hi, i am new to the site and have said hello on the introductions section ,but for anyone who hasnt viewed me then hello, i have a fiat cinquecento, m reg, it was losing lots of water every day so figured it was the head gasket gone as oil in the water, upon taking off the haed yesterday found this to be the case, oh and it was my son who did the gasket change not me, any way he put it all back together, upon doing the carbarettor or injection unit (not sure what they are called these days), he snapped 1 bolt, no disaster he thought , the unit is still secured tight, he carried on and finished off putting it back together, when time to turn engine , it won`t run, it isnt even trying to to fire except occasionally will have 1 small try, so is it possible the snapped bolt could be making this problem or would it at least try more , any help as to what it might be if not the carb bolt would be much appreciated, the car got through its last mot but won`t last much longer ,it has 6 months mot left but no tax now and i don`t really want to have to scrap it as it has done many miles for me over the last 6 months and i really love my little car, oh and 1 more thing, just this week there has been a red light on , i think it is the injector light , but has done this before but never stayed on permanently, any help would be great and thanks to anyone who has read this long post

hi.

please have a read of this;

https://www.fiatforum.com/tech-talk/190268-basic-diagnostic-efi-petrol-engines-start-here.html

and get back to me

thanks will get my son to go over everything there, wwill let you know how he gets on

Which engine?

Cheers

SPD

899cc sorry don`t think i know any more than that

mel67 said:

899cc sorry don`t think i know any more than that

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Thats a good start, did he put the pushrods back in their right places and preload the tappets?

Cheers

SPD

pushrods not sure would it make a big difference if he hadnt and how would he rectify that now, also how do you preload the tappets, he asked me to get some feeler blades but as i couldnt find any gap settings for them didnt get any thinking that you probably couldnt do anything with them, any help is much appreciated so please if you can explain more , many thanks in anticipation

don`t know if this may be of help to your reply, when he took the tappet assembly thing out 3 of the tappets came out their places, he put them back in but not sure if they came out the same ones he put them back into, many thanks so far

Do the rockers have adjustment screws?

Cheers

SPD

Is the battery charged? i had this problem when doing my head gasket

not sure about the adjustment screws , think it might have, will take the rocker cover off again ect 2moro and check ,but i still don`t know what you mean about pre load the tappets, and the battery isnt flat so dont think its that, also before changing the head gasket the car was still running, have noticed today it is trying to fire slightly more than yesterday, if it was low on fuel could this make a difference , obviously there is fuel coming through because i can smell it after a few turns of the engine but i dont think there is much in the tank

checked with my son he did put the pushrods in the same order they were, i need my car back on the road asap as my son gets me to take him to his college course and placement as he is learning the motor vehicle trade, but at the moment its looking like i`m ging to have to abandon taxing my fiat this week as its not worth it if its not running, i just cant understand if it was running before hand and everything has been put back on right ,then why wont it run, and why do we rely on our cars so much, any help is much appreciated

mel67 said:

checked with my son he did put the pushrods in the same order they were, i need my car back on the road asap as my son gets me to take him to his college course and placement as he is learning the motor vehicle trade, but at the moment its looking like i`m ging to have to abandon taxing my fiat this week as its not worth it if its not running, i just cant understand if it was running before hand and everything has been put back on right ,then why wont it run, and why do we rely on our cars so much, any help is much appreciated

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Hey, I am trying. I think its obvious that the car hasn't been put back together exactly the same.

Did you get the head skimmed and valves ground in?

Setting preload is similar to setting manual tappets except there is no gap. With the tappets in the position to be set (rule of 5 or 9, your choice) wind down till the gap just disappears, then 1.5 turns more.

Cheers

SPD

oh i`m really sorry i wasnt having a go ,i know you are trying to help and i`m really grateful, i was just rambling and in the hope that any1 who seen my post might be able to help not just you, i am really sorry i hope i havent offended you, that wasnt my intention so once again sorry, and thanks for the tappet info when you put it like that it sounds quite easy to do the pre load, the only 2 things my son is worried about is the snapped bolt on the front of the injection unit and that the pipes are correct to the injection unit, but he hardly took any pipes off this so as not to get them mixed up so that 1s not really that much of a worry, so that means then that i don`t need to buy a set of feller blades, and if it wasnt for people like you on these forums who are willing to help people with their car problems i am sure there would be more older cars in the scrapyard, so thanks again and sorry for any misunderstanding

i didnt get the head skimmed or the valves ground because the car wont pass many more mot`s and i have a micra r reg with mot till may that just needs tax also, this is a good runner and was sold to my son for £100 as the previous owner was desperate for cash at xmas, so i don`t want to go to the expense of getting the head skimmed i just wanted the car to last out its mot and then decide if to keep it if it doesnt fail too badly, its just bugging me when it was running and isnt now, but hey nothing in life is simple we rely on our cars far too much , thanks again for the help

make sure the fuel system trip hasnt tripped, maybe disconnect the battery then reconnect, and try to start it again

good news today ,got the car started, on a closer inspection of the rocker assembly discovered 3 of the pushrods were`nt sitting properly, (my son put it back together with a bedside lamp for light at night) he must have missed them when putting it together, so a strip down today and rectify ,put back together and hey presto started firing again, a few turns of the engine and it started running, was a bit rough so new sparkplugs were purchased and its a bit better, the only problem is that when it it cold starting the choke runs for a few seconds then cuts out and thus the car tries to cut out ,if you catch the pedal before it dies the choke kicks in again for a few seconds ect, i think maybe this could be down to the snapped bolt in the throttle body, so hoping a trip to the scrapyard tomorrow will sort that out, i have an injector light on the dash that has been there for just over a week now and is still there after the head gasket change, i am thinking of getting a lambda sensor as when i checked my plugs 2 weeks ago they were brown and then after a week of the injector light being on they were black, does anyone know if i am going in the right direction as i have noticed my fuel consuption isnt as good lately but was thinking this due to all the cold weather we have had, now lastly i would like to thank rallycinq for his help in this problem especially about the pushrods and to every one else who has helped with suggestions ,thankn you

Check the temp sensor isn't reading too cold. Simple test with a meter, gradual reduction in resistance as sender gets hotter.

The missing/broken bolt will mean air getting in which also wouldn't help.

Cheers

SPD

dont think the lambda will show the warning light up, but you never know it may be different on the 899, check the vacuum pipes and make sure they are sound, in particular the one that goes to the map sensor

as rc says, the broken bolt isnt helping and if unmetered air gets in as its under vacuum, then this will show up with a poor idle

you could disconnect the battery and then reconnect, i think this resets the ecu and clears any faults that may be there

thanks,will try that and fix the bolt asap