Hey, Completly new to this! I have a 1998 seicento sporting 1.1, I have had so many problems with it recently and cant seem to find a solution! so any advise would be greatly appreciated, about 18 months ago it kept stalling and cutting out when it was driven, so i took it to a fiat garage and had new fuel and air sensors fitted, then a year down the line it happend again so brought a second hand carbereta and had that fitted, have changed most things on the engine like spark plugs and water pump and thermostat but the problem keeps happening, a red light appears on the dash which looks like a spark plug, and comes and goes intermitantly when driving. the engine seems to get very hot and loses water at times, even though ive had it checked. Megan.

Hi Megan

Does the coolant boil over?
Does the engine cooling fan run frequently?

Noel

When was the cooling system last serviced?

Sorry for so many questions.

Cheers

D

Ill find out when the system was serviced, im not sure. yeah the fan does seam to run frequently, i changed the fuel/air sensors yesterday and today i was driving and there was steam coming from the bonet, the engine temp light had come on but there was still water in the resivior it was bubbling loads, thier was also steam/smoke? cuming out of the oil over flow pipe

meg

Steam coming out is generally a bad thing. Have you been topping the system up and bleeding it?

Cheers

D

yeah i have been topping it up regularly and bleeding it, havent had any problems with it since it started cutting out and stalling the other day.

meg

If its overheating whoever checked it needs a kicking.

Remove the plug for the fan sensor in the side of the rad, open up a paperclip and insert one end into each side of the plug.

Switch the ignition on and the fan should run smoothly without the paperclip heating up. If the paperclip glows, the fan motor is seizing.

Replace

Cheers

D

Lol i know,

thanks for the tip with the paper clip ill give it a go and see what happens,

meg

Hi mag
The fan should spin freely with a flick from a finger.

The fan should run even with the ignition off, be prepared to let the paper clip go.

There is a fuse which may have blown, or either the radiator switch or earth point may have failed.

When the temperature light glows it is time to select neutral and coast to a safe stop, if you possibly can, to let the system cool. I'd not run the engine until you fix the overheating problem. If it boils you need to wait until it is cool and top up with coolant and bleed again before proceeding.

If the fan does not work you could try limping to garage with the heater on full and the heater fan at maximum blow, if there is no traffic to reduce your progress. The little car needs the fan a lot.

Noel