of course the fan kicks in when the engine hits a certain temp... the thermostat tells the fan to cool the engine down to stop it over heating... regardless to the weather.. lol...
if the car is drinking a huge amount of coolant there is a possible chance that the head gasket is about to fail... is the car struggeling/ missing... or any loss of performance??
check the oil cap for mayo..
(mayo) is a termed used for the creamy solution on the oil cap
its oil and coolant mixed together... as i've said untill a compression test is done along with a sniffer test.. i couldnt say for certain.. but in most likely chance its the cylinder head gasket going/gone...
as for coolant NEVER put straight water into the header tank... the correct amount of coolant needs to be put into the water...
no the fan doesn't need to run atall if you maintain more then 30 mph even on a hot day the fan will never run as the air flow through the radiator will far outweighs it my car runs at 2 bars below midle on the guage when i'm motoring and if i stop it takes a long time to reach midle and triger the fan i know if the guage is below that the fans off and when i'm out and about i can go for hours and it wont run
when the cars running the cooling is controlled solely buy the position of the thermostat and the radiator some years ago now cars didnt even have fans
@op i'm sure you car has not been hot as you have kept a close eye on it and these engines dont blow head gasket soley due to overheating they can get supriseingly hot and not do anything we have had plastic manifolds melt of them before now and they have run again fine for years
now due to the age of yours and posible dubiouse service history the head gasket may have still leaked due to corosion only the coolant may not have ever been fully changed also if it's not very sttrong at the moment almost water you'll find that corodes aloy very quickly making a small leak very big very quick
also a tiny leak will very quickly open up due to the water rushing throu it quicklly on each fire of the engine it eats away at the metal notching the head
it's imposible to diagnose a punto head gasket with a sniffer as the radiator is one of the lowest points in the cooling system
the best way is to check for any air locks in the bleeder at the back of the engine as this is were any leaks end up in the heater hoses
now also when the air gets in there it rushes throu the heater matrix making a noise resembling a small stream behind the dash if this is present and the water level is still above max you definately have a problem
compresion tests are no good for diagnosing head gaskets
if the garage does come to the conclusion that the headgasket has leaked then it will be a fairly simple thing to replace they are the easiest engine in the world to do them on
but as far as your waranties concerned i couldnt say the garage is out to look after you not stick a nife in your back if you have been good to them paying bills on time polite i'm sure they will help you out the waranty is with a waranty company i exspect and nothing to do with the garage they will probably put a claim in for you not mentioning the radiator fan and you taking the car
if your radiator still has 2 original once use fiat clips on the hoses that tells you that the cooling system has never been fully drained and refilled as there is no drain screw on the system on your car
