Technical ECU problem? 1999 punto.

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Technical ECU problem? 1999 punto.

Wild182

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Problem started about 3 weeks ago, I was driving up the village and at this point its probably worth pointing out i'd been driving about 2 minutes so the engine won't be warm, anyway a warning light comes on (looks like a hose spraying) which is linked to the ECU I beleive?

Anyway I try to pull out of the junction and the car violently judders, kindof like a stall, it doesn't stall and I know for a fact it wasn't me (I don't stall :p) - I pull up on the road and wait about 30 seconds for the wanring light to go off, anyway it drives ok.

Now it seems the car either drivers perfect when I'm out, or whenever I set off theres the violent judd almost like a stall and the car sounds like its choking with the warning light on. It sometimes happens when changing from 1st to 2nd gear aswell.

As you can imagine its REALLY annoying and I'm not sure when I'm out whether I'll get where I want to go.
It has cut out a few times aswell.

The thing is I'm not 100% sure what the problem is.
I think it could be a knackered ECU or as simple as a lose/faulty connection somewhere.

I'm not too keen on going to a garage just to have the fault codes read for £45-50 (student!)

Was thinking of just going round changing minor things to see if theres a difference, but not totally sure what that could be?

Any ideas? I know its a long post, cheers :D

punto S 1.2 (1999) by the way.
 
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Hi Wild

First thing i would check is that your heater matrix isn't leaking. I beleive i'm right in saying the ECU lives beneath the matrix and they are prone to a leak after some time.

I have just experienced a similar prob, only mine died completely. Turned out to be coolant in ECU. And it looks like it has now knacked my ECU as it now won't start at all and immobiliser thinks there is a problem.

Peel back the carpet trim passenger side where it meets the centre console. You should be able to see the ECU (with a fist full of cables running into it) clearly enough to see if it is wet.

Another thing to check is any fuses under the bonnet. Again i think there will be a couple in there that supply the fuel injection system and ECU power. I also had a fuse crack on me (last year) that caused a fault like this, cutting engine out over bumps and even at a certain temperature due to the expansion of the fuse material.

Hope this helps, if only to rule some things out.
 
ECU is on the front wing on a 1.2 - i think its the 1.6 with it under the heater matrix so i wouldnt worry about that.

I'm thinking its either a fuelling or ignition failure. With it being SPI, an injector fault would cause the engine to stall pretty much instantly without any juddering - so we should be able to rule that out. Next is coil packs and sparkplugs. Sparkplugs are cheap so check the condition of them. Also make sure there making good contact with the HT leads. If it not them, it could be a faulty coil.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

The first thing is my heater matrix is leaking, I've known this for quite a while, especially when its cold weather theres alot of moisture in the car in the morning especially. At times aswell the mat on the drivers side floor is soaked from where the matrix has leaked. Although I've not had chance to take apart all the dashboard etc. to get to it and sort it out.
So I suppose it could be that, although Xen kindof ruled that out.

HT leads were what I was thinking initially aswell.

Well its given me a few ideas that I can check out anyway, thanks guys :D
 
Ok, this will sound really stupid, and it seems stupid to me.. but anyway.

I checked the oil level on friday, and it was only very slightly above, if not on the minimum marking. So I dug out the oil and topped it up.

Drove saturday and sunday (only a 5 minute trip there and back) and this evening, (20 minutes each way) and I've had no problems.

Normally the main problems are when the engine is cold, or when I'm setting off from being static, so all these journeys had the potential to show the problem again, but nothing...

Surely its not something as simple as not having enough oil in?

I'm going to give it a few more days anyway and see what happens, but with no problems the last few days i've just wondered?
 
Ok, this will sound really stupid, and it seems stupid to me.. but anyway.

I checked the oil level on friday, and it was only very slightly above, if not on the minimum marking. So I dug out the oil and topped it up.

Drove saturday and sunday (only a 5 minute trip there and back) and this evening, (20 minutes each way) and I've had no problems.

Normally the main problems are when the engine is cold, or when I'm setting off from being static, so all these journeys had the potential to show the problem again, but nothing...

Surely its not something as simple as not having enough oil in?

I'm going to give it a few more days anyway and see what happens, but with no problems the last few days i've just wondered?

if it's still on the dip stick there is more than a litre in it which is enough to run fine and wouldn't cause a misfire

as it's intermittent it cant be anything to do with the timing

if the plugs or leads had failed that would not be intermittent

so that leaves injection maybe it's missing a few fires of the injector
but this kind of failure is very uncommon the most likely thing i can see is possably a dodgy crank sensor if you let the revs drop below idle as your setting off maybe this is causing it
 
I have had exactly the same problem and the garage first diagnosed ECU but I had to be recovered today and RAC man reckons its head gasket!

See my post "ECU Unit or Head Gasket???"
 
I have had exactly the same problem and the garage first diagnosed ECU but I had to be recovered today and RAC man reckons its head gasket!

See my post "ECU Unit or Head Gasket???"

ecu's rarely cause this kind of problem they normally just stop working all together

but head gasket is posible it fits the symptoms i poses
 
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