Hi I have just bought a Fiat Grande Punto. It drives fine when it is up to speed but is slow on acceleration. Any help with this problem would be a great help :bang::bang::bang:

What size engine you got?..The two 1.4's that I know like/need to be kept in the rev range both harder and longer than any other car I have driven,n I been driving now for a good few years.
Having said that they are not rocket ships ,both being the normally aspirated 70 odd bhp versions.
One thing to check is tyre pressures. Amazes me what a few psi down ,and having unbalanced psi's can make.

Help yourself and give more detailed info. Service history?
Oil, timing belt, sparkplugs, valve clearances? Multiple threads (and Guides) on those topics (SEARCH).
It can be "everything" (or nothing to worry about), you can replace most components under the hood/bonnet, and still have this issue.

Or maybe like guy above mentioned. These cars are not rockets, engines (non-turbo) are too weak for the size (mass). Comparing to other car brands.
Is this your first Fiat ever?

Kim 254 said:

Hi I have just bought a Fiat Grande Punto. It drives fine when it is up to speed but is slow on acceleration. Any help with this problem would be a great help :bang::bang::bang:

Click to expand...

I've just posted this afternoon in the Grande Punto section under "Clutch Problem" about a drive I recently took in my boy's '12 plate 1.4 8 valve Punto Easy. You might like to read it. I also agree with the post above that if you want to make rapid progress (actually "rapid progress" in one of these is probably not achievable) then you're going to be hanging around at 3,000 plus revs and burning quite a lot of fuel. Much better just to chill out and accept that progress is going to be "relaxed".

GrandePunto PL said:

Help yourself and give more detailed info. Service history?
Oil, timing belt, sparkplugs, valve clearances? Multiple threads (and Guides) on those topics (SEARCH).
It can be "everything" (or nothing to worry about), you can replace most components under the hood/bonnet, and still have this issue.

Or maybe like guy above mentioned. These cars are not rockets, engines (non-turbo) are too weak for the size (mass). Comparing to other car brands.
Is this your first Fiat ever?

Click to expand...

I have no service history. Car is a 1.4 petrol that has done 34,000 miles. Oil is black and has not been changed for a long time. Car is a 09 plate.

Do yourself,and the car a favour and give it a service asap.
Do you do your own servicing?..Type your reg in Euro Car Parts website and see how much you can save.
Whats your location??
Service kit comprising of NGK plugs,oil,oil and air filter ,and engine flush IF you use it reduced (in current 'sale')from £98 to £60..couldnt resist checking

nikrox said:

Do yourself,and the car a favour and give it a service asap.
Do you do your own servicing?..Type your reg in Euro Car Parts website and see how much you can save.
Whats your location??
Service kit comprising of NGK plugs,oil,oil and air filter ,and engine flush IF you use it reduced (in current 'sale')from £98 to £60..couldnt resist checking

Click to expand...

Absolutely. This is a 1.4 8 valve Yes? Major service with 5w-40 oil, plugs, air and oil filter, at the minimum. You don't need something "exotic though, these are simple robust engines and any brand, to the right speC, will do. Type in "oil finder" on Google and you'll find lots of recommendations - most go by the reg no. Pollen filter probably never done (if it has one) if the owner has been a bit indifferent to servicing? - you say the oil is filthy. 34,000 miles? depending how it's been driven, could be getting pretty low on pads and a detailed inspection of the steering and suspension components wouldn't go amiss. The big question is the cam (timing) belt. I believe around 5 years/60,000 miles, whichever comes first is what is recommended. However if the previous owner has been penny pinching they may have thought "oh well I'm nowhere near that mileage yet so I'll just put it off" The belts deteriorate as much with age as mileage though. I start to think of doing both our 1.2 Panda and my boy's 1.4 8valve Punto when they've turned 40,000 miles or 4 years - whichever comes first. (always age with us). My brain's bogging down now, probably other people will make recommendations. Oh yes, check the radiator coolant level regularly. I do ours every week. These are robust engines and can get very high mileages without failing but really really do not like overheating and will reward you with a blown head gasket if you abuse them. If you are loosing coolant and can't see an obvious reason check the metal coolant pipe that runs along the front of the block behind the exhaust manifold. they are well known to suffer very localized corrosion so can look good over much of their surface but actually have a small hole leaking coolant! there is a rubber seal where this pipe enters the back of the water pump which can also harden with age and it will then be liable to leak.

