H|i all, firstly, can i just say what a great site!!!!! spent many a happy hour reading threads so now i thought i would have a go myself!!!!!

Got a sick marea 1.8 16v 115 ELX! Following two years of trouble free ( yes, trouble free!!!!!!) driving my marea broke a cambelt. Well, when i say broke, turns out whoever had done the head gasket change had left a head bolt washer floting around in the crankcase!!!!!!! This formed an attachment to one of my valve springs and hey presto, rush hour breakdown!!!!!
Changed the belt and tensoner, one valve (I know, very lucky!!!!) head gasket and got good compression (115psi) on all four pistons. New plugs and oil. Now for the fun bit!!!!! have put everything back together, the damm thing refuses to start!!!! turns over, got fuel into pistons, but NO SPARK!!!!!! I have a silly feeling that there is something simple thats wrong. All the conections are sound and as i have fuel dont think it could be the crank sensor? Any ideas!!!!!!!:bang:

dangel1971 said:

H|i all, firstly, can i just say what a great site!!!!! spent many a happy hour reading threads so now i thought i would have a go myself!!!!!

Got a sick marea 1.8 16v 115 ELX! Following two years of trouble free ( yes, trouble free!!!!!!) driving my marea broke a cambelt. Well, when i say broke, turns out whoever had done the head gasket change had left a head bolt washer floting around in the crankcase!!!!!!! This formed an attachment to one of my valve springs and hey presto, rush hour breakdown!!!!!
Changed the belt and tensoner, one valve (I know, very lucky!!!!) head gasket and got good compression (115psi) on all four pistons. New plugs and oil. Now for the fun bit!!!!! have put everything back together, the damm thing refuses to start!!!! turns over, got fuel into pistons, but NO SPARK!!!!!! I have a silly feeling that there is something simple thats wrong. All the conections are sound and as i have fuel dont think it could be the crank sensor? Any ideas!!!!!!!:bang:

Click to expand...

Just passing through this part of the forum,
It could very well be the cam sensor if the 1.8 uses one. They tend to not like being disturded. If yours does have one then A; they time/govern the spark and B; you will have seen it against or behind the cam pulley.

thanks bridges, the 1.8 16v has got a cam sensor, its behind the pulleys. Does anyone know if there is a test, or error code, that i can try to eliminate the cam sensor from my investigations? How would i know if its working or not?

right go back to the basic's the 1.8 marea has 1 coil per cylinder,may sound stupid are the coil,s connected next check the fuses the engine management fuse is in front of the battery in the little black box with 2 other fuses make sure the crank sensor is connected if the car was runnin before the belt broke i'd say it is somethin dissconected, take a photo of the engine close up and post it and i'll see if i can spot anythin

Would have to agree, check the obvious first. check the wiring and connectors governing the coil packs cam sensor and even crank sensor etc.

Thanks for everyones effort in resolving this problem, afew more questions if you could indulge me for a little longer!?!?!?!?!
Have traced all the electrical conections back, cleaned and re-attached them, still no change! The questions are:-
Can I check for spark in the normal manner?
Would fuel levels have any effect?
Have been told that the ECU is at fault(??????) But as it was running before i cant see how this can be correct!
Is all these problems be down to incorrect timming settings!!!! Does anyone have a idiots guide to timming a marea????
Any help would be appreciated as I'm getting a very sore flat patch on my forhead from banging it against this wall!!!!!:bang:

Right guys!!!!!!!

Discovered the problem!!!!!!
After checking all the conections and the timming, the sensor on the flywheel held the key!!!!!!! (hoorah!!!! NOT YET!!!!)

Removing the sensor it was discovered to be FULL of oil...... A closer inspection revieled that all the oil we had put in the other day had settled in the gearbox.......equals one knackered bottom end and the end of my love/hate relationship with the marea!!!!!

To this end, I will be posting all the parts from the car in the classified section of this site, headlights, coils, ecu, abs unit, and the like and scrapping the car after about 7days. So if u want anything from a weak green fiat marea 115ELX 1.8L 16v, let me know. I won't be asking alot for them, I would just like to see the parts go to someone who could use them. As I have said before, the car has given me NO trouble over the last two years and if someone else can keep their marea going using these parts then thats all good.

Cheers for all the help guys.