Grande Punto diesel - help!

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Grande Punto diesel - help!

xlaurahunterx

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Hi there everyoneeeeeeeee :wave:

I'm not a Fiat owner (yet) but I wanted some expert advice and thought this was the best place to come...

I have recently sold my Smart car (bear with me on this one...) and I'm wanting a grown up, economical yet aesthetically pleasing diesel... I thought they didn't exist but.... :idea: ding! I found a grande punto 1.9 mjet sporting...

Now that was all well and good until.... I heard something about 2006 models having some sort of turbo problem. I ended up having a £900 rebuild on the Smart after 3 months of owning it - I really don't need that again! :bang:

Is this a fault on all grande puntos or just the 2006 ones? If so, how expensive are we talking to fix it??

If anyone can help me please feel fee to throw some advice my way!!

Thank you :D


xxx
 
It was never really clearly defined but I had a 56 plate 1.9 MJet re-mapped to 194BHP and never had a turbo problem in 70k miles +!

Trick is to let the turbo warm down after a good run by driving slow before parking up or sitting warming down fro a minute or so on the drive. Any car can suffer turbo failure if this isnt done to be honest & no turbo car is trouble free... BMW 3 series had the same issues around that time.

On a better note, any dodgy ones should have been fixed by now, the 1.9 8 valve MJet is amazing for the money, re-mapped or standard.
 
Thanks for the info! I'm just so bloody unlucky I would end up with a dodgy one if there was one out there! I have to say I've noticed the 2006 ones are priced quite a lot cheaper than the others.... Hmmm it's all a bit strange! Do you think remapping it solves the problem?? Sorry if I'm bang wrong but I'm not that well informed with the engineering side! haha xx
 
No Laura it will not. Before i confuse people, i should say that i'm Laura's "other half" using her account. I don't think he is saying that remapping will solve the problem, merely that in 70k miles his remapped car never had this problem. If anything remapped cars (like mine :) ) are under more strain, the turbo runs hotter and more boost is (usually) created.

If the turbo is so fragile that it needs to be let "cool down" after a drive then it must be a seriously weak unit...

Regarding the used ones knocking around, they all seem to be around the 50-60k mark. Would this be well out of the "danger" territory? Laura will be putting some serious miles on the car so it needs to be rock solid really.

Is there a way to identify the problematic batch of turbos? Is there a seriel number i can cross reference? Specifically, what is the actual problem with the turbo, is it a poor casting, seals that go, play in the shaft etcetc?

Thanks guys!
Charles

Thanks for the info! I'm just so bloody unlucky I would end up with a dodgy one if there was one out there! I have to say I've noticed the 2006 ones are priced quite a lot cheaper than the others.... Hmmm it's all a bit strange! Do you think remapping it solves the problem?? Sorry if I'm bang wrong but I'm not that well informed with the engineering side! haha xx
 
The turbo's on the MJet are not weak, they are made by Garrett Air Research & well up to the job. It is normally mentioned somewhere in all turbo car handbooks that a warm down period should be observed after a hard run, simple mechanics really.

The turbo spins up at 100's of thousands of RPM and depend on oil from the oil pump to keep the bearings lubricated. If you swith off the engine while the turbo is still spinning at that rate the bearings on any turbo will run dry, plus the heat soak compounds that problem.

As I said earlier... even "bullet proof" Beemers do the same under similar conditions.... as will any turbo assisted car, this is why Turbo timers were invented for turbo equipped race cars.

If a car is going to be loaded with heavy mileage rather than normal use I'd suggest a newer version or low mileage example of any make or model TBH.

You were quite right Charles in that I was in no way suggesting a re-map resolves any issue, it is simply a power & driveability solution which encouraged me to shorten my service intervals to 15k miles & have my cambelt changed earlier at 3 years & 50k miles...
 
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