Hope you enjoy the car. We love ours. Good luck with it all.

Euro car parts has been mentioned above but if you look on the forum you'll see a section "Member Offers" If you make even a miniscule donation to the forum, hopefully you'll see your way to making it a few quid at least - the forum doesn't run cost free - then you will become a "Donated Member" and so can access the discounts from Shop4parts (I find them very good) and Car Parts 4 Less - which I haven't used but people on here say they are an online branch of ECP?

Thank you for your informative reply. The cam belt could be the answer. The car is going to the garage tomorrow for full inspection although when the mechanic looked at her today he said that she had not likely had a service for a very long time. I will look after her and hopefully all will be well.

Thank you for your reply. The Punto is going into the garage tomorrow for a good look over. The poor car has been treated badly and needs a lot of tlc. I have to say I have never seen a car with 34,000 miles drive so badly. Will have to see what happens tomorrow.

The cam belt will NOT be the reason its got no acceleration. Its a fixed item that has to be replaced either in terms of years or miles.70,000 is my understanding.
A dirty/clogged air filter,poor spark plugs etc and potentially a dirty throttle body wont be helping matters. In that vein maybe the calipers are seized on..who knows..as said tyre pressures make a difference BUT imho its a low powered,8v valve wee beastie that does benefit from a thorough service and as said previously holding on to the revs a bit longer.
My friend drives her car like Miss Daisey. She's in 4th 20 seconds after pulling off. I drive it,hold the revs a bit longer and whilst its not quick it certanly goes a bit faster,and smoother.ie not labouring in low gears.
TLC is the name of the game...that is of course imho.

nikrox said:

The cam belt will NOT be the reason its got no acceleration. Its a fixed item that has to be replaced either in terms of years or miles.70,000 is my understanding.

Click to expand...

I came across this Fiat chart: http://fiat.mopar.eu/contents/brand...elt_replacement/timing-belt-leaflets-fiat.pdf which substantiates your 70,000 mile recommendation but if you look in the very small print at the bottom you'll see it details a 5 year maximum interval if you don't reach that mileage first. In fact it also says every 4 years if the car is used under "demanding conditions" which they detail as Cold climate, City traffic, Long idling. I would guess you can add a lot of stop start to that if your car does that. Personally, unless I was doing a lot of long distance motorway cruising, which, perhaps surprisingly, is less stressful for the belt, I'd be nervous about going out to 70,000 miles - hence setting my own 5 year/60,000 mile max but starting to think of doing it at the first convenient opportunity after she turns 40,000/4years. As I do all these sort of things myself I prefer to wait for good weather and, of course I'm not paying labour charges.

Can I also recommend that you get a full kit fitted when you do it. Some will quote for the belt and it's tensioning idler without the water pump. My local Fiat main dealer does this which makes his quote look quite reasonable. However the water pump on these engines is driven by this belt - not the fan belt - so if the water pump bearing fails the "games up the pole" as we used to say as kids. I found the main dealer's menu pricing lists the water pump change as a separate job, even though a large part of the labour is the same whether the pump is done or not so if you ask the main agent to do the pump too the price shoots up to a ridiculous extent. Best option up here with us is one of the local independents who specialize in Fiats - I know of three in the Edinburgh area - But this is a relatively easy belt to do so I would be confident any competent small concern should be able to do it successfully.

