Hi i need urgent help. My punto evo has a rough idle which has progressively got worse to the point I'm at now. Firstly i checked my spark plugs which had a tiny bit of oil on and some carbon deposits i cleaned these up and ran the car out for a bit no improvement. I then checked the coil pack which is working correctly so i thought maybe change the leads which i did no improvement there. Took it to a garage that said it had a slight misfire recommended putting fuel cleaner through the system. Yet again no improvement. Then i took it to the local garage who put a fault reader in . No faults, he recommended switching to a higher octane fuel as he thought that maybe the cause ran this through no improvement. I cleaned my throttle body butterfly valve out which had a bit of gunk in and no improvement. Checked oil which is fine however my coolant seems to be dropping i topped it up the other day and its nearly back on minium. There isn't any leaks anywhere and i don't know if this is linked but I'm at the point now where i don't have a clue what to do about it.

The car is a 1.4 8v punto evo btw

Any help or advice would be great.

Hi

Do you hear gurgling from in the dashboard
?


The oil etc on the spark plugs.. has this returned?

How many miles

A trip

A week

Are you covering ?

The next step would be to have a compression test done to see if there is a problem with the head gasket rough running and dropping coolant do point to a head gasket issue and it’s very common for these engines.

2+2= ?

Is this the evo that needed a front bumper and headlights?

Plenty of options for coolant leaks.. many of which you can check for yourself without a £50 garage visit

Hence the advice to check your spark plugs.. rusty is Bad..

varesecrazy said:

2+2= ?

Is this the evo that needed a front bumper and headlights?

Plenty of options for coolant leaks.. many of which you can check for yourself without a £50 garage visit

Hence the advice to check your spark plugs.. rusty is Bad..

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Hi im gonna check the sparks again and no that wasn't me needing a bumper and headlights though.

varesecrazy said:

Hi

Do you hear gurgling from in the dashboard
?


The oil etc on the spark plugs.. has this returned?

How many miles

A trip

A week

Are you covering ?

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The car has done 93000 miles and my trips can vary but i always make sure it gets a good run out and would say i cover at minimum 100 miles per week.

AndyRKett said:

The next step would be to have a compression test done to see if there is a problem with the head gasket rough running and dropping coolant do point to a head gasket issue and it’s very common for these engines.

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Yes I'm aware its quite common if it does turn out to be the headgasket unfortunately the car will be getting broken as the repair investment ive put in so far is nearly at the cost of what i paid for it and I'm wanting to upgraded in November when my insurance drops so wouldn't make sense to pump more into this car as what ill make back is minimial.

Checked coolant again just now car was running last about 4 hours ago for about 5 minutes so engine is well and truly cooled down so would expect coolant to return to normal level within the expansion tank and its slightly higher then it was. I'll check again tommorow just to rule out. But if it was just me being over worried about the coolant, what would you guys then say the issue would be. I'm slightly worried as i have an MOT for Saturday and obviously its not running right so worried the emissions could be off.

rando said:

Checked coolant again just now car was running last about 4 hours ago for about 5 minutes so engine is well and truly cooled down so would expect coolant to return to normal level within the expansion tank and its slightly higher then it was. I'll check again tommorow just to rule out. But if it was just me being over worried about the coolant, what would you guys then say the issue would be. I'm slightly worried as i have an MOT for Saturday and obviously its not running right so worried the emissions could be off.

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How did you clean your spark plugs?

How many miles have those plugs been in there?

Bit of maintenance spray and a light grit sandpaper pad careful not to damage them. The thing Is i put them in march and they've only done 2k miles.

rando said:

Checked coolant again just now car was running last about 4 hours ago for about 5 minutes so engine is well and truly cooled down so would expect coolant to return to normal level within the expansion tank and its slightly higher then it was. I'll check again tommorow just to rule out. But if it was just me being over worried about the coolant, what would you guys then say the issue would be. I'm slightly worried as i have an MOT for Saturday and obviously its not running right so worried the emissions could be off.

