Technical Fiat Grande Punto 1.3 Multijet lack of power uphill?

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Technical Fiat Grande Punto 1.3 Multijet lack of power uphill?

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Feb 16, 2008
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Hi,

I've been offered a 2006 Grande Punto 1.3 Multijet with 78,000 miles.

The main fault with the car, is that it looses power uphills? Although it's not so bad depending how gentle you are with the throttle apparently, the owners father thinks it's a gearbox fault.

Although I noticed, and it maybe coincidence that the pipe to the airflow meter had a loose jubile clip? Also do these come with the Dual Mass Flywheel on the 1.3 diesel, as wondered if they do have them is that a possibility.

Although the car has had in the last year a new clutch an timinng chain kit fitted, however the father of the owner bought his daughter a new car. As she lives quite a distance away and needed a car quickly for work, so he now wants to sell this one. All round apart from needing a good clean, and a few bits of trim it's pretty much immaculate.

Appreciate it can be tricky to diagnose, but are gearboxes common for these or has anyone experienced a similar fault. And might be able to point me in the right direction of what to look at!!

I've never had a Grande Punto or the 1.3 Multijet, but my current Renault has been such a pile of rubbish I'm sticking to Fiat's from now on. Had the original Panda's, Uno's, a 1994 Tipo & Mk1 Punto's and they've all been brill touch wood!!


Thanks in advance for your advice :D
 
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Hi. It'd be hard to guess what's wrong with it
From here..
In fairness if it was me that was buying it I'd do
Some checks..
* can you hear the turbo working..
* try setting off in 3rd gear does it stall?
If it doesn't then I'd suspect the clutch..
Maybe up hill its slipping?..
Or maybe its a low mileage car that's been driven round town short stop start journeys cokes up the egr and inlet manifold & more or less strangles the car..?
 
Given it's age and mileage, i would suspect as oldhammer has said, the EGR could be coked up. In this case it could just need a clean and all should be well again.

It's fairly typical of power loss on a diesel engine car as the EGR valve gets sooted up so bad it sticks open, which means any turbo boost pressure created, leaks past this valve back into the exhaust, and therefore the engine doesn't get the required amount of air to produce the desired power.

The other thing it could be is a possible boost leak, which should be easy to spot. If you get someone to rev the engine and hold to around 2000rpm, see if you can hear any hissing, along the pipework from the turbo to the intake. If there is a leak, it'll be easy to sort, most likely would be a split hose.
 
How much BHP for the car ?

Rgds, Bernie

Hi Bernie,

it's the 90 Bhp version.


From what you all suggested, I need to look at the car again and carry out some of these checks.

Then hopefully from this it should narrow down the issue, then I can make a decision on weather to buy it or not.

Thanks for all the tips so far, all useful stuff!! (y)
 
The 90 bhp uses a Variable Geometry Turbo, while the 75 uses a wastegated turbo. The geometry, hence the air-boost quantity, is managed by the ECU with regards to a ton of parameters. And so is the fuel pressure & quantity. One of those being incorrect, you'd lose power !

Have MES connected to the eOBD port and compare the actual turbo and fuel pressure with the requested one; the curves should almost match, if not that will indicate in which direction to investigate...

Regards, Bernie
 
Hi everyone, I did the little tests that wa suggested and had my friend plug his Diagnostic into the car.

And it's thrown up some expensive faults!! so I'm now thinking this ''Bargain'' might not be so much of one by the time all the repairs are done.

Assuming of course that's all that's wrong with it, so I think spending that bit more and getting a working car would be a better bet.

Although I maybe able to move closer to work soon, In which case I definitely wouldn't need a diesel anyway.

So perhaps a petrol Grande Punto will be all I need instead :D thanks for everyones help and advice.

Saved a lot of agro, and expense!!
 
Hi Paul,

I'm curious to see what kind of "expensive faults" poped-up...
Some electrical defect (bad earthing/humidity) would make your dash a frightening christmas tree !
In short the "bargain" could still be a real one...

Regards, Bernie
 
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