The absolute worst, worst thing about the Mk1 Punto for me is the fuel gauge.

You can have a full tank but by taking the 4th exit on a roundabout the orange light comes on. Funnily enough it never seems to properly back to where it was before the corner

Surley, there must be a way of measuring the amount of fuel without the gauge dropping and rising like this. It seems that at the moment must use some sort of float that sails around in the tank.

Was this ever improved on the Mk2, any other fiats suffer from this?

Call me Mr cynical but I don't trust a single guage on my fiat.

I trust mine right down to the line... Well I've pushed it to it's limit so I know comfortably how many miles I can get to a tank.

It's such a buzz when you have 2 miles to the fuel station and it's under the red mark

*Don't Try This At Home Guys*

the tubs gauge is never to be trusted....

Mine's fairly accurate.. only minor issue is the needle can be slightly off sometimes, though it corrects itself again once the car is switched off and switched back on again.

my sisters guage on her mk1 was bang on, mine is too i think

Yeah much the same with me. I always reset the mileometer (sp?) so i know how many miles i'll get by how much i put in.

Yellow light makes me laugh though, i know i need petrol today but when i get in it'll be up to 2 bars lol

The fuel sensor has dampening so that the needle isn't bouncing over thegauge when driving. Best one for that was an old Renault 4, depending on the speed over bumps you could go from 1/4 full to full and back to empty within a second. As for my Stilo, haven't had any problems, just be aware that the fuel tanks are not a perfect shape and that there are indentations in the bottom for suspension, floor pan etc so the volume is less and the gauge will always go from half to empty far more quickly than full to half.

i think i trust mine, as i drove to newcastle and back and used less than a 1/4 of a tank, and i was nearly in the red yesterday until i decided it was best to fill her up

:yeahthat: all my Fiats have/had good reliable fuel guages

The puntos is fine unless your cornering or going up/down a steep hill. The cinqs is terrible tho... if the light comes on, i usually check again a few min later to see if it was lying to me or not

Xen said:

The puntos is fine unless your cornering or going up/down a steep hill.

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Which is what you would expect.

T14086 said:

Which is what you would expect.

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Yup me too!

yeh, my mk1 punto wenever it was in the red it seemd to last agesssssss, i no this is a bad thing to do !! bt i was just testing

if i turn right i have a full tank and if i turn left i have an orange light i fink mabey the other way around

but i tells me the jeneral jist of what i have in the old mosion losion bucket

on my uno the needle never moved atall when cornering because it had a fancy set up with a float on a spiral shaft in a tube with a small hole in the botom the top of the shaft was conected to the potensiomiter so fuel couldnt rush throu the hole quickly to make it move dont know why they dont still use this system it is briliant to look at and it works also it had a spring aboth and below the float working in usinson so when the tank was full the float sat under the fuel and when empty the float sat on top of the fuel meaning it could mesure from the very top to the very botom giving a much beter idea of how much fuel you had probably too exspensive today or they might have changed manufactures

T14086 said:

Which is what you would expect.

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Yup i know, i was just saying thats the only time it will give a false reading

The cinq on the otherhand, just gives you a rough idea. you can be as much as a quarter of a tank above or below the needle at anytime - doesnt matter if your on a hill, cornering or stationary on flat

Mine have always been good....they go up when you go right hard and down when you go left hard....but in normal circumstances its accurate, fuel light comes on when you have under a gallon left...one i dont get is the temperature gauge every other car i've seen normal temp is 1/2 way up the gauge on mine its 1/4!...if you in traffic for an hour or so it still barely reaches 1/2!

fenton_jd said:

Was this ever improved on the Mk2, any other fiats suffer from this?

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mk2 punto gauge is perfect, but the orange light often comes on when quarter of a tank is remaining (causing my GF to panic for the first few weeks of ownership).

bravo gauge has been perfect for me.

its a sodding arm with a float thing and a rheostat thing!! how could it possibly not go up and down inside a tank with a liquid in it.

damn fools!!


more modern cars just have heavier damped needles so you don't notice them move (they do, but if your studying it that hard you should have crashed by now)

faster4_tec said:

but if your studying it that hard you should have crashed by now

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Imagine when the cops/insurance company asks what caused the accident.. 'Errr.. I was studying why the fuel gauge was going up and down'