Hi All :wave:

I got my girlfriend a tidy 1998 Seicento for xmas, and it was running fine until today

She was driving home and the injector light flashed on, but the engine carried on running as normal. She then went out in it again and she says that it now keeps cutting out. I have done a search on this forum and it seems that it is a problem with the injectors (or the connectors). I have not been able to look at the car today as the recovery man took it to her parents which was closer.

Can anyone suggest some quick checks that I can do tommorrow, before we are resigned to taking it to a garage for a diagnostics check.

Also....When the car cut out, she was unable to get it out of first gear, the clutch went down, but the car stayed in gear (or so it seemed), the gear lever was jammed soild. A kind passer by helped her, and they eventually managed to get it out of gear by turning the engine over...anyone had this happen to them before, or have any suggestions.

Thanks in anticipation....PS heres some pics

Possible problems reg. gears - clutch cable may need adjusting or possibly on the way out, gear selector could have had it, clutch itself is on way out.

Wish i could wrap as neat as that

Cheers for your reply AppleSei.

To be honest I've not really had chance to 'play' with the car since I got it. Her mini failed it's MOT the week before xmas, so I saw this on Autotrader and got it as a surprise. But with xmas and new year, just not had time to check things, apart from oil, water etc.

I will be booking it in with a local mechanic for a thorough check over as sson as possible...maybe sooner than I thought with these problems.

I had read that the Seicento has problems with the clutch cable, so I was going to get him to replace that anyway, well see if that cures it.

PS... where in West Yorks are you...we are in Horbury, Wakefield

LittleRedCar said:

Cheers for your reply AppleSei.

To be honest I've not really had chance to 'play' with the car since I got it. Her mini failed it's MOT the week before xmas, so I saw this on Autotrader and got it as a surprise. But with xmas and new year, just not had time to check things, apart from oil, water etc.

I will be booking it in with a local mechanic for a thorough check over as sson as possible...maybe sooner than I thought with these problems.

I had read that the Seicento has problems with the clutch cable, so I was going to get him to replace that anyway, well see if that cures it.

PS... where in West Yorks are you...we are in Horbury, Wakefield

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Can see the mini in the background, im gathering thats the MOT failed one?

Would advise a good service, plugs, leads etc, general spruce up

The cable is a common problem on any cento, if you dont ever need to repair/replace it you have done well, it is not uncommon to see people perhaps on their 5th/6th one or perhaps even replace for a another within a few miles. It is a poor design and no real cure. Even the 'unbreakable' ones arent particularly good.

The flip side is that the part is cheap (£10-£15) and takes about an hour to replace. There is a guide on here about it, or theres always a haynes manual, however you would have to get a cinq one as there isnt one for the sei.

I am in pontefract, theres quite a few yorks members, theyve just had a meet but keep an eye out in events section as aside from the national meets, its one of the few areas that tries and has meets throughout the year

Yeah, thats the poor old mini in the background...needs loads of welding doing

Out of interest, you say that I could use a Cinq haynes manual, are the Seicento and Cinquento pretty much the same car? I don't really know much about Fiats, I've always had Peugeots and fords, and my current Mitsubishi FTO.

Cheers for the heads up on the meets, I'll keep an eye open

LittleRedCar said:

Out of interest, you say that I could use a Cinq haynes manual, are the Seicento and Cinquento pretty much the same car?

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Yep, aside from the interior and the bodyshape your car is exactly the same as the cinquecento sporting, so some of engine parts from cinq will be compatible should you ever need a scrappy part

After Oct 2000 when they brought out the MPI (seicento mk2) it varied slightly mechanically.

While it's true that the cables break, 4 cinq/sei later, 60.000 miles and GOK how many miles in hired ones, I've yet to have one go. A one off breakage may be chance: repeated breakages are a sure sign of clutch problems. Your man should note that the Sporting cables are different.

When the engine "keeps cutting out" does the management warning light come on? If not, suspect the crank sensor (or the wiring to it).

Cheers for the reply fingers...

I haven't actually seen the car since it developed the problem, and I don't really know Fiats, but my gF says that the light that appears looks like an injector. Would this be the engine management light, or is that a different one?

LittleRedCar said:

Cheers for the reply fingers...

I haven't actually seen the car since it developed the problem, and I don't really know Fiats, but my gF says that the light that appears looks like an injector. Would this be the engine management light, or is that a different one?

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Yeah, it'll be the engine management light.

fingers99 said:

Yeah, it'll be the engine management light.

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I that case, then yep, the engine management light comes on when it cuts out.

It's unlikely to be the crank sensor then. The diagnostics on the Spi models are a bit rudimentary and sometimes tell lies. Might be worthwhile running it till it conks out and then checking to see if the plugs are wet or dry just to split it between fuel and spark.

fingers99 said:

It's unlikely to be the crank sensor then. The diagnostics on the Spi models are a bit rudimentary and sometimes tell lies. Might be worthwhile running it till it conks out and then checking to see if the plugs are wet or dry just to split it between fuel and spark.

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Cheers for that, I'll be able to give more info when I get chance to have a look at it tomorrow.

There are a few common failings with cento's and fire engines as a whole (that makes repaires cheaper) so don't worry too much if you can swing a spanner then you can probaly fix it yourself

cutting out is usually down to ignition or fueling issues.

The ignition bit,

coil packs can be an issue and are a common failing, usually as a rule the warmer the car gets the worse can be the problem, if they fail big time it has been known for them to fry the ECU

Crank sensors can be an issue but these usualy are a problem from start up (if the car will start at all)

The fuel bit, (injectors very rarely fail)

Lamda sensors can be a problem as with all cat equiped cars but in the Cento's they are quite exposed so prome to damage and extreme temp swings (big puddles) if it has failed completly the car usually will run clap cold but cut out as it gets a bit warmer

Map sensors are also prone to air leaks and split pipes

The other good thing is that cento's tend to be driven by younger drivers, as a consiquence this means lots of written off examples and scrappy spares, especially this time of year with the nice wet greasy roads

Sorry to go off topic but Gift wraping a car is the coolest thing ever lol. I think your the first person to do it on the forum lol

Thanks for all your help with this.

A quick update....We took the car to a local garage that deals with electric ignitions etc and they ran it through a diag check. It took them a couple of days to pin the fault down tho. It turned out to be some dodgy wiring to one of the injectors.

All is sorted now, just need to have MOT and a service tomorrow

Cheers All

Thats an spi I think so it has only one injector

If it was dodgy wiring, then it would def cut out as it would get NO fuel lol.

If it was mpi, it would have carried on but ran rubbish.

Glad its sorted, hope it wasn't to costly, and lets hope your gf now gets many happy miles out of her present! (a very nice present :slayer: )

Kristian