Technical No. 1 cylinder not firing at all

[alfa115spider]

Fiat Panda 1000ie Marelli SPI (single point injector) < 50000 miles, all mint!

Hi

I’m stuck now, so any help gratefully appreciated.

My Panda was not firing on cylinder No. 1 (nearest cam belt).

* I took the plug lead off, and no difference in running, and the HT lead would spark when I touched the cam cover.
* I removed the spark plug from that cylinder, and it was very black. Put the plug into the HT lead and held that on the cam cover - I could see the spark. Messed about swapping lead about, and the 2 coil packs, issue remained on No.1
* Checked the compression with my ancient compression tester, and No. 1was 11 bar, all the others were about 11.5 (engine cold, fuses taken out of fuel pump).
* No gunge in the oil or water, but just in case I took the head off. No. 1 piston showed signs of “just started to have been cleaned”, so it’s either down to steam from a head gasket fail, or the petrol not burning and cleaning it up. All the other pistons were black on top, so these were all cleaned up.
* Old head gasket looked fine, no sign of trouble.
* Cam shaft rotated, and all 8 valves open and close.
* Exhaust and inlet manifolds taken off.
* All cleaned up, blast with the air line for final clean.
* New head bolts and head gasket gasket fitted, along with intake and exhaust manifold gaskets.
* All put back with new cam belt kit, spark plugs
* it still doesnt fire on No.1 cylinder. Grrrrr
* Back to basics! tried swapping HT leads and coil pack - and the fault stays on No.1.
* Even tried swapping the ECU with our other Panda, no change.
* I’m stuck now, no other ideas, so over to you all in Pandaland???
* I’m at LS249RA

 

[Dragon Man]

call me crazy, but try jamming a bit of bright copper wire down where the plug is so it touches the plugs hex head then run the cable to the case of the coil.

had an interesting case once where the plug was insulated from the engine because some one used some strange plastic thread lubricant...

 

[alfa115spider]

Thanks Dragonman, I will try anything &#55357;&#56835;

 

[andyjw0114]

If that doesnt do the trick....Just about only thing you don't seem to have tried is crankshaft position sensor....I can't see why it would affect just one cylinder though...but web says if it's failing it can have varied symptoms....just a long shot?

 

[alfa115spider]

Hi Andyjw0114

I forgot to add I partially tried the crank sensor, whilst the engine was running on 3 cylinder, I unplugged it...the engine stopped so that was it for my test, but many thanks for the tip.

I took Zeb the Panda (my other Panda is called Bez ha ha) to Turin Motors in Leeds. They discovered the vac pipe that comes off the inlet manifold and goes into the MAP sensor was split. This Was fixed and all was sweet! Thanks to Chris and Greg at Turin &#55357;&#56835;&#55357;&#56835;&#55357;&#56397;&#55357;&#56397;

 

[andyjw0114]

Thanks for the solution, something else to file away & hope it's not needed. Glad all's well now....in fact should be better now after all the work you've done.:worship