Folks,

I've been lurking here afew times over the weeks trying to get some information on whats wrong with my car (2003 Punto 1.2 active sport 8v). I should also say that I dont realy know anything about cars apart from how to drive one so forgive me if my terminlogy is off as well as my spelling.

The temps started to go up a week or two ago and instead of the needle being half way it , it started to peak near the red everytime I declerated or stop but drops back down when driving. Also noticed I was losing alot of coolent and it required topping up every so offen depending on the lenght of the journey plus I get the slushy water sound near the glovebox too.

So I took her to Fiat this morning and did a diagnostic and here are the results

Blockage in the radiator and suspected head gasket failure thou no physical signs of coolent leakage also they said my blower handle was broken. Along with fixing the above the timing is abit off and the car misfires abit.

Now I asked them to quote me and they said round about £600 cant remember if this included vat.

Bear in mind I have no idea about cars and I need your advice on how to proceed.

Thank you for reading

HC

You can fix the coolant issue with a flush and new set of coolant cheaper than any garage will do it. Can't guarantee the radiator blockage will shift but that's what Rad-Flush is for. There's a guide on how to do this is here (car in the guide is my mk1 but is applicable for others):

https://www.fiatforum.com/punto-gui...mk1-1-2l-8v-fire-similar-radiator-system.html

Before you embark on that you might want to find out about the timing/headgasket and you may want to consider replacing the water pump and thermostat if either appear to be damaged (you will have access to the water pump if you change the timing belt and the thermostat is removed as part of the coolant flush process).

One of the potential symptoms for a headgasket failure are creamy residue build up on the coolant filler cap, did the garage mention anything about a sniff test or anything else in relation to the headgasket comment?

Edit: The gurgle/whooshing noises behind the dashboard is an airlock in the heater matrix, covered in teh flushing guide. When they say blower handle I wonder where they actually mean, do all of your fan settings work?

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply they didnt say anything about the gunk in the coolent cap or doing a sniff test but saying that I noticed something resembling a cream inside the cap the other day and I could smell something too , I take it that oil mixing with the coolent ? and a sign of the head gasket is on its last legs.

The garage also blew the heater fuse which I replaced when I got back home and all fan settings work again. I think they ment the switch inside the car interior was broken.

How easy is the rad flush to do by a novice ( I will give it a go anyhow as I've nowt to lose. )

Any more thoughts on the matter ?

Rad flush is easy. About 3 quid from your local factor. Instructions on the bottle. You may need to replace the clip on the bottom hose with a conventional jubilee clip. Once you've dumped the flush, you might like to fill up with plain water, bleed, run up to temperature and dump that before refeilling with 50/50 water anti-freeze and bleeding again.

Hotcuppa said:

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply they didnt say anything about the gunk in the coolent cap or doing a sniff test but saying that I noticed something resembling a cream inside the cap the other day and I could smell something too , I take it that oil mixing with the coolent ? and a sign of the head gasket is on its last legs.

The garage also blew the heater fuse which I replaced when I got back home and all fan settings work again. I think they ment the switch inside the car interior was broken.

How easy is the rad flush to do by a novice ( I will give it a go anyhow as I've nowt to lose. )

Any more thoughts on the matter ?

Click to expand...

get your coolant checked, they can do simple tests at a dealer checking for oil and co2 mixing with your coolant. Or do a compression test to check if your head gasket is still alright.
A quick and dirty test is to heat up the engine to operating temp. then turn it off and wait for 1 or 2 min, then carefully open the radiator cap... if coolant starts spewing out there is building up more pressure in the system then should and is a good hint of headgasket failure.

As said, rad flush is dead easy, the guide I linked you to is a step by step guide and was the first Time I'd ever done it

Liquidh2o said:

get your coolant checked, they can do simple tests at a dealer checking for oil and co2 mixing with your coolant. Or do a compression test to check if your head gasket is still alright.
A quick and dirty test is to heat up the engine to operating temp. then turn it off and wait for 1 or 2 min, then carefully open the radiator cap... if coolant starts spewing out there is building up more pressure in the system then should and is a good hint of headgasket failure.

Click to expand...

Hmm I did this a week ago the car was not warming up so we took off the coolent cap and the temps just went straight up but that was from a cold engine and not operating temp might give it another go and report back. Can you confirm that the radiator cap and the coolent cap are the same thing lol ( the one where I put the water in ) < car nub here still trying to get my head around things. Hopefully will try this out without scolding myself.

fingers99 said:

Rad flush is easy. About 3 quid from your local factor. Instructions on the bottle. You may need to replace the clip on the bottom hose with a conventional jubilee clip. Once you've dumped the flush, you might like to fill up with plain water, bleed, run up to temperature and dump that before refeilling with 50/50 water anti-freeze and bleeding again.

Click to expand...

Cheers fingers , 5abr3 and Liquidh2o will do the flush and report back on the status. Thank God for these forum I couldnt really afford the outlay that Fiat was asking so soon after Christmas and would have had no option if you folks didnt care.

Ta

HC

If it turns out you have an issue that needs a garage there are two things to do.

1) Negotiate with the Fiat garage. They need your business and I think workshops are a bit quiet at the moment. I got a deal on a friend's Vauxhall this week at 60% off the labour rate as the garage would rather have the mechanic working than standing round with his thumb up his bum.

If still too expensive

2) Speak to your local factor about any good independants in your area.

Cheers

SPD

Yes the radiator and coolant cap are the same thing