(T) Cinquecento Sporting Injector Light and Spluttering!

Hi All,

Hopeing someone out there can help, I've recently got a new car for my GF, a nice 97 Cinquecento Sporting (due to her managing to write off the nice 98 Cinquecento S I bought here last time - alledgedly the parked car jumped out behind her, lol).

Unfortunately the car hes developed a fault
The car will throw the injector light on and misfire/splutter when the engine is hot and you try to take it over a rev range.

For example, if the engine is at about 80 -85 then it will do it at about 6k revs. If the engine is at 90 - 95 it will do it at 4k revs, and so on (the fan does come on ok, i just disconnected it to test).

It did this about 3 weeks ago just once and then I checked everything in the engine bay and it didn't do it again. However it has now started doing it all the time.

Things i've checked so far:
Earths - checked all the earts are conected well and all seems ok, also did the negative jump lead to engine block test.

Lambda - Had a spare one so put it on.

ECU Reset - disconected the negative battery terminal and left it off overnight.

Thats about as far as my knowledge goes, hehe, any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks guys!
Dave

I'd initially suspect the lambda, but it could be an ignition issue.

Get the car hot (at night) and peer under the bonnet with the engine running. Any blue sparks?

Failing that, it could be one or both of the coil packs going down. Pick up a spare pair from a scrappy.

i have had this problem for months
i've been tearing my hair out over it.
i whacked a strobe light on the ignition leads the other week and fed it through into the car.
saw some abnormality in the pattern they where firing in.
so a new set of plugs and leads it was.
i bash the strobe light back on once again. the pattern is still all over the place.
i replace the coil packs and do the same strobe light test, and yet still. its all over the shop,
im now thinking it maybe the crank sensor
so yes.
i am in the same boat as you my friend.
i still believe it is ignition.
try checking coil packs, plugs , leads,
i have replaced all of them to have no improvement..
try testing the crank sensor as i plan to do tomorrow

Good to see that i'm not the only one! it just seems such a weird problem!

I have a new crank sensor on order so i'l drop that on when it turns up and update this thread with the result. Do let me know if you manage to get it up and running!

Cheers,
Dave.

i'll keep you updated in this thread..
please let me know if you have any joy with a new crank sensor.
thanks

I think my car is now fixed

I took the crank sensor off today to find that the wiring to it (just where the cable goes into the actual sesnor bit) was badly damaged! it looks like it may have got caught in the fan or something (although i'm not sure how the hell it would!!).

Dropped a new one in, got the car up to temperature and as yet (touch wood) no more spluttering and injector light!

Cheers
Dave

Sounds good, certainly won't have done any harm changing the sensor if it was that badly damaged.

Cheers

PD

Hi - I was having the same problem for weeks, the car started spluttering at high revs, and the ignition light would come on, then I'd pull back and it would run smoothly again. But the other day I was removing the front wiper motor to get at the wiper arms as these were getting quite stiff from rust and stalling the motor occasionally, and when i tried to start the car, nuthin ! Yes, the electrics come on, it turns over, but it wont start, and the injection light is on all the time. I got someone to jump me as I thought maybe I had run the power down somehow, but still no ignition. I checked to see if I had pushed anything out near the left of the engine where I was removing the wiper motor, but doesn't look like it. It seems I may need a new crankshaft sensor, as it may have given up coincidentally in my driveway, while I was doing other work on the car . If someone thinks I should proceed with this line of reasoning I appreciate the feedback. Great forum!

Back to basics.

After attempting starting, remove a spark plug, and check whether its wet or dry and go from there.

Cheers

PD

Thx reply - Yeh took off the sparkplug and it's dry. In fact, before today I used to hear the fuel pump kick in and whirr slightly when I turned the ignition before starting, bringing fuel to the top of the engine before firing, but now no fuel pump kicking in. Definitely Im not getting any petrol to the top of the engine now and thinking it could be some fault in the fuel pump. A neighbor suggested I take off the air intake and spoon a little petrol into the throttle body, see if she'd fire, but the fact that there is no pressure on the fuel, nothing happened, same result turning over yet not starting. However the symptoms I had before it wouldn't start were similar with symptoms I read about in this forum and others, relating to a faulty crankshaft sensor, stalling and stuttering at high revs and coinciding with the injection light. Would I be able to start it at all if this sensor fails totally?
Could my problem be fuel feed related? Thx for