I'm new to the Bravo (I have a 1.6 16v on a P) and am having problems starting, the car was fine until last Friday, I didn't use the car over the weekend and came to start it on Monday, it will turn over but just won't fire up, pretty much tried until the batery went dead. Only had it's mot a couple of weeks ago and nothing was picked up there.

Any advice would be appreciated as I'm having to walk to work at the moment.

Ok well it could be the battery or the alternator. If you jump start it and get a multimeter and measuer the voltage accross the battery should be about 14V do this while the car is running, then if its not then alternator. As you drained the battery it'd need to be fully charged before testing, and would need a good run.

Often the cold will show up a weak battery so if you've had it 3+ yrs then get a new one first, as thats the most obvious and cheapest test, if you want to check the alternator etc then you'll need a multimeter which does 12V (about £10 and upwards).

Robfitz123 said:

Only had it's mot a couple of weeks ago and nothing was picked up there.

Click to expand...

Doesnt mean a thing except the car was roadworthy at time of inspection.

If you get it started you could always take it somewhere for a Free Winter Check, Kwick fit etc might do them, normally check your battery, alternator and try and sell you tyres too...

Buy battery at a local motorfactors, they'll know the best one for your car unless you run loads of ICE etc, and will be cheaper that most other places, is quite easy to fit on the smaller engines but may require a socket set and extension to remove the battery clamp if you have a 20v (or other big engine) and the baffel (Heated oxygen sensor (HO2S))box is in the way

this seems to be fairly common on the 1.6 if its left in damp weather for a while. try squirting wd40 on each end of each ht lead. apart from that i would suspect the battery as mountain machine says.