Good morning all,

My other half has a 51' reg punto HGT with engine problems, and i'd like to know if anyone has experienced the same....

Symptoms:
Heaters not blowing hot
Temp gauge dancing between 3/4 and top
Exhaust blowing
53 Mpg

Now for the probable cause- As i sold my car last week (Ford Racing Puma), i decided to try and get the exhaust fixed while she was as work. I pulled into a petrol station to fill up with petrol and (luckily) checked the oil- and had to put in over 3 litres to top it up.


Now, there's no water in the oil, but the heaters have not been blowing hot for a while. The car has covered 109k and is still on the original clutch- so it hasn't been driven hard.

Any comments would be grately appreciated

the over heating could be that your thermostat is stuck shut...

53mpg in a HGT... wow!

still on the same clutch... really?! punto ones are prone to failing as early as 40k!

have you had the car since new? its likely the clutch has been changed

exhaust blowing... the sporty puntos have raspy sounding exhausts standard... but if it is blowing then a new one is in order...

53 is bad! We regularly get mid 60's on a run, and late 50's around town.

The back box went last year and was replaced with s/s, but the pipework has rusted through just before the join.

My other half has owned the car since it was 11 months old, and all its had done is the cambelt twice, and the variator.

Any idea's on the best way forward- check the water pump or thermostat first?

No way do you get mid 60's on a run, and late 50's around town... That's JTD territory! A HGT should get around 30mpg.

Heaters not blowing hot could be a knackered heater matrix or the coolant needs topping up/repacing and then thoroughly bled.

I'll take some picture's and post them up for all to see.

Also, on another note- the lights.....

On the drivers side the side light and fog light work, whilst on the passenger side only the headlight works. Full beams are fine...

Any idea's on a quick fix?????

I get close to 60 on a run ,44 mpg going to work (9 mile country lanes)
Are you having to top up coolant level is the first question if not then look @ the thermostat first

around town my 1.2 8v returns 43 ish and i drive like a granny.

Update:

Head gasket has failed. So i'm changing it this afternoon, but also means i'll have to change the cambelt even though it was replaced with the variator 3 months ago.

Well, you don't HAVE to change the cambelt, but it seems pretty silly not to while you've got the head off and all.

You can't get 50-60mpg out of HGT? Surely not? Have you worked it out properly or are you just going by trip computer?

Official figure is 34mpg and 44mpg for a Sporting, now I've got a sporting and around town it'll do around 38/39 on a very steady motorway run it might return 52/53. Seems to average around 41/42 and thats working it out properly.

If you can get 52mpg out of a HGT I'm getting one!!!

50 -60 Mpg is easy on a Hgt- as with any car, its about looking a far ahead on the road as possible.

After all there's no point flooring it on the motorway if you have to stop again quickly.

p.s - checked with trip computer and with petrol reciepts

Just an update;

New headgasket
New stretch bolts
Head skimmed
New thermostat
New cambelt
New variator
New Water Pump

Full service

Car collected today- £450 :slayer: