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General Serious starting problem this morning....

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General Serious starting problem this morning....

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Fariniac

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Parked in the garage
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Mar 20, 2010
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Anyone else get this?

I went down to the 500 this morning, it was pretty damned cold out there, stuck the key in and she turned over and started....sounded like all of 2 cylinders firing and I tried to rev her a little but not a lot happened and then she cut out :(

Turned the key again and she didn't fire at all, turned over at a nice/constant speed but no firing. So, then I let her sit for a few seconds and tried again....nothing!! No lights (interior) dimmed so I'm guessing battery charge was not the issue, switched off and then tried again, she started!!! Lumpy as the Himalayas, but she started!

Had to rev her for a few minutes as she kept trying to cut out, then after about 5 minutes she was running smooth, back to her old self.

Left work tonight, she started 1st time, but she sounded a bit lumpy for a few seconds.

I have come to the conclusion that, like me, she doesn't like really cold weather at all :( Wing mirror temp sensor was saying -6deg C this morning! Though I am not sure it was quite that cold......

Dredding the morning now, just in case she don't start :cry:
 
Fariniac said:
Never have been, it's only just over 18 months old.

It sounded like fuel wasn't pumping properly, as though the pump was frozen.

Hopefully, it will be fine tomorrow morning.....
Click to expand...

I don't have a 1.4, but I thought the plugs required changing at 18,000 miles? Surely it needs to go in for a service? Just a thought.
 
Might well be spark plug-related but if you think that the fuel pump didn't sound right, and given that it is 18 months old, I'd book it into the dealer whilst it's still under warranty.

Some 1.2s aren't the keenest at starting in cold and apparently there are some illusive software updates, though not sure about the 1.4.
 
Super Uwe said:
Might well be spark plug-related but if you think that the fuel pump didn't sound right, and given that it is 18 months old, I'd book it into the dealer whilst it's still under warranty.

Some 1.2s aren't the keenest at starting in cold and apparently there are some illusive software updates, though not sure about the 1.4.
Click to expand...

The wife's little 1.2 has started absolutely fine the last two mornings and the temperature has dropped to -3 Celsius both nights. Temp is due to drop to anything between -3 and -6 tonight as it is.
 
My 1.4 sometimes does this in temps below minus 5. Once warmed she's fine. Any my servicing regime is obsessive, fresh oil and filter every 4k miles, spark plugs every second oil change, cambelt every 10k miles so I know its not that :)
 
jnoiles said:
My 1.4 sometimes does this in temps below minus 5. Once warmed she's fine. Any my servicing regime is obsessive, fresh oil and filter every 4k miles, spark plugs every second oil change, cambelt every 10k miles so I know its not that :)
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My engine (1.4) hates the cold! To be honest i drive out of the house at a decent pace as fast as i can without laboring the engine too much just to warm her up! It has started everytime but it doesnt sound that nice at low temperatures!
 
jnoiles said:
My 1.4 sometimes does this in temps below minus 5. Once warmed she's fine. Any my servicing regime is obsessive, fresh oil and filter every 4k miles, spark plugs every second oil change, cambelt every 10k miles so I know its not that :)
Click to expand...

Not a criticism, merely an observation (after all, it is your car so you are entitled to do what you like) but, I was under the impression that the cambelt on a 1.4 only requires inspection at 37,000 miles? and then only requires changing once every five years or 74,500 miles? (whichever comes first). One assumes you either do the job yourself and save a small fortune, or you are lucky enough to throw money about like it's going out of fashion! Not sure how much a garage charges to do a cambelt change on a Fiat 500, but when I had the cambelt changed on my Dodge Neon, it cost £236 at a Chrysler garage (4 years ago). I had it changed far too early (37,000 miles) when the handbook for my Neon clearly states the change should have been done at 105,000 miles or at 6 years. It was £236 wasted really. They gave me back my old timing belt for inspection and it was virtually unmarked, in fact, it still looked quite new, but that is a different car.

I can perfectly understand your reasons for frequent oil changes, but even spark plugs only need changing every 18,500 miles (so I believe). Of course if you do that sort of mileage in a year anyway, then changing plugs is perfectly understandable.

By the way, if any of the mileage intervals I have quoted above are wrong, I can only apologise, sourced from 'tinternet'. I also apologise in advance for questioning your quote 'obsessive' servicing regime. Sometimes it pays not to interfere with stuff too much, indeed 'over servicing' could possibly create problems. :)
 
frupi said:
Not a criticism, merely an observation (after all, it is your car so you are entitled to do what you like) but, I was under the impression that the cambelt on a 1.4 only requires inspection at 37,000 miles? and then only requires changing once every five years or 74,500 miles? (whichever comes first). One assumes you either do the job yourself and save a small fortune, or you are lucky enough to throw money about like it's going out of fashion! Not sure how much a garage charges to do a cambelt change on a Fiat 500, but when I had the cambelt changed on my Dodge Neon, it cost £236 at a Chrysler garage (4 years ago). I had it changed far too early (37,000 miles) when the handbook for my Neon clearly states the change should have been done at 105,000 miles or at 6 years. It was £236 wasted really. They gave me back my old timing belt for inspection and it was virtually unmarked, in fact, it still looked quite new, but that is a different car.

I can perfectly understand your reasons for frequent oil changes, but even spark plugs only need changing every 18,500 miles (so I believe). Of course if you do that sort of mileage in a year anyway, then changing plugs is perfectly understandable.

By the way, if any of the mileage intervals I have quoted above are wrong, I can only apologise, sourced from 'tinternet'. I also apologise in advance for questioning your quote 'obsessive' servicing regime. Sometimes it pays not to interfere with stuff too much, indeed 'over servicing' could possibly create problems. :)
Click to expand...

Jason drives his car on the track though and it's certainly not a stupid idea to replace the timing belt more often. A friend of mine back in Australia has a Rennosport Megane and missed a gearchange on track, belt slipped a tooth or two and lunched the top of the engine. Cheaper to replace belts needlessly than to have to do open heart surgery on the engine :)
 
306maxi said:
Jason drives his car on the track though and it's certainly not a stupid idea to replace the timing belt more often. A friend of mine back in Australia has a Rennosport Megane and missed a gearchange on track, belt slipped a tooth or two and lunched the top of the engine. Cheaper to replace belts needlessly than to have to do open heart surgery on the engine :)
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With respect Maxi, I didn't say changing the belt was a 'stupid' idea, I was merely enquiring why one would wish to change their cambelt at only 10,000 miles. If Jason burns his motor frequently on a track (which I wasn't aware of), I can see his logic, but for ordinary mere mortals who do the daily grind to work and back, it seems utterly pointless changing at that frequency.
 
Yeah, its track use and hard driving. I probably wouldn't if it was just a commuter car but she gets a decent workout. £100 every now and then is decent enough insurance against the engine going kaboom on me :)
 
frupi said:
With respect Maxi, I didn't say changing the belt was a 'stupid' idea, I was merely enquiring why one would wish to change their cambelt at only 10,000 miles. If Jason burns his motor frequently on a track (which I wasn't aware of), I can see his logic, but for ordinary mere mortals who do the daily grind to work and back, it seems utterly pointless changing at that frequency.
Click to expand...

Definitely :) You didn't say that you said the idea was stupid, I just that it's not a stupid idea to change the belt more frequently if you're tracking it. Like Jason says, it's cheap insurance :) I wouldn't overservice the belt on a daily driver though.
 
jnoiles said:
Yeah, its track use and hard driving. I probably wouldn't if it was just a commuter car but she gets a decent workout. £100 every now and then is decent enough insurance against the engine going kaboom on me :)
Click to expand...

Perfectly understandable. My days of hard driving have long disappeared into the ether. I couldn't possibly rag a 1.2 POP anyway! Nope, I'll sit comfortably back in my very large Cadillac and watch the Police Interceptors chase down the lunatics who don't race on the track (very sensible by the way), like you do. :D
 
Well, I think it was just the cold....

Got up this morning and went down to the car and she started as easy and quickly as every other morning..perfect.

Was running smooth right from the get go as well. I didn't start her up at all on sunday, so I recon the cold got to her.

18,000??? lol, she's just passed 11,500

Hopefully she was just having one of those mornings and now she'll be fine. I'll soon find out no doubt..hehe

thanks for all the replies guys, hearing that there are a few 1.4s out there that don't like the cold makes that the more likely cause...and eases my mind...what there is of it...lol
 
Fariniac said:
Well, I think it was just the cold....

Got up this morning and went down to the car and she started as easy and quickly as every other morning..perfect.

Was running smooth right from the get go as well. I didn't start her up at all on sunday, so I recon the cold got to her.

18,000??? lol, she's just passed 11,500

Hopefully she was just having one of those mornings and now she'll be fine. I'll soon find out no doubt..hehe

thanks for all the replies guys, hearing that there are a few 1.4s out there that don't like the cold makes that the more likely cause...and eases my mind...what there is of it...lol
Click to expand...

That's good to hear. Fingers crossed it was just a one-off.

I do recall our 1.2 having problems on one occasion keeping the revs steady after a particularly cold morning (kept fluctuating between 700 and 1500 rpm when idling before the engine warmed up). Only ever happened once though.

Strange cars these Fiats!(y)
 
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