My bravo has all of a sudden become ULTRA-sluggish, It was perfect yesterday and this morning it just wont move! it wont got above 50mph and it takes forever to get there! I've been flat out all day just to try and keep up to traffic on 30mph roads! The engine seems to rev ok but for some reason there is no delivery of power to the car!

anyone have any ideas what this could be? I know what its not, the clutch isnt slipping, there is plenty of fuel, Ive checked the plugs and leads they all seem ok and the induction kit is clean! any advice is REALLY welcome!

A dead coil pack can knock out two cylinders, I remember when mine went I was foot to floor and only doing 50-60ish in my 1.2. Which engine have you got? Am assuming it is one of the smaller petrol models here? Have you had any misfiring lately? And no lights on the dash to indicate problems?

yep its a petrol 1.6

I thought it might be something like that but its not misfiring at all and all the dials/lights on the dash work perfectly. The only thing that ive noticed which is different is its been drinking a lot of fuel recently. Last week i wanted to see how bad it had become, so i filled the tank to top and drove like a nun on sleeping pills, and yet i only managed to get under 200 miles before the tank was empty!

Tonight i've tried resetting the ECU like it says on fiatboo.co.uk which has had no sucess and ive put a bottle full of redex in the tank, which caused loads of backfire in the exhaust but still hasnt cured the problem!

first couple of possibilities to check:

*Either ECU is in safe mode (although resetting it should have counted that out)
*Sparks are gone
*Distributors packed in
*Spark leads have corroded
*Cam belts slipped and timings now out (if its drinkin petrol and feels sluggish it could well be that)
*last one as stupid as it seems is check the handbrake cable and brakes arent draggin, sounds stupid but it does happen fairly often

hope you figure it out

Donny

Donny XP said:

*Cam belts slipped and timings now out (if its drinkin petrol and feels sluggish it could well be that)


Donny

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GOOD THINKING! :worship: I never thought of that! I've had the cambelt changed recently and im guessing if the garage didnt put it on tight enough that could happen! how can i check this myself? I have no idea where the timing marks are on a bravo, or if theres more with it been twin cam! I'd rather avoid going back to the garage again since he's a :tosser: and will probably keep my car for a week like he did last time!

Try another garage, there are some decent ones out there

Helz said:

Try another garage, there are some decent ones out there

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There are?

I'm sure you'll find ONE in here

i'd go back to where the belt was fitted because it will be free for them to check their own work. you have good reason to suspect the belt may have slipped. hopefully it wont slip anymore, a few teeth more and you may have valves coming into contact with pistons. that would be very bad. take it easy accelerating and try not to use engine braking until you get it looked at.

Just got car back from the garage that did the cam belt originally, It was the cam belt! - the "inlet cam" had slipped a notch apparently! It seems to be ok now! although there is an ocassional missfire when its idleing which wasn't there before, oh well... at least i can drive now without being overtaken and laughed at by kids on pushbikes!

cheers for all the advice guys! :worship:

Hey glad you found out the problem, usually its best to have fiat replace any timing belt as they have the specially tools to lock down the timing correctly, probably why its misfiring now to be honest....

Still glad its working better!

Donny

no no no its not best to have fiat do it! changing the belt is an easy job even for a DIYer. you dont need the locking toools if you mark the sprockets with tipex. fiat cant tell their arse from their elbow, i wouldnt trust them to change a belt on my car. plus they charge too much.