Hi all

i have a 97 1.6 bravo which has been giving me a bit of problem recently. I notice that since it has started to go cold, when i start the car in the morning it stutters a lot and idle is very jittery. If i drive off the car dont have much power , but once the car warms up fully, the problem go away, problem is only there when the car is cold or if parked for a long time. I believe that it might be my thermostat because the heating gauge takes a long time to move off the cold mark and also while driving at high speed the engine heat gauge drops to just 1 line above the cold mark. only really reaches half way if doing slow speed like 30-20mph, then will climb to half way mark, which from what i understand is where it should be from start. Also i noticed a leaking radiator, could this be the problem.

I have changed the lamba sensor before and all injectors has been changed before. Lamba sensor was changed because it was burning a lot of fuel.

any ideas where to go with this? Looking to get rid now really, think i will be going japanees or german next car this is my second fiat, had a punto before and did not have no troble with this, but the bravo has been a nightmare.

this is a very common problem on the 1.6, my 1.6 had it, it is usually due to a faulty idle speed control actuator and a dirty throttle body. a faulty coolant temp sensor can also cause it. your temp gauge behaviour sounds normal to me, both my bravos were the same.

ok new development on this, took the car for a drive, about 5 mins down the road, came back home and notice that the car was running a bit hot, switched the engine off the went to check the radiator, open that cap and water started spraying out, and radiator making a lot of sound. left the cap off and let the water continue to flow out, then when the coolant went down i tapped it up with more. i then put the cap back on and took it to my garage because the heat gauge had rised to about 2 lines off the hot mark and the fan didnt kick in. After i took it to my garage, he checked it and said that the water temp sensor needs changing and i should replace the switch on the fan because the fan did not come on till 2 lines off hot where before it use to come on at half way mark all the time and he knows for sure the jittering on cold start is caused by the filter needs changing, he also said for a fiat that car has served me well cause i havent had major problems with it over the last 3yrs of owning it.. I also notice that the heater inside was blowing cold while on max heat, while driving to the garage, but if a accelerate, the air starts to warm up.

i went back to check the car again this morning, left the car running for about 10min the car engine gauge reached reach 1 line off the hot mark and the fan did not kick in this time and the heater inside was blowing cold, checked the top hose on the radiator and this was hot and checked the bottom hose and this was slightly warm, but if try to open the radiator cap there is water spraying out. I switched the engine off because i wont allow it to go in the red.

is this signs of a air lock or temp sensor faulty?

thats one hell of a bad case of air lock, unless your WP has gone bad. how many miles are on your car mate?

its done 76k. as soon as the car starts to warm up if you try to open the radiator cap water start to spray out, a lot of pressure in it.

you should expect water to spray out, why do you think it says do not open when hot?!

when the water sprayed out you got air in the heater matrix, that is why you lost hot air at your vents, to fix that you need to bleed the cooling system, something you must do every time you top it up.

if you are lucky this overheating wont have damaged the head gasket yet.

the radiator fan fault is usually due to a rusty relay connector on the front of the battery tray.

imo the mechanic is wrong, the bad cold idle is not because of a blocked filter.

i tried to bleed to system yesterday but could not open the bleed screw on the radiator, but after pouring some anti-freeze i notice each time i poured the radiator water went down, this was all while the engine was still running, i added more coolant till the level stopped going down, then all of a sudden the fan kicked it went the level reached max. Looked on the gauge, and was just above half way mark, Continue to watch the guage and it gradually went down below the half way mark and if it went up the fan would kick in right on half way mark just as before. Sine then the problem has been fixed, the heater inside now is heating up a lot faster that it did before, i used to have to wait until near to 10min before i feel it heating up, now it start to heat up after 2min.

I think all this was caused by a radiator leak i also had which seem to have put a lot of air in the system.

Jug i know i shouldnt open it but this was after a few minutes it was under a lot of pressure, hopefully the head gasket is fine, seems so anyway, will be looking to get rid soon cause i should be getting my company car very soon, so hope it dont play anymore trick on me till i get rid of it.

thanks for all the helpful replies.