome!

Thankies! :slayer:

operationblade2 said:

Guys,

Some of you may quince when i say this....Redex. There is so many thoughts and facts and myths about this and I was wondering if anyone has seen any results from this?

I have used it and it worked on my 1.1 Metro but seems to have no effect on me Brava 1.4 12v.

Not doing too well on the juice either, had a service 2months ago.

Any ideas welcome!

Thankies! :slayer:

Click to expand...

Hi Mate.

Have no problem with Redex or similar products. Basically it is fuel line / injector and upper cyclinder cleaner. It will work if there was a problem. On a clean engine/fuel system it wont do much. I sometimes whack in a tank of high octane fuel 1, because it burns hotter and can clean the valves and 2, it has a lot of detergants.

ps, zardo's symptoms pointed to a thermostat which makes the car run on a cold setting thus injecting more fuel.

The 1.4 is thirsty, make sure its all serviced, your tyres are pumped up to correct pressures and your thermostat is tip top.

Kool

As a tip to anyone....you can buy some stuff for Hydraulic Tappets called Wynns Tappet Cleaner, if you have a really tappy engine, works well on the Ford SOHC CVH engines defo, but I have never tested on a Fiat engine.

Would anyone recommend any high octane fuel to use e.g Shell V-Power, Tesco 99 (available in 99 octane where I live ), BP Ultimate??

Thankies Again

:slayer:

redex is kerosene, it does no harm and no good either, while it is in the fuel you get better combustion thanks to the kerosene, but in terms of cleaning it makes bugger all difference because it is in minute quantites. it is good for getting your emissions down temporarily for MOT, or to hide a slight misfire when selling a car.

there is no point using a higher octane fuel than 95ron, your ecu is set up to only advance ignition up to 95ron, so higher octane fuels will make no difference, that is a prvoen fact. you should only use the higher octane fuels if your car is designed to use them, for exmaple if it si mapped to 97 ron (jap imports) or if it has fully adaptive ignition timing (some modern cars, but not many)

Thats interesting....

Can anyone advise any half descent engine cleaners which work (apart form Redex)?

Thankies :slayer:

jug said:

there is no point using a higher octane fuel than 95ron, your ecu is set up to only advance ignition up to 95ron, so higher octane fuels will make no difference, that is a prvoen fact. you should only use the higher octane fuels if your car is designed to use them, for exmaple if it si mapped to 97 ron (jap imports) or if it has fully adaptive ignition timing (some modern cars, but not many)

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Would 100% agree with that.
Even the coupe turbo ecu can't really notice the octane difference. New peformance ECU's can alter timing advance for high octane. I think the new bmw M series can have upto 25bhp increase running high octane.

operationblade2 said:

Can anyone advise any half descent engine cleaners which work (apart form Redex)?

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it isnt the cleaner that is the problem, more the application. the best way to use redex is to pour some in each sparkplug hole and then turn the engine over for a couple of mins. this will coat the valves in redex. now leave it for 10mins to dissolve the crap, then refit sparkplugs and fire it up. you get a huge white cloud out the exhaust as the redex burns off, then you've done the best cleaning job you can do without removing the head.

jug said:

it isnt the cleaner that is the problem, more the application. the best way to use redex is to pour some in each sparkplug hole and then turn the engine over for a couple of mins. this will coat the valves in redex. now leave it for 10mins to dissolve the crap, then refit sparkplugs and fire it up. you get a huge white cloud out the exhaust as the redex burns off, then you've done the best cleaning job you can do without removing the head.

Click to expand...

We used to tip it in almost neat into our twin weber carbs, would hold open the throttle as it spluttered like a pig and then blew out clouds of smoke, before clearing itself and running

bridges said:

We used to tip it in almost neat into our twin weber carbs, would hold open the throttle as it spluttered like a pig and then blew out clouds of smoke, before clearing itself and running

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me too, its amazing how quickly you can pour it in without stalling the engine, and there is no smoke machine on earth that can compete

Sounds like it works defo!

So taking both of you guy's advice, remove sparky plugs and add redex, and also add into carb

Sweet as a nut

:slayer: