hi, can anyone please help me, i have just purchased a brava 1.2 16v 2000 model and it is suffering when i try to start it, its a problem which a friend of mine is have with his bravo also and we are both puzzled by this problem....

Hi,

Is the car always difficult to start?
Or Is it only when it has been left a while and is cold?
Or possibly only when it has recently been used and is hot?

the problem seems to come and go, i can go to it when it is cold and it will start but another day it won't, it does the same thing when i have had a run it aswel, i could understand if it was just caused by a cold engine but this is a mystery to me..

First the obvious. What mileage has the car done and has it been serviced within the last year? Also how does it run once it is started, suggish? rough? Or pretty good?
When it fails to start are there any warning lights remaining lit on the dash?


Next time you start the car. Turn on the ignition untill all the red lights appear on the dash. Do you hear a faint buzzing sound from the rear of the car which lasts for 5 or so seconds. wait for this noise to occur before starting.

The noise is the fuel pump priming the fuel lines.
Is just a test to eliminate the pump. If you dont hear it on the occasion that it does not start then this will be the problem.

Otherwise it could be a cam/crank sensor.

the car has done 92k and was serviced less than 6 months ago, i heare the pump priming this morning but will keep listening for a few days when i go to work in the morning and see if this is indeed the problem.... hopefully you've hit the problem right on the head for me.... thanks for your help

0widdy0 said:

the car has done 92k and was serviced less than 6 months ago, i heare the pump priming this morning but will keep listening for a few days when i go to work in the morning and see if this is indeed the problem.... hopefully you've hit the problem right on the head for me.... thanks for your help

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lets hope so. Now the weekend is over some people more specialist to Fiat who appear more on weekdays,may be able to contribute to this thread and may have more suggestions.

the following info is required to diagnose what is happening;

1. when it fails to start does the key code light remain illuminated?

2. when it fails to start, is it only warm starts? by 'warm start' i mean the car has been used in the previous 2 hours.

3. when it fails to start does the starter motor turn the engine at the normal speed, or is it slower?

I had a similar problem with a fiat multipla.

Symptoms were:-
Intermittant non-starting, every now and again for no apparent reason it would turn over but would not fire up. After bump starting it would run fine again for days or weeks, then suddenlt not start again. Garage mechanics could not find anything wrong after many checks of fuel & electrical systems.

Cause was:-
Eventually found it to be a faulty earth lead. It looked fine on the outside & seemed to be attached ok at both ends, so I did not check it properly. One day the car stopped completely & would not even turn over. The car recovery dude found the earth strap dangling in mid air & said it must have been broken inside the plastic sleave for some time. Doh! After a trip to Halfords for a new earth strap the car has started first time every day since.

How to check:-
Give the earth strap a really good tug to make sure its attached properly and/or next time the car won't start try attaching a jump lead from the battery negative to the engine somewhere. If it makes a differnce you have found the problem.

will try that one out, cheers for that

answer my questions and i'll be able to tell you what the problem is with a very good probability of first time accuracy.

ok, well the key code light goes out, the ca doesn't seem tomind whether it is cold or warm and finally the starter motor turns over perfectly everytime. the fuel pump is priming correctly and when started the car runs fine, i hope you an diagnose this problem for me, someone has told me it could either be the timing or my air flow meter but i' no expert so i'm not sure about either of those solutions....

starter motor turning at full speed means it can not be starter motor, battery or earth lead.

code light going out means it can not be the immob.

cold and warm start problems almost rule out crank sensor, but this is still a possibility, but it does help to rule out compression problems which are common on the 1.2. i would still do a compression test just to see.

the fact that it runs fine once stated rules out ignition problems such as HT leads.

so all we really have left to consider is temp sensor or crank sensor. usually hot starting is crank sensor and cold starting is temp sensor, but you have both, so its difficult to choose one that is most likely.

if you had a diagnostic and it didnt find any faults, i would still find it difficult to choose between them. neither fault has a good chance of showing up on a diagnostic.

so how do you decide what the problem is? thankfully its very simple. next time it wont start remove a sparkplug and inspect it for sparks. if there are no sparks you have an intermittent crank sensor fault. if there are sparks and the plugs are wet then temp sensor is likely. if you have no sparks and dry plugs there there is something else wrong, something unusual.

cheers for that i'll wait until i finish work to try that out as i'm almost certain the little sod won't start then either, i'll let you know which one it is if any...

i have a similar problem with my 1.8 not starting when cold and sometimes when worm fuel pumps ok starter motors ok

rich2526 said:

i have a similar problem with my 1.8 not starting when cold and sometimes when worm fuel pumps ok starter motors ok

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cold start problems are often due to weak ignition or low compression. replace plugs if they have not been replaced in line with service schedule.

is starter motor turning at full speed? a weak battery is another common cause of cold starting probs.