Can someone please help.

I recently purchased an X reg marea 100 sx 1.6 and on the day it seemed fine so I took it. Now 4 days later it is very sluggish and sounds like it is backfiring sometimes. I have not used the car since I got it. I have also noticed that the exhaust sounds very loud but not a roar more like a metalic sound. This is concerning me alot as I got it from a private seller. Would it be worth getting a service (plugs, filters and oil). please help.

June.

Hi June and welcome to our forum.

A couple of checks for you to do, then come back and let us know the results.

Check oil, is it brown or milky or like mayonaisse?
Check water, is it oily, sooty or does it smell like bad eggs?
Do you have any exhaust smoke, blue or white?
Can you hear any blowing noises coming from the exhaust or under the car, in the engine?
Can you take a plug out and check what colour/what state the end is?

A service will probably be needed, its unlikely to have been done just before a sale. Get back to us with as much of the above as you can and we'll see what we can do.

Good Luck.

It could be the exhaust catalyst breaking up. The honeycomb structure rattles it's way down the exhaust to the next silencer box and this can cause the metallic rattling noise. Sometimes when they break up, they block the exhaust too which would stop the engine breathing correctly and drop your power.

thanks for the replys.

The oil looks ok and the water smells fine but a bit dirty looking. Threre is no exhaust smoke to speak off. I got the spark plugs and the air filter changed and it seems to run ok now. There was a lot of water in the recess where the spark plugs go. I think that the exhaust is still loud. My last car was not as loud as this but then it was only a 1.1. Could there still be something wrong with the exhaust, it just sounds wrong to me and I dont really want to take it to a garage as I dont have much money left after getting the car. I hope its ok.

June.

June,

If its running fine now then it may be worth leaving the exhaust alone until it either gets too loud, fall apart or fails the MOT. Some Fiat exhausts do sound a little loud and RS Pilot knows what he is talking about.

If you know someone who can flush your water system that may be worth doing before the weather gets cold again.

If a quick service has sorted the power out I'd not worry too much about the catalyst for now as it's probably not blocking the exhaust and is most likely okay.

Exhaust noise could be a number of things and as Polecat has pointed out, Fiat's can sound a little noisier than the norm anyway. I was once pulled over by a copper on the beat for my Fiat 127 having a noisy exhaust. I pointed out it was a standard Fiat system so he then went on to say that maybe the baffles had fallen out. The noise was standard for this type of car.

After market exhausts (kwik fit etc) sound a little different to normal Fiat systems too.

The noise could be a slight exhaust leak - typically you'll get a tinking noise for small leakage at the manifold. This would be most noticable when the engine is under load.

If you're short of cash for now, run the car and just post if it gets any worse.