ok .. Punto Sporting Speedgear(auto) ..1.2 .... just got it .. now ... Heard water boiling .. temp gauge goin up and down like a yoyo .. very little heat from heater .... some water loss..... Drives .. Like A Dream .. (Really it does)

i suspect head gasket has gone ... but i rang lots of local garages all wantin in the area £40-£60 for a 'compression test' ... when i rang my local Fiat Dealer .. they said comp test no good .. what you need is an exhaust leak test to find exhaust fumes in the water .. they charge £50 for a diagnostic ...


so .. am i right probably head gasket ?? should i pay the £50 to be sure bought from a local car dealer so .. do i go back as it is or go back with ammunition ?? ... bit disabled atm thats why i had to get an auto so not happy if i'm gonna be without it for a while as i 'need' my car .....

oh its year is 2000

you bought it to use and bought via a dealer
if you cant use it because head gasket gone then its not fit for the purpose you bought it for
however its quite likely if you catch it before you boil it that its just a stuck thermostat
i get puntos in been stood and its one of the first problems i have to deal with and if trader had car a while then it could be this too
do not drive it
first ring them and get an attitude test off them
£50 is robbery
see if hose very hot from right handside of engine to radiator and see if it feels solid,if it is then its qiuite possible head gasket gorn

If you "just got the car" you should have a list one month warranty
Take it back were you bought it and get them to fix it
Check oil if is a milky colour and check water reservoir if has oil mixed with water...if yes is defo head gasket
But if the temp gauge is like a yoyo i suspect is a sticky thermostat
Common fault and cheap to replace

ok tyvm ... might be thermostat .. hmm ,,, reason i dont wanna go straight to dealer is i like to know what i am talkin so i dont get fobbed off with some bs ... if i get a diag from a main dealer he has no chance to say some kinda bs ... (i know £50 seems a lot but most local garages seem to charge that per hour so for a main dealer i thought it wasnt too bad?) .. ..

no water in oil as far as i can tell ... but it has boiled once by the sound i got and i have put water in it twice so ....

I'd say to go back to the dealer. Chances are though - unless they're reputable they won't do anything to help which leaves you with two choices - either put it down to experience (and get it repaired at your own expense) or take them to court. Unfortunately, the office of consumer affairs (I think that's what they're called) are toothless tigers.

After making a purchase of a punto from a dealer a couple of years ago, I drove it home and when I opened the bonnet the next day, I found that the bolts in the upper engine mounting (drivers side) had been overtightened to the point where the threads had been stripped from the engine and so it was just precariously "balancing" in place. I ended up getting it repaired at my cost but I remembered telling my wife that if she ever caught me considering buying from a dealer again to have me sectioned under the mental health act!

Sorry if I have offended the many good dealers out there - unfortunately it isn't easy to tell the difference (and the bad ones know this).

Actually that also reminds me of a car I sold once and had a dealer turn up at my house telling me that he was going to have to spend lots of cash before it would be "up to scratch". I sold the car at a reduced price only to see it the next day in a local newspaper with 40,000 miles less on the clock than when it left my house - perhaps he liked to drive very fast in reverse!

(im not 100% certain on this) But head gasket issues with overheating don't tend to shoot up and down, but tend to either just not heat up properly at all, or overheat after so long of running.

Changing the thermostat won't hurt anyway as if it is head gasket its advisable to change everything with it (thermostat, water pump etc) as its more than likely it has gone for a reason.

My temp was up and down like a yoyo just a week ago, changed the thermostat and while its no longer shooting up and down it takes a long time to heat up so i think this new one is sticking open

Check oil cap for a 'mayo' like gunk. Check water level, and unscrew the cap. If it just comes off its fine, if it "hisses" it may be head gasket.

thanks for all the advice ..... all very helpful ... no gunk in oil filler ... and when i pull dipstick the oil looks nice and clean ... but i must be losin water somewhere but cant see any visible leaks .. no hissin when i open water filler . (But .. it was actually bubblin earlier so i didnt open it then)... this bubbling is what worry's me the most


bit annoyin as the car i traded in he put up at the same price i paid for this and sold it in 2 days .......

