Hi, Im new to this site and havig problems with my car. One of the things I'm concerned about is that when I start the car I hear a noise that sounds like bubbling water....has anyone any ideas what this could be. I know nothing about cars so could do with some help.
Thanks

Hi, welcome to the forums.

I have this same noise, just after i start the car and start to move.

I assumed this was just water that had built up just underneath windscreen wipers in front of the vents???

If not, then let me know.

its possible you need to bleed your cooling system i had this when my colant was very low. i imagine its most likely to do with that, check the level and bleed it including the heater pipe bleed valve with the heaters on full and hot.

Sound like air in the cooling system to me bleed it then see if you hear a bubbling noise. Have you experience any overheating? or Coolant loss?

if your coolant is not to low then the air lock in the system is likely to have been caused buy a failing head gasket

also if your losing water and the noise is present that will be head gasket too

So if, like me, you have had your head gasket replaced, should this problem be solved??

Paul Molyneux, Do you have a mk2? Does it sound like the noise is coming from under the car on the passenger door side?

i have the same problem i have been going on the net trying to find a way of solving this bubbling problem, and try every single way of bleeding the cooling system out and it still remains in the car! so following the advise off of all the websites and fiat themselves i have replaced the head gasket! this now it has been changed, the car starts up better in the cold and doesnt have any steam coming out the exhaust when revving it up! but it still had the bubbling noise coming from it, so i have again tried bleeding the cooling system to get the air out. to do this what i was told is to lift the front of the car about a metre of the floor and then run the car up squeezing the hoses to help bring the air out the top for the filler bottle, after doing this the problem was still there very slighly but noticeably less than before. so i tried it againg and again and the last time i tried it i couldnt hear any noise from insdie the car. the only thing i worry about is starting it up when its cold and it doing it then which seems to be the worst time for it happening! nd then still if it continues apparentley theres nothing you can do fiat has told me! thats just the way they are. but being a mechanic myself i dont except that as an answer! so i asked a couple more people and there is some form of modification that fiat does to them to stop the noise from happening! not sure if anyone on here has heard about that before? but if you have i would love to know what it is, because they wont tell me at the dealer!
so anyone with this problem you aint alone, give the lifting the fron up bleeding a go if not do the head gasket and then try again and if not off to fiat for them bastards to sort it out

sethers said:

So if, like me, you have had your head gasket replaced, should this problem be solved??

Click to expand...

yes yours should be quiet it may need bleeding again as i'm about to explain

tgran87 said:

i have the same problem i have been going on the net trying to find a way of solving this bubbling problem, and try every single way of bleeding the cooling system out and it still remains in the car! so following the advise off of all the websites and fiat themselves i have replaced the head gasket! this now it has been changed, the car starts up better in the cold and doesnt have any steam coming out the exhaust when revving it up! but it still had the bubbling noise coming from it, so i have again tried bleeding the cooling system to get the air out. to do this what i was told is to lift the front of the car about a metre of the floor and then run the car up squeezing the hoses to help bring the air out the top for the filler bottle, after doing this the problem was still there very slighly but noticeably less than before. so i tried it againg and again and the last time i tried it i couldnt hear any noise from insdie the car. the only thing i worry about is starting it up when its cold and it doing it then which seems to be the worst time for it happening! nd then still if it continues apparentley theres nothing you can do fiat has told me! thats just the way they are. but being a mechanic myself i dont except that as an answer! so i asked a couple more people and there is some form of modification that fiat does to them to stop the noise from happening! not sure if anyone on here has heard about that before? but if you have i would love to know what it is, because they wont tell me at the dealer!
so anyone with this problem you aint alone, give the lifting the fron up bleeding a go if not do the head gasket and then try again and if not off to fiat for them bastards to sort it out

Click to expand...

