Just got back to the house and the engine management light popped on, turned off and powered the car back up and it was still there. This is staying on permenently (it never flashed once when driving)

I had noticed a slighty jumpy idle on the car and maybe a slight bit of twitchyness (throttle wise) while driving home this evening which i'll guess caused the light to appear.

Since I know what the engine is like when one of the plugs becomes loose I do wonder if this could be a spark issue?

any thoughts on this one ?

A code reader will tell you which cylinder but prob best in long term to renew all plug/leads.

leeds where new at summer, sparkplugs I expect are from my old engine, but that part I dont know (infact, maybe the leads and plugs are from the replacement engine).
aim to get it checked out anyway, considering all the work that was done.

the 1.2 seems to enjoy telling you about the lambda sensor so i'd check that first, although i agree that a diagnostic is the quickest way to figure it out and a better idea than randomly changing parts.

Maybe I can swipe the lambda sensor off my old engine then if thats a potential issue
Will have to wait until tomorrow to get it checked anyway, just cant get fit in today. In the mean time car will be left alone until then, I aint even going to poke about for any loose cabling (since its pissing it down out there!) although I may check if things clear up weather wise.

Im not having much luck with this it seems.

ECU wont comunicate with the obd or fiat code reader so they cant get a diagnosis on the car.

They blamed it on the ecu anyway....

Just talked with alfanige about it where he suggested the fault could be either a dirty throttle body and/or the idle sensor being faulty.

Was a bit for me to take in over the phone anyway so anyone got any more feedback on this ?

As a side note, the car seems to be running ok now, be it with that light still lit up

alfanige is wise to suspect a throttle body problem, its very common on the 1.2. usually the throttle position sensor is the problem. however problems here tend to cause idle problems, often a high idle of 2500rpm.

if the examiner could not communicate with your ecu it is not good news. that usually means the ecu is faulty, and that would explain why the light is on.

i'll prepare for the worst just in case. Anything I need to know about swapping the ecu, any issues or the likes.

when a brand new virgin ecu is first fitted it will pair with the code box in the car. then an examiner is used to take it through some learning procedures. then its ready to use. easy peasy.

that would be a good opportunity to replace your code box with one that has a red key. all you need is a codebox and the matching red key chip from any code system 1 car. you could then programme any blue key into the code box, and you'd have a red key again.

ahh, I do have a red key already so that shouldnt be an issue, but it was the code box thing that I was concerned about. Since I recall having a similar issue over that with my old Rover when it had an ecu failure.

I assume a 2nd hand ecu wouldnt be a good idea then?

Scorg said:

I assume a 2nd hand ecu wouldnt be a good idea then?

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it wouldnt work unless you had the matching codebox and red key chip for that ecu.

Think i'll be getting a lambda sensor for the car. Today saw it become rather hungray for fuel, reaching the 7/8th mark at 60 miles (usually 88) and it was a bit spluttery while driving at mid speeds when slowing towards a roundabout.
biggest thing was when I got out the car could smell the fuel so does seem it was running rich.

Well ive covered 60 miles in the car since yesterday. Feels fine while driving. Idle is a bit choppy (more so when hot then at cold) and when left to idle you can smell fuel.
The engine light hasnt come on I might add.
Thoughts on this one? Lambda worth a try or TPS sensor ?
Also where are the sensors, Lambda on the exaust manfold under the heatsheild right?
But no idea on where the TPS one is sitting.

Scorg said:

Well ive covered 60 miles in the car since yesterday. Feels fine while driving. Idle is a bit choppy (more so when hot then at cold) and when left to idle you can smell fuel.
The engine light hasnt come on I might add.
Thoughts on this one? Lambda worth a try or TPS sensor ?
Also where are the sensors, Lambda on the exaust manfold under the heatsheild right?
But no idea on where the TPS one is sitting.

Click to expand...

if the idle is bad when hot, it suggests even more that the lambda could be the problem. go about this the cheap way, try a second hand lambda from a scrap car, then at least you wont waste much cash if it turns out to be something else.

the tps is built in to the throttle body. the wiring connector on the throttle body is for the tps. be careful, if you unplug it or replace it you may end up at your local dealer paying to have the tps range relearnt (£65).

Right, i'll try the lambda out of one from the local scrappy.

So I take it I have to remove the heat shield and then i'll be able to access the sensor ?
And how dificault will it be to remove, since im expecting its going to be connected rather solidly.

I wont touch the tps then, considering my ecu doesnt want to talk to anything at the moment that could end up even more costly to resolve.

Scorg said:

So I take it I have to remove the heat shield and then i'll be able to access the sensor ?
And how dificault will it be to remove, since im expecting its going to be connected rather solidly..

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i havent done it on a 1.2 before, but i doubt you need to remove anything, you will see the lambda sensor on the exhaust in front of the cat, just get a spanner on it and it will come off. the wiring goes up into the eigne bay and the connector is located under a black plastic cover that is at the back of the engine bay, slightly left of centre when looking into the engine bay. there are 2 knobs you need to loosen off then you can pull the cover away and see the connector. its a 5 minute job if you jack the car up (support it securely!)

Scorg said:

I wont touch the tps then, considering my ecu doesnt want to talk to anything at the moment that could end up even more costly to resolve.

Click to expand...

exactly, if the ecu doesnt want to play nice its the last thing you need right now

I just went out inbetween a couple of rain shows to confirm this
Cant see a thing bar that head shield, it covers everything from the top of the exaust manifold down to the other side of the cat.

Although, I did see something, Spotted a cable come from the right side leading to a 4 wire plug connector that then leads elsewhere (this all on ecu side). This does appear to be the lambda sensor.

So I can disconnect the cable but dont have any space to remove the sensor. At least thats the top one. I get the feeling there is a second one at the bottom of the Cat as well ?

Scorg said:

I get the feeling there is a second one at the bottom of the Cat as well ?

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a quick bit or research suggests on the 1.2 if you have the 182 engine you only have 1 sensor, but if you have the 188 engine you have 2 sensors, and one is post cat.

http://www.lambdasensor.com/main/pdf/fiat.pdf

oh, ta. I hadnt thought about checking the engine code to confirm the lambda setup.
I've checked the car and it lists the type as the 188 so that gives me my answer, two sensors on mines.

Only got one sensor so far, the lower(back one, came off a 1.6 stilo as parts cat lists it as the same one as on mines) having major dificaulty in finding any 1.2 fiats from 99 onwards now, of all the punto's I saw, all had the engines removes, cats with sensors taken away and the bravas, well, all 1.4's.

Ran out of daylight time to fit the rear one yesterday so will do this in the morning and see how things go from there