Croma Lumpy tick over poor start

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Croma Lumpy tick over poor start

BRASSBANDITNORTH

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I have just bought a petrol / lpg Croma 1.8 as a stop gap car as I needed something quickly to tow my caravan. I've had loads of Fiats over the years, including a 2.2 petrol Croma which i bought new in 2007 and several Fiat twin cam engined Ladas and FSO's back in the eighties. I'm an electro-mechanical engineer with a full understanding of conventional engines, but an absolute novice with modern fuel injected engines . . . . My problem - I bought the car off E Bay (I've bought several cars / pick ups / vans without issue on E Bay). Admittedly, it was advertised as having uneven tickover when cold - but it's much worse than that. It takes a lot to coax it into life when cold, and has little or no power until you can get it moving above 3000 rpm, after which it's not too bad. I drove it back from Bristol to Huddersfield yesterday, and at 70-80 mph it's really smooth, but when slowing down or stopping for roadworks or accidents it goes lumpy and needs to be revved to keep it going. It doesn't matter whether it's on petrol or LPG. The engine light is on, and the dashboard flashes up "check engine" after every restart. I know that this car is based on Vauxhall running gear, but do any of you Fiat chaps know what might be wrong ?
 
As said you need to find out why the check engine light is on ie read the fault codes.
What year is the car?
I hope you didn't pay much for it.
 
Hi @BRASSBANDITNORTH
As others have said, you need to get some computer diagnostics on the car.
Multiecuscan (MES) www.multiecuscan.net is about the best out there. You need a PC (laptop winXP SP2 or later does not need performance) and ELM 327 to USB interface and a "green" adaptor lead. You need to register MES at a cost of 50 Euros to do anything on the 1.8 Croma. The interface and lead set is under £30 e.g. www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152594003711 Get one "modified for multiecuscan" the very cheap ones have a design fault.
MES will allow you to read and reset fault codes, look at transducer signals, reset learnt parameters graph signals and much more. Like all OBD systems, it's not perfect but it will give you a good idea were to look first.

I guess you are in the north, but if you go by the A14/M11 near Cambridge on your travels I can run MES on your Croma.

Robert G8RPI.
(1.9 16V mJTD)
 
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