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I was thinking HG before you mentioned the coolant, the fiat engines have a habit of blowing between cylinders, so you should still consider a compression test

AndyRKett said:

I was thinking HG before you mentioned the coolant, the fiat engines have a habit of blowing between cylinders, so you should still consider a compression test

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Yes probably worth it just tryna gather as much info as possible.

rando said:

Bit of maintenance spray and a light grit sandpaper pad careful not to damage them. The thing Is i put them in march and they've only done 2k miles.

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Did the misfire start when you put these plugs in?
What brand and part number are plugs?

Best not to try and clean them in my opinion.

Does the temperature gauge get to normal and stay there , i.e. not go down when you go on a gentle clear run?

It had NGKs in but the electrodes were worn i replaced them with bosch ones on first start up it misfired but all corrected and the engine at that point ran the best it had ever done. As for the temperature it will usually start at bottom of the scale on cold after a bit of driving or sat idling it will be at the middle of the temp gauge usually doesn't go down but never exceeds the middle point. Obviously weather is quite warm at the moment but I've noticed the radiator fan always seems to come on. I've got an obd reader and the coolant itself is operating within the normal temperatures. As for the rough idle itself very noticeable on a cold start very noisy once the engine is warm it runs quiter however pulling up at lights and at idle still shakes violently and revs fluctuate between 700-900. No loss of power not too sure about fuel economy mpg reads pretty much the same and haven't really noticed any severe loss of range.

rando said:

It had NGKs in but the electrodes were worn i replaced them with bosch ones on first start up it misfired but all corrected and the engine at that point ran the best it had ever done. As for the temperature it will usually start at bottom of the scale on cold after a bit of driving or sat idling it will be at the middle of the temp gauge usually doesn't go down but never exceeds the middle point. Obviously weather is quite warm at the moment but I've noticed the radiator fan always seems to come on. I've got an obd reader and the coolant itself is operating within the normal temperatures. As for the rough idle itself very noticeable on a cold start very noisy once the engine is warm it runs quiter however pulling up at lights and at idle still shakes violently and revs fluctuate between 700-900. No loss of power not too sure about fuel economy mpg reads pretty much the same and haven't really noticed any severe loss of range.

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Usually doesn't go down, does that mean sometimes it does drop below the half way to around quarter point while driving sometimes?
Is your coolant tank on the side of the radiator or is it higher up on inner wing.

Which Bosch plugs have you fitted?
Are you saying it wasn't misfiring until you fitted new plugs?

What temperature is the engine running at when fully warm as read from obd socket?

Your MOT is 5 days away..

Get those plugs out

Line them up on the order they came out..

Compare colours

You mentioned oil before..

Oil..water..rust..soot none of that is 'right'.. but will guide your diagnosis

jackwhoo said:

Usually doesn't go down, does that mean sometimes it does drop below the half way to around quarter point while driving sometimes?
Is your coolant tank on the side of the radiator or is it higher up on inner wing.

Which Bosch plugs have you fitted?
Are you saying it wasn't misfiring until you fitted new plugs?

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Nabbed a photo from another post to show you where it is lol. Then whole car was running poor before full service history and all but ive had to replace the clutch twicw and gearbox along with a rotten sump so you can imagine it wasn't running the smoothest as for the temperature ill need to do a proper run out and monitor it. The car never misfired or idled rough after the sparks went in its only this past month ive noticed it the plugs are the ones below i believe.

jackwhoo said:

What temperature is the engine running at when fully warm as read from obd socket?

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Haven't got engine temperature itself but coolant is operating around 90 degrees celcius

varesecrazy said:

Your MOT is 5 days away..

Get those plugs out

Line them up on the order they came out..

Compare colours

You mentioned oil before..

Oil..water..rust..soot none of that is 'right'.. but will guide your diagnosis

Click to expand...

Thanks mate was gonna do it today but I've misplaced my socket set will check tomoz and post photos in.