Hello all.

Me and me fiance both have grande puntos. I have noticed in the last two weeks that hers appears to be losing coolant. I have the oil twice a week and there doesn't appear to be any froth or anything unusual there, so i am pretty sure the leak is external from a pipe or jpint somewhere, but so far can't seem to pin it down.

Has anyone else had any similar problems and if so, where was their leak.

To give you an indication, it went from full coolant down to the minimum in about 14 days and is leaving a puddle under the car.

Any help would be appreciated.

there have been one or 2 have a leak near the cooling fan (the fan chafes on the hose)


Well its a start

Aha! Many thanks for the prompt pointer there.

I will check it when i get home.

Andy Monty said:

there have been one or 2 have a leak near the cooling fan (the fan chafes on the hose)


Well its a start

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Yes probably the coolant hose being rubbed by the cooling fan. A Fiat design feature! Just make sure when they replace it, assuming they have one in stock, that they tighten the clips. Mine came back to me, after waiting for a frigging hose to be manufactured in Italy, with the top hose clip only on finger tight. Coolant was pis...g about all over the place. Had to tighten it myself or face an 80 mile round trip to sodding dealer.

I had my water pump done last year due to leaking. There was a wet area around the oil filter mounting.

Thanks all. :worship:

These tips will help me hopefully isolate which exact problem it is and then take it from there.

Fab

radiator, bottom corner.

T14086 said:

radiator, bottom corner.

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Spot on mate!

Couldn't find any leak from the pipes so ended up having to nip it in to the local dealer from where we got it. Turns out the radiator is faulty leak from the bottom corner.

Booked in for replacement on monday under warranty.

Is this is a common fault then or likely a faulty batch of radiators?

Cheers for pointer tho.

your welcome

marty61 said:

I had my water pump done last year due to leaking. There was a wet area around the oil filter mounting.

Click to expand...

Hi, i seem to have the similar problem you had how much did it cost to repair?

jackwalsh said:

Hi, i seem to have the similar problem you had how much did it cost to repair?

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2nd year warranty

Had pump/timing belt/tensioner/coolant etc, thank god for warranty

I'm not going to start a new thread as i see little point, but i checked under the bonnet this evening to make sure everything was ok and i found the coolant tank was virtually empty. I bought the car in May, after i took the car for a test drive i notice the coolant was low but the dealer said it was as the coolant was being used in the system so fair enough. Not really looked since then (never had any such problems in 13 years of car ownership, only thing under the bonnet i've ever had to top up is screenwash!), but having not driven the car since tuesday i knew something was up this time.

Having searched the forum i'll assume it's the quite common fault of the fan catching on the hose, obviously i'm going to monitor the situation very closely and frequently and take it to the dealers so they can sort the cause - whatever it actually is.

I felt i best top up the coolant tonight before i went out so i filled with tap water to about the minimum mark as it was the only suitable thing i had, i'll now see if it falls and how quickly.

Surely more thought should have gone into the design of the two items in question.

To add to all the above..
I was preparing for a short trip and I noticed the coolant was a bit down, but still above the min line. I added a bit and got on with my trip.
On the way back I suddenly smelled a funny smell, and noticed the fan was working full speed. Moments later the temp indicator jumped a bit higher that it usually is so I stopped to check the engine. The coolant tank was empty and coolant was puring and evaporating ( the smell ) from the area of the accessories belt ( left side of the engine as you look it from the front ).
Turned the engine off and had the car towed to the dealership's service.
The water pump had broken and had also damaged the timing belt.
Had it all replaced along with the tensioner under 3rd year ( out of five ) warranty.

All these on a 1.9 sporting with 52000 km.
Seems to me there is a general issue with the water pump, so keep an eye for it...

Jim-Armao said:

To add to all the above..
I was preparing for a short trip and I noticed the coolant was a bit down, but still above the min line. I added a bit and got on with my trip.
On the way back I suddenly smelled a funny smell, and noticed the fan was working full speed. Moments later the temp indicator jumped a bit higher that it usually is so I stopped to check the engine. The coolant tank was empty and coolant was puring and evaporating ( the smell ) from the area of the accessories belt ( left side of the engine as you look it from the front ).
Turned the engine off and had the car towed to the dealership's service.
The water pump had broken and had also damaged the timing belt.
Had it all replaced along with the tensioner under 3rd year ( out of five ) warranty.

All these on a 1.9 sporting with 52000 km.
Seems to me there is a general issue with the water pump, so keep an eye for it...

Click to expand...

I'd say its a known issue as water pump change is recommended when cam belt is changed on the 1.9 MJet motor.

got booked in at autoworld on monday, just a little scared to use it until then, which considering i'm off work this week isn't great. Seeing as i hadn't checked coolant before other day just wonder how quickly it had gone down inc whether it was an issue when i bought the car. Not had a problem with temp gauge or anything though.

Taking of Water pumps that's what i've had replaced so hopefully now my leak will be solved.

I just had a water leak and it turned out to be one of the issues listed in this thread, the fan was rubbing the radiator down pipe. The part is £32 (Fiat only) and it was half an hour labour. I am glad I found this thread as I was about to go and question my mechanic about how it happened - shortly after he replaced the cam belt and water pump I was sitting in traffic watching steam escape from under the bonnet and I wondered if he had caused this to happen. I did have to wait a week for the part, 3 days for the wrong part to be sent and another four days for the right one.

If I had known this was an issue I might have checked when I got the car so maybe someone else can benefit from this post. It was discovered the day before I was about to make a 200 mile round trip to Poole on a very hot day so could have ended up with being towed home.