One last wee thing to be aware of. Sometimes after the job is done you'll find the engine warning light illuminating. People report that, in this particular circumstance, when interrogated with a code reader/scanner it will come up with codes related to missfires. Of course there might be a relevant problem to investigate but it is likely that the engine ECU needs to relearn the new position of the camshaft sensor in relation to the crankshaft sensor which is caused by the new belt now fitted. The cure is very simple to perform, It's called a "phonic wheel relearn". There's lots on the forum about this. Sometimes you will need to reset the ECU before performing the procedure and this can only be done with the Fiat dealer tool or Multiecuscan which is a PC based tool (and a jolly good one too - look at the Gendan website for more info on it if you want to know more. Because of this a Fiat specializing indy might be your best bet as they should know about this and have the gear needed to do it.

From what you are saying it sounds like she just needs a jolly good service and a large dose of TLC. As said above, changing the timing belt will have no effect on performance (unless the one she's running with right now is incorrectly timed?) but If you've no evidence of one having been done fairly recently I'd just renew it anyway. Whenever I, or any family member, buys a vehicle, if there is no definite evidence of a recent belt change, I would just do one anyway - maybe incorporating it into the first service I would do on it.

Good luck
Jock

Tbh for the price of a complete cam belt kit(Gates if you dont use genuine) then if its going into a garage,get it done. Its an investment and peace of mind.

And I did also say 'years'.Last time I had one done,inc parts it was around £200

nikrox said:

My friend drives her car like Miss Daisey. She's in 4th 20 seconds after pulling off

Click to expand...

TLC, TLC ... cars need pampering of course, BUT they also need to run at the correct revs to be on the correct portion of the power/torque curves. This is specially true for naturally aspirated and less sophisticated (no variable timing, no multi-air) engines.
Petrol engines feel also more comfortable in higher revs than diesels, so you got to adapt your driving to the engine, not the opposite ...

BRs, Bernie

If someone here helped You fix -or better, understand- your issue, hit the thanks icon @ bottom right corner, it's free and makes us feel helpy ;-)

I did say use the revs..example..I have a Vectra,2 litre turbo,approx 220 bhp.
Under 2,500-3,000 revs shes quick and smooth.Once you hit those revs the turbo kicks in and its up up and away.
My friend came from a 1.8 sri Astra. Old but still fast enough. She misses the acceleration.
Im looking for a t-jet for her.Go from 70 bhp to 150bhp in the same chassis..just shows what can be achieved.

Bernievarian said:

TLC, TLC ... cars need pampering of course, BUT they also need to run at the correct revs to be on the correct portion of the power/torque curves. This is specially true for naturally aspirated and less sophisticated (no variable timing, no multi-air) engines.
Petrol engines feel also more comfortable in higher revs than diesels, so you got to adapt your driving to the engine, not the opposite ...

BRs, Bernie

If someone here helped You fix -or better, understand- your issue, hit the thanks icon @ bottom right corner, it's free and makes us feel helpy ;-)

Click to expand...

I think this is at the root of why my boy has often complained to me that he finds the car sluggish. For years now he's had turbo diesels (1.9 VAG units in Skoda's mostly although his new car, needed to get his wife to her work miles away in Livingstone every day - so he can't use it for work - is a 1.4 Kia Rio turbo diesel) The thing is though that he's got used to engines which develop lots of torque low down in the rev range. Now he's got the Punto with it's small rather under powered - for the weight of car it has to haul around - non turbo petrol. I think he understands that it just needs to operate at higher revs if he wants to make more rapid progress but I still find him changing up at much lower revs when he's not thinking about it. Mind you I suppose he may be getting better fuel consumption this way?

Hi Jock,

if you look at the specific consumption curve (gram/hp/hour), you'll see clearly that an engine will be at its best effectivity while running in the highest torque area.
Of course, the energy to move the car from point A to point B should be the same (other things being equal) if you run low or higher revs, but since the effectivity will be a bit better in higher revs (in top torque curve I mean), the real consumption will be a bit lower ... Don't expect 20mpg improvment though !!

Regards, Bernie