erm no i work at fiat and there is no such secret fix or trick to it forget that

as for your dealer i would tell em to take a running hike they sound usless

just a quick question have you had your head skimmed when the head gasket was done this is vital if you want it fixed properly

if so then it simply needs bleeding properly

as your a mechanic i assume you know about both bleeders one on the heater hoses at the back and one on the radiator

you''ll also notice that the rear bleeder is higher than the radiator is

there for if you open it the only thing that wiil happen is air will go in instead of coolant coming out this is were your problem is

what you need to do is

1 fill coolant bottle to very top
2. open radiator bleeder till it comes out and close you now have the radiator bled
3. fill to top again
4. now open the rear bleeder
5. either get someone to gently blow on the top of the coolant bottle or get yourself unless you have one a coolant pressure tester, screw it onto the bottle and slowly pump air in the tank until the coolant just begins to run from the rear one
6. then close it
7. turn the heater to full hot start car and run till warm hold at 3k revs or 5 minuites to clear any left over air pockets listening for the fan to check it's working also
8. allow to cool and top up if necessary

you can see what the point of this excersise is you need to get the water to rise up to the level of the bleeder buy bleeding wilst pushing air into the header tank

things to remember are keep the level in the tank as high as you can so you don't push more air into the system you can always use the radiator bleed screw to let it back down to the max mark afterwards

also if you remove the rear bleeder completely it will make it easier to make sure you have all the air out

you may get a slight noise the next morning but if it goes away in a week or so without you messing with the coolant system it should be fine

if it stays then all i can suggest is that the head gasket was not done correctly or the head was not skimmed or maybe warped or something

the fact your dealer told you that all punto's are like that is disgusting there not and under no circumstances should they make this noise if they are working correctly i'm shocked and horrified that you have been fobbed off in this way i hope you find a decent garage that will take the time to look at your car and make sure it's ok

also nobody try lifting the front of there car that high it's dangerous and it wont work

to be honest with you i got the car when it needed an engine in it i paid for the car a second hand engine and fitted it, the problem was there when it was running now i have changed the head gasket and sorted out the cooling system there is no more noise from the matrix! i didnt want to skim the head for the cost of it the cars already set me in loads my the old gasket was very slightly gone so pobably not all that bad but the lifting the car un thing really seems to have worked i have tried evey other way you could imagine before for the problem to still remain! it may be dangerouse but if it works its good for me!
yeah they said the mod was £110 to stop the noise happening! i couldnt for the life of me think about what they could actually do to stop this and what mod they would do for that money. the cheeky bastards were trying to have one over on me! lol cant trust no one can ya! anyways people thank you for the help and dvise thats beengiven i really appreciate it

tgran87 said:

to be honest with you i got the car when it needed an engine in it i paid for the car a second hand engine and fitted it, the problem was there when it was running now i have changed the head gasket and sorted out the cooling system there is no more noise from the matrix! i didnt want to skim the head for the cost of it the cars already set me in loads my the old gasket was very slightly gone so pobably not all that bad but the lifting the car un thing really seems to have worked i have tried evey other way you could imagine before for the problem to still remain! it may be dangerouse but if it works its good for me!
yeah they said the mod was £110 to stop the noise happening! i couldnt for the life of me think about what they could actually do to stop this and what mod they would do for that money. the cheeky bastards were trying to have gasone over on me! lol cant trust no one can ya! anyways people thank you for the help and dvise thats beengiven i really appreciate it

Click to expand...

ok well you'll be very lucky if your new head gasket lasts more than a month if you did not skim the head

it's a common misconception that when a head gasket fails that means you need a new one

true but not entirely the case when the space between the head gasket steel ring and the alloy of the head becomes eaten away buy corrosions as they are dissimilar metals you not only need to renew the head gasket you need to skim the head that has been damaged a new head gasket will hide the affect for a wile but it will simply blow again

i can only think that the garage was going to put in some of that head gasket stuff into your coolant and hope that it seals the thing and charge you that horrendous amount of money the fact is that stuff don't work anyway it's similar to rad seal but there's no way it's gonna hold against combustion and ignition pressures

but i can tell you for sure there is nothing about the bubbling from fiat direct it is simply air in the cooling system that shouldnt and wouldn't be there if the car was working normally ie no leaks head or gasket failures