Hi All,


Had my Grande Punto for 6 months now - 06 plate, 40k miles on clock.

Took it to the shops yesterday and left it at drop off point, came back... wouldn't start. Along comes the RAC man and jumps me.
:slayer:

Had a couple of problems with it starting over the last 6 months even when warm. I was doing 40 mile round trips daily mon-fri and sometimes it wouldn't start and would say - "excessive engine temp"
Then on restart it would be fine (temp gauge would be on Low - then be on norm middle after a couple of mins)

Happens every 2 weeks or so I think.

Verdict? Battery? Alternator? Glow Plugs
Also fixes for it?

Was thinking I'd take the car to Halfords and let them test battery, pick me up a Power Pack or something, then get it fixed over Xmas.

Hopefully won't cost me a bomb!


Any advice welcome!

rayrayli88 said:

Hi All,

Took it to the shops yesterday and left it at drop off point, came back... wouldn't start. Along comes the RAC man and jumps me.

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I'd report him.

Not sure what the problem is, but sounds more like a temperature sensor problem. Had something similar on an Impreza a few years back where as soon as you turned the ignition, the fan was running and it wouldn't start. Basically, it couldn't work out correct fuel/air mixture. Turned out to be a few pound thermostat

Hello,

had this happen on my Mrs' 1.9 mjet a year or two back (funnily enough, approximately the same mileage).

The engine temp error was a red herring - it was purely and simply a flat battery... the Green Flag man remarked at how the battery appeared to be pushing out the right volts on test, only to fail under load.

~ £140 for a Bosch one from Halfords... mainly because we needed the car urgently. However we needed an alternator within 8 months too, so that may have been on its way out also!

Oh, and when the alternator went, it went on the dual carriageway at 70... a time you *do not* want your electric power steering to fail. You might want to get it checked...

Hi, also, this will be my first post after lurking for ages

stoat said:

~ £140 for a Bosch one from Halfords... mainly because we needed the car urgently. However we needed an alternator within 8 months too, so that may have been on its way out also!

Oh, and when the alternator went, it went on the dual carriageway at 70... a time you *do not* want your electric power steering to fail. You might want to get it checked...

Hi, also, this will be my first post after lurking for ages

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Hi Hi, good lurking!

£120 for a Bosch battery from Halfords. £6.99 to fit it... hah jokers.
Fit it myself - 5 min jobby!
Halfords battery guy said that it was 55% effective and was beyond service so I stuck the Bosch in it seeing as I'll be having it for a few more years min.

Starts up fine now.
Hoping that it's not an alternator problem though
How much was it to replace?

Might just get it checked out at garage to see if its a quick fix. With winter on us, wasn't fun waiting an hour in a freezing car!

Probably the battery that needs replacing. The temp issue is likely to be linked, but is also known in some cases to be a software glitch.

Most Easterly Pandas said:

Probably the battery that needs replacing. The temp issue is likely to be linked, but is also known in some cases to be a software glitch.

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Thanks!

Have replaced battery now.
Old battery was a Magneti Marelli, is this the original one that came with the car when new? Anyone know?
Just wondered as car is 6 years old now, so was due a battery change if it was the original!

rayrayli88 said:

Starts up fine now.
Hoping that it's not an alternator problem though
How much was it to replace?

Click to expand...

Just dug out the receipt... £306, done at almost exactly 5 years of age & 39614 miles. That's a main dealer price, but they used a Bosch alternator. Was pretty happy with the price actually.

The failure drained the new battery dry, but it came back to life after a night charging, which was a bonus.

The two problems might well be unrelated, but I thought I'd mention it given the symptoms were so similar. Hope it isn't

My car had the temp gauge issue as well. Pretty certain mine could have been fixed with an ECU update from fiat but I never bothered. Only happened every now and then.
But I didn't have any starting issues. When was the car last serviced as well?