My cousin has a fiat punto 1.2 2001.
When he starts his engine(engine maintenance light on)the car starts to shiver and when he tries taking off he must push the gas pedal very hard so the car can move. The exhaust also seems to be making strange noises.
when he is driving the engine maintenance light starts to flash and then it goes back to stable again. He told me that this problem started after he has a engine wash on the car??
I'm guessing it's a 1.2 8v, not a 16v?
If one cylinder was misfiring it would generally rev ok (the average person may not even notice it), and even drive, though obviously a little flat.
If it's at the point where you need to rev it hard before slipping the clutch to pull away (and top speed is around 40mph) then it suggests that two cylinders are down (especially if it sounds like a motorcycle v-twin
).
Common causes are-
1. HT leads (though unlikely that two fail together)
2. Ignition coil (two coils fitted to the 1.2, each feeding two cylinders)
3. Fuel inj. ECU (Fiat had issues with mk2 Punto ECUs where over time the coil driver components would fail causing one coil to stop working through having no switching signal)
What happens next depends on how mechanically minded your friend is!
Ideally you'd get the error codes read (Fiat Dealer or otherwise) to narrow down the fault establish what the cause is, otherwise it involves trial and error to work out which two cylinders are playing-up.
This can be done by removing each HT lead in turn with the engine running and looking for no change in engine note with a lead off, or even easier, if it is a coil/ECU fault you can disconnect one of the coils and see what happens- no change... that's the fault! (though the cause may be a bad connection/ failed coil or faulty ECU).
Please Note: Whatever is disconnected will cause an error code to be logged in the ECU which can hamper a Tech's diagnosis if you later decide to opt for a garage to look into it.
The diagnostic procedure to determine if it is a faulty coil or ECU is listed at the top of the Punto section.
Be wary of someone who condemns the coil- get them to confirm it first by swapping the coils around (the fault should switch cylinders- if not, they're wrong and it's probably the ECU).
The management lamp flashing while driving is a warning to signal that a serious ignition failure is occuring which is flooding the Cat with unburnt fuel which
will kill it! Do not continue to drive it about!