Okay where do I begin, as stated in my introduction.

My mom owns a 1996 Uno Mia, she's been a bit temperamental lately... the car, not my mom... . So I thought I'd sign up and maybe pick some experts brains. My mom had her by a mechanic and he ripped my poor old mom a new one. So my pensioner mom is out of pocket R 5000 and "Little Mia" as my mom calls her is dead in the water so to speak as of 3 days ago. I will rummage through the forum threads for answers and might ask some pointers. On opening up the bonnet, I already saw some problems that can be the source of our situation, according to Fault finding in the manual.

For the last Month the car had trouble starting, she would swing, but wouldn't start, eventually after 8 or so tries she would take. She's been using a considerable amount of oil, its a case of fill the oil and check the petrol, but she has also been very heavy on fuel as sometimes she will only go if you drive her with the choke out. 3 days ago she spluttered to the garage, my mom filled up the oil and put in some petrol, she drove for about 3 km and then something "popped" or "snapped" as my mom said and she refused to start. She does swing somewhat, but she refuses to start at all now.

We can't afford a mechanic so I thought I'd study the manual and see what I can do. So far I can see the plugs are full of oil, the cylinder head seems to be leaking oil, there is oil in the carburettor and I have read that perhaps there might be a problem with the CDI as my mom's Mia's is cable-tied on to the distributor and both are full of oil and the wires are hanging haphazardly from it I must still check if the wires are ok. Can anyone give me pointers on how to start my process of elimination, where do I start and what are the causes for the oil on everything. Any help will be very much appreciated. Is she saveable or should I just try and get a salvaged engine and replace this one, if so can anyone help me to find a cheap second hand engine that wont cost me my good kidney. Thank you. This car is very dear to my mom.

Thank you

hi, and welcome,
look in classic panda section too, as the basic mechanical parts are pretty much the same,
the FIRE engine is basic , and tough..,
start by cleaning off all "extra oil", then remove spark plugs, and compare colours for EACH cylinder, if running o.k. they will ALL be a dusty beige /sandy colour.

oily indicates engine wear ( BAD) , and black / sooty = too much fuel.

Charlie

Maybe head gasket, maybe timing / valve cover gasket, maybe sump gasket. Find where the oil leak is coming from first. You don't want the engine turning over without sufficient oil, it'll damage it.

The crankcase ventilation might be blocked. If the carb has oil in it, the oil must be backing up into it from the engine area - did any of the sparkplugs come out oily?

When you say it swings, does it sound like it is sparking ok but the fuel isn't getting through, or the other way around - the fuel pump is going but there is no spark?
It looks like you have a Digiplex ignition system, I wouldn't worry too much about it being tie-wrapped as that could just be that the original fixings no longer work, so someone has tried to attach it.
I can sympathise as I've had similar rubbish work done on my car, it's a total nightmare because people change things, and it's years later until you find out depending on when you get to learning about motors, and you don't know what they have done, what they re-routed or re-wired.

If you can, get someone to check the distributor is working - ie, the electricity is going to the plugs properly. If that is ok, it's likely it is a gasket somewhere that needs replaced.

Any oil in the cylinders would foul up the spark plugs and stop them igniting, so this in turn means they don't burn the fuel properly, so you also get terrible mileage.

Hope you get it sorted.

robotfireengine said:

Maybe head gasket, maybe timing / valve cover gasket, maybe sump gasket. Find where the oil leak is coming from first. You don't want the engine turning over without sufficient oil, it'll damage it.

The crankcase ventilation might be blocked. If the carb has oil in it, the oil must be backing up into it from the engine area - did any of the sparkplugs come out oily?

When you say it swings, does it sound like it is sparking ok but the fuel isn't getting through, or the other way around - the fuel pump is going but there is no spark?
It looks like you have a Digiplex ignition system, I wouldn't worry too much about it being tie-wrapped as that could just be that the original fixings no longer work, so someone has tried to attach it.
I can sympathise as I've had similar rubbish work done on my car, it's a total nightmare because people change things, and it's years later until you find out depending on when you get to learning about motors, and you don't know what they have done, what they re-routed or re-wired.

If you can, get someone to check the distributor is working - ie, the electricity is going to the plugs properly. If that is ok, it's likely it is a gasket somewhere that needs replaced.

Any oil in the cylinders would foul up the spark plugs and stop them igniting, so this in turn means they don't burn the fuel properly, so you also get terrible mileage.

Hope you get it sorted.

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The spark plugs all came out with black tar like buildup. I cleaned them off and re-spaced two of the plug. They were a bit oily, but only two really had oil in the plug well. I tried it and it "swings" enough to almost want to take but doesn't. After that, the fuel filter didn't get any petrol into it. Think maybe she developed an airlock. I will get someone to check the distributor, but yeah I think there might be oil in the cylinder. I have checked the wiring too and from the CDI as well, but I don't know if the CDI itself might be faulty. I will see if I can't just replace it anyway. Thank you both for your replies. I appreciate any help I can get.

FiatLion said:

The spark plugs all came out with black tar like buildup. I cleaned them off and re-spaced two of the plug. They were a bit oily, but only two really had oil in the plug well. I tried it and it "swings" enough to almost want to take but doesn't. After that, the fuel filter didn't get any petrol into it. Think maybe she developed an airlock. I will get someone to check the distributor, but yeah I think there might be oil in the cylinder. I have checked the wiring too and from the CDI as well, but I don't know if the CDI itself might be faulty. I will see if I can't just replace it anyway. Thank you both for your replies. I appreciate any help I can get.

Click to expand...

Hi,

the fuel pump should run for a short period when ignition is switched on, :idea:

(unless it's a mechanical unit on cylinder head)

it should be possible to remove spark plugs, but couple them into the HT leads, and crank engine on starter, this could help clear-out any oil / debris,

AND you could see IF all 4 x plugs are actually sparking, ( they have to be in contact with metal to "earth / ground")

Charlie

Depending how oily it is in the cylinders, once it's ready to run might be a good idea to have some spare spark plugs (or clean them without disturbing them, I'm not sure how recommended that is these days though - parts not what they used to be & all that) in case the ones you use while getting it going get all oiled up again.

Again, hope you get it sorted.