If you mean bubbling in the coolant, no that isn't right.

When the car is cold, take coolant cap off and start engine, ideally get someone to rev it a little and watch in the coolant filler tube for any bubbles coming up. If there is then yes this can indicate blown HG.

The bubbling may be nothing more than the cooling system not having been bled (see the Guides for how to bleed) or a result of a bona fide coolant leak -- prime candidates are the water pump and the water rail O ring, but these can often only be found by crawling under the car with the engine up to temperature and the engine running. Still, neither of the above cost anything.

Cheap, non european or unbranded thermostats are known to give problems. Easy to change. About £15. Halfords ones are OK.

You can buy a compression tester for about £15 on eBay. Lots of guides through Google. Sniff testers are about the same and are idiot proof (and often used by idiots) but are much less versatile peices of kit.

The bubbling is serious. Get it sorted.

i'm thinkin its HG today as it waws bubbling when switched engine off ... so makes me think boiling .... only driven it around thre block couple of times ... today went up other side of town through rush hour traffic ...

unfortunately i'm knackered when i comes to workin on the car or even crawling under it ... disabled currently ... so i'm stuck with garages

Bummer. Shop around. Try and find a backstreet one you can trust.

there isnt a good back street garage in Colchester and the main dealer is one of the worst, they would probably just stick Kseal in it, i was in there once when they told a saab owner they could try and fix his by re-torqueing the head bolts for 200 quid

there is gary at langham mot centre he isnt too bad but a bit far out of town and i'm not sure if he has fiat cam tools.

main dealer in ipswich are 100 times better than the colchester one, if you go there say you are a fiat forum member

. weird you mention kseal... as i have just tried it .. and fingers crossed .. temp guage remains sationary at halfway point .... so ... maybe ....

but as far as main dealer ..they were the only one i could find to do an exhaust gas leak test in the water ... should be 0-30 parts per million ... mine was over 400 ...... so to me deffo points to the head ... but if kseal doesnt work (for a tenner cheap gamble) ,, there is some other stuff someone said about £35 .....

i would go to ipswich but, being disabled atm i would need a car from them and then i would clock up a lot of miles travelling just to the garage and not knowing them i would guess they charge for one .. last time i was at salmons ( :-( ) .. they didnt charge as it was local ......

... BUT .. thanks everyone for all the advice to a Fiat Newb such as meself .....

if ya see me give a wave .. garrison side of town yellow sporting ..****YEX

oh and i did get some cash back from the dealer i bought it from ... very little argument as he has sign up sayin no warranty on that price range ... i did mention the 'fit for purpose' legal bit ... sayin i didnt wanna get into all that as my solicitor is busy at the moment ... but he paid up nicely ...

Any goods sold must be fit for purpose, regardless of age.

If it's sold as a car, you can reasonably expect to drive it

It it's sold as scrap or for parts, you can't reasonably expect to drive it.

Dealer did the right thing.

i wasnt recomending putting kseal in, its very bad and will clog up the insides of cooling system

did the dealer give you £500 quid back?

hmm oddly .. kseal sems to have fixed the problem .. car runs lovely now ..heater all workin as it should (was blowin cold) ... so ... i guess wait and see ...

only ....... Now me starter motor has started to play up..stuck in shop car park ..called green flag .. man gave it a tap to make it work .. so guess i gotta get me one of them now as well .......

it will seem to work, its when you strip the engine or change the coolant the problems will start to show up. what supermarket was you in? asda has loads of windscreen wipers reduced to £1 each

wasnt a supermkt car park ... was up at tollgate ... and .. for the kseal.. it will have to do .. been out of work for over a year due to an injury .. so its cheaper 'now' than payin to have head sorted ... when/ if i get back to work i may look at a proper solution .. but now i gotta find summat to hit starter with till i can get one of them sorted out ...need summat long enough so i dont have to bend over to do it .... maybe fit a hammer head to me walkin stick ... hmmmm ....