Technical my fiat bravo is running erratically

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Technical my fiat bravo is running erratically

Jordan Smith

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bought my bravo last week off a family friend, she had owned it for 6 years with no problems, i then started to drive and filled up at the petrol station with premium unleaded, the next day i started the car and it was ticking over high at 1500 revs and was difficult to drive as the tick over remained high even as the engine got warm, there are no warning lights showing on the dash board, i have since found that the car has been run on super unleaded could this be the problem? or is there something ive overlooked.
 
Hi Jordan welcome to the forum.
The super unleaded will not cause you any problems it is perfectly fine to use it. Although your car is designed to use standard unleaded so you will not see the full benefit of premium.

What engine do you have? Your problem sounds like a faulty temperature sensor making the car stay in cold start continuously. The dashboard uses a separate sensor so that's probably still working as usual. The ECU water temp sensor is blue. The dashboard sensor is red.
 
thankyou for replying back to my message adrian, i have managed to replace the temperature sensor tonight and it is running the same as before ticking over at around 1500 to 2000 rpm the car is 1242cc 16v any other ideas
 
Hi!

I often put meths as an octane booster, the car runs much better:p these cars like good petrol and the higher the octane the better.

This problem sounds fimiliar. What year is the car? And do you know what injection system it has? This engine had 2 different injection systems (well, kind of different) in the Bravos, the early 1.2 had a cable throttle and the later ones had a fly by wire system. We have both systems here and each has its own way of curing an erattic idle. As I don't know what system you have, heres the general cure for both systems:

Cable: The stepper motor is playing up. Try to get a decent second hand one from a scrappie as most have ended up in the scrappie for this reason. Clean thoroughly before fitting as the contats can become caked in corrosion (altho unusual). This sounds like your setup as revs dont seem to be fluctuating.

Non cable: The ecm is relocated to the engine bay on top of the throttle body on this model, originally this was located facing out on the bulkhead. The plugs that go into the ecm, the protecting jacket around them can develop cracks. If this is the case, spray wd-40 or electrical contact spray into the defective plug then seal it up thoroughly and search for further cracks. The plug that gives the trouble is almost always the plug going into the bulkhead :mad: If this dosent cure the problem (although this is the general cause of the problem) the accelerator on the pedal itself or the motorised throttle body is giving bother. Remove these and clean thoroughly with contact spray etc.

Other things that can cause this are the temp sensor and the oxygen sensor, altho these usually give a lumpy idle. On a car that old dirt will have got into almost every crevice you can think of, it may just need a decent clean up.

Hope this helps! (y)
 
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There are some very good advisers on the board, and a few of them are in this string...and I'm not one of them. But, when I got my first Bravo 1242 16v CF3 I had problems too. Check your plug colouring to see you're getting a clean bang, check the HTs and coil and battery – for a new owner it might be an idea. I found a tear in one HT lead and when I replaced along with nice strong Varta and new plugs (make sure you get exactly the right NGKs for your version (EPER your car).

Check your earth pints for secure contacts. MAke sure that easily accesssible electrical contacts are in good order - wwd40

Then consider your stepper motor. Sometimes lifting it from the fixings with some washers can solve an erratic idle. Check the throttle position sensor and main body. I was recommended to detach and give a really good clean and it helped smooth out performance.


It's a lovely car. Likes to be revved (make sure you have done a full oil service or know when it was last done). I am no engineer but some of the fellas here are very informed on the car. I use normal fuel, it's perfectly good octane levels and has good cleaners. Many here don't advise fancy injector cleaners...just good plain common sense.

Good luck Vince
 
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