How can I check for a spark on the 1.2 16v fire engine?

Ive taken the sparks out and but left them connected to the HT leads as normal but when I turn the ignition, none of them spark, yet with the sparks screwed in, the engine starts (although it runs like ****).

Do the sparks need to be screwed into the engine (for grounding purposes i presume) to make a spark? If so, how can I check if they are sparking?

ive done this many times before on a cinquecento Sporting to check for a spark and they have sparked mid air before.

have you tried grounding one by holding it in a jumplead connected to battery -ve?

IIRC You need to do it 1 plug at a time while leaving the others connected up to check for a spark.

Good luck Chris, hope you get it sorted soon mate

well. been investigating further and it seems that with all sparks in, I can pull out the middle 2 HT leads one at a time without the engine stalling. I havent tried pulling them both together.

cant be the coil becuase these 2 sparks will run on seperate circuits (for lack of better wording) and so one side of the coil failing wouldnt cause these 2 sparks not to spark. But either way, the HT leads sparked with the engine block as I was pulling them out anyway so its not the coil. Possibly the sparks then but seems odd that 2 would go at exactly the same time... Just hope it isnt a HG failure between the 2 middle cylinders.

Will investigate more tomorrow me thinks. Its too cold out there tonight :bang: Shame as I really dont want to sell it broken as Ill get sod all for it

I know this dosent help you might might be of some use to others: you can test the spark by keeping one in the ht lead and with a pair of pliers holding the spark plug to a metal bit of the engine and the spark will jump across.

Bushboy said:

sell it

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already!?!

grandeJ said:

already!?!

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what you mean already, this the longest he held onto a car for years

Bushboy said:

been investigating further and it seems that with all sparks in, I can pull out the middle 2 HT leads one at a time without the engine stalling.

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head gasket, i'll bet you a fiver.

reaper1988 said:

I know this dosent help you might might be of some use to others: you can test the spark by keeping one in the ht lead and with a pair of pliers holding the spark plug to a metal bit of the engine and the spark will jump across.

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exactly, you just hold the HT lead and touch the sparkplug ground electrode onto the head or chassis then watch for the spark jumping onto the ground electrode exactly as it normally would.

dave said:

what you mean already, this the longest he held onto a car for years

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haha

dont think it should be sold tbh. well, only to another enthusiast

just thought, have you made absolutely sure that the HT leads are on in the correct order.

get a spark tester - £2 @ motorfactors

I never touched the leads until it died the other day so its not a matter of them being on wrong. It wouldnt start if they were on wrong anyway.

TBH im betting on it being the HG... Or atleast something major anyway.

And yes, selling it. Its broken (to the point of being off the road) on me 3 times since owning it (less than a month)... hardly a car you would want to keep. Plus I dont actually like it anymore. Mostly because it braking itself so often but also becuase its slow and boring to drive. Its not really ecconomical so I dont save nowt on petrol and insurance really hasnt dropped that much tbh. Its also not my kind of car anymore. Although kinda subtly modified, its still chavy, the exhaust is rediculous and just pisses me off. Im seriously not into Fiats anymore either. They are generaly a load of crap compared to competition. The new ones arent any better either. Ive driven numerous grandes through work and they are awful compared to the likes of the new corsa and clio.

Anyway...

Ive ordered a set of bog standard new sparks anwyay so will fit them and hope for the best. Nowhere seems to stock them. Not even fiat so it had to be an internet job. Halfords dont even list them and the parts desk couldnt even order them. Got the same responce in the 3 halfords I tried.

how to loose lots of friends in one post, see above^

Its my opinion though. If you can't accept that then its not my problem. I get to drive everything from little matiz's right upto Freelanders and Discoverys on a daily basis. Using the grandes is something you try to avoid. We tend to fight over who gets to be the passenger Plus out of the 3 we had in our branch this week, all 3 of them had faulty rear doors that would not open from the outside. All 3 were taken to Platts Fiat in Longton, repaired on warrenty and brought back. By today. 2 have redeveloped the fault and are booked in again for monday... Plus the brakes on 2 of them squeel and nearly put you through the windscreen even with the gentlest touch. Gear changes are rough and jerky, as is driving at low speed. Road noise and wind noise is also very loud over 60mph. Bearing in mind that neither of these cars have done over 1000miles, its not really a good example of a great car. The new clios, on the other hand, are superb imo. Lovely interiors, great build quality and lively engines.


Anyway, that isnt the point of the thread. Just why I dont like Grandes.

bulldog5046 said:

get a spark tester - £2 @ motorfactors

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Hows a spark tester work? I guess you plug in your spark plug leads or something to it?

right. been playing today and I think I might have sourced the problem.

One of the leads had been annoying me, it would never connect properly onto the top of the sparks. The metal connector thing was always too far up inside so I gave it a bit of a tug only to find it be split in the middle and frayed quite nastily. Whether I did it or not by tugging on it or not I dont know but i hardly pulled atall so expect it was worn already.

Halfrauds do universal stylee leads so Im going to get some of them as a temporary measure and see if it works. Still a bit suspect on cylinder 3 but the engine defo stalls on all other cylinders. Will replace all of the leads anyway and go from there.

:doh:

Replaced the sparks and whilst the problem is still there, its running slightly better and doesnt stall at idle anymore, it nearly does but manages to catch up with itself again as if firing on 3 cylinders (rather than the 2 i suspected before). Im still suspecting cylinder 3 for some kind of fault but all leads are new so will try with the new sparks when they come in the post sometime next week...