Hi all…

My girlfriend & I have a 1996 cinquecento sporting that seems to be losing water very fast about 1l or so every few runs made. We have replace the header tank , thermostat and radiator as it was losing water and overheating but now she seems not to get hot at all . We did use an aluminium radiator to help with cooling. I don’t think it to do with the head gasket as she runs well apart from the water problem also I can’t see any leeks anywhere. Can any of you cinquecento people have any suggestion what it could be?

does the car get wet inside, it could be the heater matrix. let the car warm up, put the blowers on, full heat - if u can smell a sweet smell (antifreeze) then it's likely you have a leaky heater matrix (£20).

loosing around a litre that way isn't likely though. i'd be swaying more toward head gasket. have it compression tested. also, cold engine - remove the header tank cap and run the engine, rev it a bit and check for bubbles in the tank, and smell it - looking for an exhaust smell.

It could possibly be that one or more hoses is starting to perish and leak, although it would take a while to lose 1 litre unless a hose was practically falling off something.

Look for a pin hole leak behind the throttle body, middle of the engine bay between the engine and the carpet stuff.

Liam