Hey

I curently own a Fiat Punto ELX, 1.2 8V engine, 2002 model. Its been running for these 3 years absolutely trouble free, and I really drive it hard. However, 2 days ago, i jumped into my car, and I know, to my carelessness, did not give the oil time to warm up, and strarted to rev the engine all the way to 5,000 rpm, with the outside temperature at the time being around 8 degrees Celcius and the car had been along time outside. I was in a hurry and just was careless.....
At one point, i went to perform an engine break as a I approached a roundabout, but as I engaged the second gear, the car seemed to lose half of its torque, and came out of the curve really, really slowly. It started to do a funny noise as well, similar to a FIAT 500`noise (the original one, produced in the 19601s ) and when the car was in neutral, at a standstill, it vibrates quite a bit, and obviously, its torque remained the same since the incident, it seems as if it has halfed, literally. When I took the car to our mechanic, not the FIAT garage, coz my warranty has expired and I know a very good mechanic, he told me that mechanically, the car is still as good as new and perfect, but the glitch was probably an electrical one with the car`s ECU, and sent me to an electrician, which I will be visiting tomorrow.

I was thaen speaking to a freind of mine who is to graduate in mechanical engineering this year and told me that it may be a safety device within to ECU to switch off a piston, or do something similar in order to prevent a head gasket failure or any other damage to the car.
Does this model have such a feature?
If not, what could possibly have gone wrong? The mechanic told me that probably it sparking on an electrical coil less, i.e. one of them may have gone wrong


Btw, cheers to a very good site, it has everything a Fiat owner or an enthusiast should know !!!! Well done guys

i've never heard of them doing this as a safety feature. The only protection the engine has is limp home mode, but if you were in that then the injector, or engine management warning light would be on i'd have thought.

It could just be a dead coil pack.

On my car when the coil pack stopped working because of the ECU, the engine management light came on........

Punto Maltese- Did the 2002 1.2 8v Puntos in your country have a recall for an ECU problem? (or was this just for the UK??)

i forgot about that recall...

no here in Malta there was no such recall for the ECU`s there was only a minor one for a batch of 40 cars, and it was not a recall which affected me, in the sense that my car was not produced in the period in which the recalled cars were built.
I am nearly certain that the problem is a pack of coils which ****ed up, as you have said, as I have spoken to more people and that is what they said as well.

Any idea how much this would cost to replace? just to have an idea and make sure that im not ripped off or something tomorrow

I just came from my electrician and sent me to teh FIAT dealers coz he said tat its probably the ECU thats wrong, and it may have to be changed.......an expense amounting to around 400 pounds !!!!! :bang: and my car is still nearly 3 years old !!!!!
that ECU is really fragile it seems !!!!!!!

maybe be stupid question but is it not still under warranty ? as it came with 3 years or has it just worn out

i wish that i still had a warranty when this happened, but my car, like all of them in Malta came with a 2 year warranty, and my car is now 3 years old.
Im going to the local fiatand alfa dealers tomorrow to have a good word

My advice is to go to your fiat dealer and ask them to do a S.I.G.I.search this will tell them if any recalls are applicable to your car,i.e.engine e.c.u. reprogramme etc.these should be done free of charge and hopefully this may cure your problem with luck. g.l.

try re-setting the ecu, by disconnecting the battery for a couple of hours, dont know if it will help but wont hurt.....