About two years ago I had the cambelt changed on my 2006 Punto sporting. The job suspiciously took the dealers in Auckland three days to complete. Their explaination was that the special sparkplugs needed hadn't arrived from Italy???
Anyway about 3 weeks later the cover which fits under the timing end of the engine broke loose. Investigating this I found that the plastic bracket holding the aircleaner down was broken too and the #1 sparkplug cap looked different to the rest. As the car had covered 2000km in the intervening three weeks and taking it back to the dealer meant a 200km round trip during working hours which I couldn't do for nearly a month.
Wind on another 10 000 km and one evening coming home in the rain and cold the heater stopped working. Noise, blowing air, air conditioning, but no heat.
I blamed Italian electrics looked for blown fuses without any luck. Acouple of days later as we neared the end of a 60km drive the dashboard lit up with flashing lights, the temp gauge went into the red and warning beepers sounded.
I stopped the car immediately and dived under the bonnet, exoecting blown gaskets, steam excessive heat... something. There was nothing just a normally warm engine. Then I looked at the radiator expansion tank. It was empty. Totally.
I refilled the tank gradually and except for a couple of small top ups every 1000 km it seems to be fine.
The question.. eventually.. When I check the level when the engine is cold there is always pressure in the system. even when it is stone cold and has stood for up to a week.
Is this right? I can understand where it comes from? Hot systems become pressurised as the water expands, but surely as it cools the pressure drops and the resultant suction or negative pressure, draws necessary water back into the system.
I'd love any suggestions.
Thanks
Anyway about 3 weeks later the cover which fits under the timing end of the engine broke loose. Investigating this I found that the plastic bracket holding the aircleaner down was broken too and the #1 sparkplug cap looked different to the rest. As the car had covered 2000km in the intervening three weeks and taking it back to the dealer meant a 200km round trip during working hours which I couldn't do for nearly a month.
Wind on another 10 000 km and one evening coming home in the rain and cold the heater stopped working. Noise, blowing air, air conditioning, but no heat.
I blamed Italian electrics looked for blown fuses without any luck. Acouple of days later as we neared the end of a 60km drive the dashboard lit up with flashing lights, the temp gauge went into the red and warning beepers sounded.
I stopped the car immediately and dived under the bonnet, exoecting blown gaskets, steam excessive heat... something. There was nothing just a normally warm engine. Then I looked at the radiator expansion tank. It was empty. Totally.
I refilled the tank gradually and except for a couple of small top ups every 1000 km it seems to be fine.
The question.. eventually.. When I check the level when the engine is cold there is always pressure in the system. even when it is stone cold and has stood for up to a week.
Is this right? I can understand where it comes from? Hot systems become pressurised as the water expands, but surely as it cools the pressure drops and the resultant suction or negative pressure, draws necessary water back into the system.
I'd love any suggestions.
Thanks
