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Bravo (Classic) My 1998 Fiat Bravo HGT

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Bravo (Classic) My 1998 Fiat Bravo HGT

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crashley

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Apr 2, 2015
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Afternoon all, i have a problem. I have a Fiat Bravo HGT which i've owned for around 15 years. I'm the second owner. It's covered around 90k miles. Anyways, it's currently sat at Power Italia, broken. It refuses to start at all, after plenty of investigative work by them, including a new ECU. They replaced the cam belt only a month or two ago (Dad had it done in my absence).

Anyone got any suggestions before it, very sadly, most likely goes to scrap?

Ash
 
I have one but only had it a week so not got loads of experience with this exact engine but start as you would with any car...

I assume its turning over but not firing up?
Is it turning over nice and quickly? If not check battery and earths.

Do you have spark?
Do you have fuel?

And.... welcome to FF :wave:
 
Welcome to the forum,

I would also ask does the 'CODE' light on the dashboard illuminate briefly then turn off?

Be as specific as you can about what happens when you try to start the car and what you have already changed and tried. I would say there can never be too much detail, the more detail the better. (y)
 
crashley said:
Afternoon all, i have a problem. I have a Fiat Bravo HGT which i've owned for around 15 years. I'm the second owner. It's covered around 90k miles. Anyways, it's currently sat at Power Italia, broken. It refuses to start at all, after plenty of investigative work by them, including a new ECU. They replaced the cam belt only a month or two ago (Dad had it done in my absence).

Anyone got any suggestions before it, very sadly, most likely goes to scrap?

Ash
Click to expand...

the others have good valid points, :cool:

BUT assume the Italian car specialist would know to look for the CODE light.as It's been on FIAT cars for @ 20 years.., ;)

Charlie - Oxford
 
Adrian Bravo said:
I should think the garage has considered every basic point we could muster but we need to be logical, start from the beginning and get the full story.
Click to expand...

YES..- all very true,
not uncommon for a "general backstreet" garage to do weird stuff with FIAT cars they've never encountered before..,
however anything with "Italia" in the title SHOULD be better.

TBH my preferred FIAT / Alfa specialist does a good trade in OLDER cars ,

as modern "service centres" seem lost on cars without Diagnostic ports:shakehead:
 
We are getting booged down in semantics here, I don't know who these PowerItalia people are and what their reputation and work is like... Let just concentrate on solving the problem if we can..

Give us as much detail as you can Crashley, of the symptoms and of what the garage has done if you have any detail on that as well
 
Just a few days ago a new member went to a Fiat Main Dealer who could not read the airbag ECU yet Ted managed to do it himself after help from us. You would expect a Fiat Main Dealer to have no problems with this, it would have been easy money for them.

https://www.fiatforum.com/bravo-brava/421294-fiat-cant-read-ecu-codes.html

My local Fiat dealer can't get their system to communicate with the ECU (they don't know if the car is too old) to check/clear the fault codes.
Click to expand...

I had no problem connecting first time and clearing the problem (as suspected it was intermittent glitch in wires under passenger seat). Thanks to everyone for their help.

I don't know why the Fiat dealer claimed to have problem - the 3pin connector in the car looked suspiciously like it had never been connected before since it was still embedded inside protective foam when I got to it. They did appear to have removed the side of the centre console though since they'd removed the trim pins.

Ted
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Guys " Power Italia" are specialist in the Fiat 20v and 20vt engine and would think they would know if the immobiliser was stopping the engine from firing

Does you HGT have new keys and locks ??? As any new ECU will need its keys and barrels
As they can't read or be programmed to read old keys
 
PowerItalia tell me there's nothing more they can do and are fairly dismissive of any other suggestions to be honest. I've been offered £80 scrap as a result, which is good of them. Anyone local to them want to take a look? If i'm to take it away, i need to organise a trailer/lift again back to Essex.
 
CFREITAS said:
Guys " Power Italia" are specialist in the Fiat 20v and 20vt engine and would think they would know if the immobiliser was stopping the engine from firing

Does you HGT have new keys and locks ??? As any new ECU will need its keys and barrels
As they can't read or be programmed to read old keys
Click to expand...
It went in with both blue keys. I suspect the red key is somewhere in my dad's house, but isn't that irrelevant now PI have changed the ECU?
 
CFREITAS said:
When one of the keys are in the ignition, does the code light go off ??
Click to expand...
Can't tell you i'm afraid. It's still at Power Italia. I can't look at the vehicle myself until i get it back to Essex.
 
CFREITAS said:
Sounds to me like an immobiliser problem due to the ECU change
Click to expand...
The car refused to start prior to the change; it turned over but simply refused to start. PI spent many hours trying to fix the problem, couldn't find it, thus they changed the ECU, in the hope that this would resolve it. I am hoping to get it recovered this week, then it'll be down to me only - or it'll have to go to scrap.
 
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