My punto has been reliable for the 2 years I have owned it, however, yesterday when I went to turn on the engine, all I received was a very loud screeching noise from under the bonnet. (Not like the noise some people may of heard previously when you turn the key sometimes with grande puntos they take 2/3 turns of the key to get going randomly :/ ...but this was a louder and meaner noise than that)

Battery wasn't the problem, not dead. However, the only way to get my car running was to jump start it.

Drove for a further 10 minutes back home and as I got closer to my house the dashboard kept jumping about, speedo and rev meter were going on and off... up and down, as well as the temperature gauge getting in on the action aswell.

Literally two corners from my house my car then decided to cut off the engine, so as i was rolling i had to jump start my car before coming to a mighty stop in the road. I did this 3 times in the space of 100 metres until my car eventually made it to safety on my drive.

Can somebody help me with some knowledge to what the sound is when I try to start my car up??

Why are my speedo, rev and gauge meters bouncing around like louie spence??

Also does anyone know what is causing my car to cut out and only jump start??

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm useless when it comes to fixing anything mechanical! Clueless!

Many thanks!

Think it still is the battery, not for power but for voltage. This is from the common faults thread. Use a voltmeter on the battery (see if it's ~12V) or change the battery if possible.

Fault - Screeching noise from starter motor when starting
Cure - battery voltage low, get battery tested correctly and/or fit battery (360a)

Click to expand...

I'm currently reading about the same issue as i keep getting the same warning.

High coolant temp and screeching seem to point at a faulty water pump. I'd get it checked.

Can you elaborate on why you think it's not the battery.
Just because it has voltage, doesn't mean it's not at fault.


I'm not a fan of these so called "Free Battery Checks", i'm synical, and can't help feeling that they'll tell you it's faulty just to get a sale.

First thing I would do, is put it on an overnight charge, and see what it does first thing tomorrow.
However, if the battery is on it's way out, the car will display a lot of the random symptoms that your'e describing.

I had a very similar problem, car would just start up and would throw loads of errors at me, check hill holder, check lights, etc. drove all of 100m with it cutting out, starting again and so on, got it back up my drive jump started it, died again. Swapped the battery over for a brand new one, never had the problem ever again!

Not necessarily the charge of the battery, contact point can become weak and could have got water on over time. If you have another car in the family try swapping the batteries over to prove its that before you go and fork out £50 for a new one!

keat63 said:

Can you elaborate on why you think it's not the battery.
Just because it has voltage, doesn't mean it's not at fault.


I'm not a fan of these so called "Free Battery Checks", i'm synical, and can't help feeling that they'll tell you it's faulty just to get a sale.

First thing I would do, is put it on an overnight charge, and see what it does first thing tomorrow.
However, if the battery is on it's way out, the car will display a lot of the random symptoms that your'e describing.

Click to expand...

agree with you re the battery check.... What you need to do is price one up before you go online so you have some clear haggling leverage euro car parts are a good place to start shopping about

Get a multimeter and do it yourself, also comes in handy for a multitude of other things.

This is the one I have, works great:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/automotive-digital-multimeter-with-inductive-pickup-222059

a basic multi meter won't tell you much bar voltage you need a battery tester which applies a load to show the capacity

i have basic silverline analogue unit

Could be a cell thats gone bad, good luck starting with that. i once had a yamaha which would turn over perfectly tested battery was all good but it just wouldnt start, turns out the battery was ****ed and needed to be replaced despite the fact it looked fine, after that no problems.