Hi guys, was driving down the road to work when my punto cut out! After starting it back up it was running on 3 cylinders and was really lumpy to drive, after a couple of minutes it got worse and bearly move!

It died when it got home engine just turns over and dosnt seem to spark, changed the coil pack and checked if there was a spark again but nope still no spark Any advice on what to change/check next?

Thanks guys

Check for fuel past the injectors (petrol wet plugs when cranked). Although it doesn't fit with the 3 cylinders bit, no fuel past injectors and no spark almost always means the TDC sensor is fubared.

fingers99 said:

Check for fuel past the injectors (petrol wet plugs when cranked). Although it doesn't fit with the 3 cylinders bit, no fuel past injectors and no spark almost always means the TDC sensor is fubared.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply mate! Ill check them in the morning and let you know how they get on. When im turning the engine over the rear end of the car stinks of fuel so hopefully there is fuel going into the system.

Ill give the car a good looking over and hopefully find out the problem. The car kept cutting out when driving all the time due to a poor connection on the battery terminal and i hope it hasnt mullered the ECU by it. Ive replaced the thing twice already this year!

Hi guys, quick update, thanking you in advance for any replys

Plugged in the diagnostics and cylinder 1 and 2 was misfiring/not working, however there was a load (and i mean load) of oil on cylinder 1 spark plug, cleaned it all up and put it back in and cleaned the crank sensor the car started! but its still very very lumpy still.

I checked the spark going to cylinder 2, theres now a slight spark, not bright enough to fire the piston i reckon though, its only faint, What you guys think?
I changed the spark plugs round with cylinder 3 to see if cylinder 3 would start playing up but nope... still cylinder 1 and 2 getting the misfire, and yeah there is fuel going to both cylinders :S

The HT leads are only 2 months old and i just changed the coil pack :s

Thanks for the replys in advance again

As a last check, run the car in the dark, look for blue flashes round the HT leads.

fingers99 said:

As a last check, run the car in the dark, look for blue flashes round the HT leads.

Click to expand...

of course when he says run he means park up and lift the hood
running the car and getting out whilst in motion and flipping the hood is just gonna cause an accident man



good luck

ps a compression test would be a good idea too

haha thanks for the advice guys, no (blue) sparks coming from anywhere.... strange just suddenly started doing this all of a sudden

Very strange that it's on 1 and 2. (I'm assuming 2 coil packs).

I'd be inclined to suspect the ECU, so the ECU checks in the Guides would be a good place to start. And/or compression test.

Thanks for the reply mate, its 1 coil pack, its a 1.2 16v mk2 punto sporting.
Ive replaced the ECU twice this year please dont tell me its another one!

I'd try another coil pack, from Fluffy, Shop4Parts, or FIAT. (in order of likely expense!)

fingers99 said:

I'd try another coil pack, from Fluffy, Shop4Parts, or FIAT. (in order of likely expense!)

Click to expand...

no offence to fluffy
i dont even know him
but
ive seen white box coils being faulty from the box
i personally would take one off a salvage write off
this way you know it was working properly before it killed the 4 occupants and is probably oe anyway

2 months old HT leads can be bad ive had to take them back before in the same amount of time, pull them off with the engine running and look for spark escaping through the side of the plug cap

s and b said:

no offence to fluffy
i dont even know him
but
ive seen white box coils being faulty from the box
i personally would take one off a salvage write off
this way you know it was working properly before it killed the 4 occupants and is probably oe anyway

Click to expand...

Very little white box stuff from Fluffy (Big Mick at Eurocarcare in Derby) and legendary saviour of Cinquecentos (and lesser FIATs).

But agree -- the non OE stuff is often worth it's weight in fag ash.

Thanks for the replying guys, I've already changed the cool packs for one at a scrap yard with the same engine... But both of them seem up be playing up on cylinder 1 and 2 which is strange as (as you's probably know) 1&4 fire and 2&3 fire :s

Ill look at the ht leads again, ill try swapping them round if I can aswell with some scrap yard ones aswell
Common punto! Trying to keep you alive here!

had some cheap OEM style ht leads, and they also failed very quickly....

if a 2nd coil pack has same issues, compression test and find out whats going on inside the engine

Burnt valves = No compression
Rings worn = lacking compression

if no compression is been made - it'll be like using water and a sieve
kinda like my brain sometimes

Ziggy

is there an engine light on or flashing? no light = compression missfire

Thanks for the advice so far! Ill have to try compression test, sounds like something's major with cylinder 1 something banging loud in the cylinder past 2500 revs, like a valve is tapping to hard or something! Just did a headgasket 1200 miles ago! And lapped the valves then! They all looked healthy enough! But hey I dunno!

dave said:

is there an engine light on or flashing? no light = compression missfire

Click to expand...

I've had a red engine light on for 2k miles now, the diagnostics were telling me it was bank 1 lambda sensor nothing else though

what was the wet compression rating?

because a decent mechanic would have done a wet and dry compression test

Have you checked the tappets to see if they are okay? as a i believe they are hydraulic ones?

Ziggy

Thanks for the replys again guys, Im getting a compression test done this week and will post the results,

Changed the plugs etc and if anything its running rougher now, it fires up all lumpy and then just dies after a couple seconds

Really Really hoping its not the ecu (again!)

Just to clarify:
There is a very slight spark
New coil-pack
Fuel going to the cylinders
1 and 2 cylinders are affected