I have a 2001 fiat punto, only got 66,000 on the clock. Last few months had problems with the light coming on to say overheating, after only a few miles, but the fan does kick in and the heater inside the car doesnt blow out hot and so after searching on here, I thought it could be an airblock, so my bf flushed it through with water, and it worked fine for 4 days, but then the light started coming on again. So I then flushed it through again, myself this time, and it was fine for 3weeks. Then the light started coming back on, and next day it started making a loud rattling
noise, and got very "jolty/jumpy" and It started feeling like it was losing power, so pulled over straight away and popped the bonnet and alot of smoke or steam was there. I checked the oil and it didnt have any creamy
substance so hoping the head gasket hasnt gone half hour later managed to drive it a hundred yards or so to a safe location, but driving then it had a whistling sound when accerlating to go up in gears, and was still jolty and at a stand still was reving by itself like vrooom...vrooom...vrooom...vrooom, and while driving scarily maintained its speed even if u took foot completely off accerlator, so alot of breaking was involved. Any ideas would be great please!

did the bf read the guide on how to bleed system? also there should be coolant in there not plain water

i would nearly bet your gasket has blown ,maybe car was losing coolant from water pump or thermostat had stuck,banging and rattling are sounds of engine in severe stress,need to get it checked out,sorry for the bad news,i hate bloody red lights when driving on motorway as you cant just pull over,temp gauge you can see whats happening.

dave said:

did the bf read the guide on how to bleed system? also there should be coolant in there not plain water

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Yeah he did it properly, I will check to see if it needs more coolant as I do have some at home

dirtyhands said:

i would nearly bet your gasket has blown ,maybe car was losing coolant from water pump or thermostat had stuck,banging and rattling are sounds of engine in severe stress,need to get it checked out,sorry for the bad news,i hate bloody red lights when driving on motorway as you cant just pull over,temp gauge you can see whats happening.

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How do I check to see if water pump is leaking?and the rattling had stopped when I let it cool down and drove to safer place, and then 2mile drive the following day to get it home =\ thanku for ur ideas tho, anything is helpful to me at the moment

if your car has the 8valve engine there is a black plastic cover behind fanbelt look from the grill towards the bottom section .found this.
https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-guides/92606-how-change-water-pump.html

water can leak through a run off pipe onto oil filter,i would just use water for the moment and not coolant when you have an overheating problem.fill up and bleed system.next day when starting from cold does it sound like its running on 3 cyls then clears?classic gasket gone and water in combustion chamber.
coolant stains can be dried up but usually leaves residue to see where it came from,even sump can show traces.

No Hot air + Over heating + Knocking noise is to me very very suspect hg issues here....

As to why? i suspect stuck thermostat and or Water pump causing it to verheat = HG blows due to warping

Ziggy

I'd lay odds that the HG has gone. But the only way to tell is with a compression test.

Chances are that it was caused by a leak from either the water pump or the water rail O ring. Lots of stuff in the Punto and Cinq/Sei sections.