As much as a i love my punto, its becoming too much of a pain. I have a sticking brake calliper, got a temp fix but needs replacing.

Theres a high pitched metallic type noise coming from the rear when driving along, worse and slower speeds (not sure what it is)

An awful rattle from engine when in low gears

Faulty rear lights, they light up like a christmas tree.

Hand brake barely works, need to do some work on rear drums.

Today driving to morrisons, about a 5 or 6 mile round trip, i used a quarter tank of fuel!

Tried to start it to come home, it really struggled and when it did start it kept trying to stall. On the way home the temp dial was all over the place (up to half back down to quarter, up to over half, back down to half etc)
Got home and turned engine off, and heard a really quiet gurgle. Sort of like *gulp . . .gulp . . . gulp*

Had a quick look in engine, and oil level has risen from half way, to max.

I guess i know what this means i have spent so much money on fixing my punto over these last few months and i simply do not have the funds to carry on . . . i think its time to sell it for spares or repair. Shame, i really love my punto.

but your going to spend money on a car you will end up repairing... just keep the punto

punto's are ten a penny these days you should be able to pick something up fairly cheap, hit gumtree and don't be afraid of a low-ish mileage mk1

Cant afford any car atm, afraid it will be back to public transport :yuck: for me until we can afford a new car.

Were moving house, will have some spare cash after that so will probably get a new car then.

Shame too, my punto only has 60k on it.

Totally understand where you are coming from...I had a little Punto Van which I loved for almost 7 years - it was nearing 10 years old, only 51,000 on a diesel engine. Last week the water pump failed and whole thing pretty much blew up - this is after spending a fair amount of money the last 2 years as things continued to go wrong and need replaced/repaired etc.

My post/thread on here about it was called "My punto van no more!" a couple of days ago.

So now I am carless as the extent of damage was way beyond my budget and what car was worth. The constant work and money required just to keep it on the road was unbearable...with such a small mileage as well

Good luck with everything. Maybe you could keep the punto and trade it in when you are ready to buy something else - scrap value is pretty worthless - £150 if you are lucky!

Yeah i know, mine is just a 1.2 8v petrol. Been faultless for 8/9 years. Over the last 2 years its just been repair after repair and we just can't afford it any more :/

Think we will be looking at something like a fiesta when we have moved house and got the money for a new car. Shame coz i do like fiats but my aunty has had nothing but trouble with her grande punto either.

I'm with you on a change, kind of lost faith in Fiat a fair bit recently, especially as my van had only had a full service 2 months ago this year especially it was into the garage, problems fixed, home again a few weeks later, something else goes wrong, into the garage again, back home, something else went wrong, time after time. Then I found out on here that the water pump should have been replaced when cambelt was - had the dealership done that, or at least given me the option and I could have decided on spending a wee bit extra and most likely my van would still be mine and I would still have transport!

51,000 on a diesel engine is nothing :bang:

So I'm looking to a volkswagen golf or golf estate instead!!

They didn't change the water pump with the cam belt ? Thats bad imo, any decent garage should at least tell you its a good idea for them to be changed along with a cam belt.

See this is the thing, I've just changed my cam belt, water pump, thermostat, fan belt, had a full service, had a new clutch and gearbox not long ago, now this.

See we only need a little car so looking at spending around 7k on a fairly new polo or fiesta, something like them when we have moved and have some money. Like i say its a real shame as i do love my punto.

Going book it in at garage for a sniff test i think as it isn't showing any other symptoms of HG failure. Eg, no white gunk, no white smoke etc.

As i say, shame because i have always been a bit of a fiat enthusiast, but i am also losing faith.

sounds like you have water in your oil.. raising oil level.. head gasket..
rear lights.. a ground is tired.. clean your rear light plug...
metalic noise.. worn out break pads rear.. change
handbrake.. worn out break pads rear... change and ajust
low miles /L.. maby a temp sensor and the fact that the rear breaks might break all the time...
engine water temp.. proberly because of faulty head gasket..

sorry seems like you dont look after your car..

and to that guy with a 9year old diesel done 50K .. why a diesel.. 50k.. its no good to do small trips in a diesel..


still sorry to hear about your down hill puntos..! well dont expect anything alot different from near all other brands..

fraguzz said:

and to that guy with a 9year old diesel done 50K .. why a diesel.. 50k.. its no good to do small trips in a diesel..

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You didn't want to read the reasons behind this then? Was nothing to do with small trips (not that it would have made any difference if all the guy did was small trips, given the circumstances of the engine failure.

And as for the comment to the OP about not looking after his car that is completely unfair, he seems to have spent most of his time and money looking after the car but sometimes a car can be such a problem that you can't keep on top of things which seems to be the case here.

People drive these cars because they are on a small budget, repairs and parts can get pretty expensive, so when it's one fault after another like this you spend all you time playing catch up.

some times keeping the thing on the road is just about all you can manage to afford

You have my sympathy, I know where you are coming from.

For me, it's been the last year where it feel like the wheels are coming off....I have a Y mk2, 11 years old now, from new. Since I started working on it, I've enjoyed it more in the last couple of years than ever before.

It depends what your real enemy is - time or money?

Many repairs, if you have the time and tools, can be relatively (and I mean relative to having a professional do it for you) low cost.

Sticking calipers can be refurbished yourself for <£30 each, but it takes a bit of time and patience, and your car off the road.

Refurbishing the back brakes is relatively straightforward, and might fix handbrake and squeal.

It's always a bit painful pumping money into a car with little market value, but the value of the car to me (and sounds like to you too) is way above what someone would pay for it.

And it's really sore when the thing falls apart faster than you can fix it!

btw, it's almost irrelevent if it's a Fiat of Fiesta at ~10 years old.

That's when age as well as mileage related issues begin to bite:

Shot underseal, body rust, perished rubber suspension bushes, perished gaiters, rusty gear cables, brake pipe coating shot, springs rusty, rusty handbrake cables, brake flexis....the list goes on.

Fiat corrosion protection isn't too bad.

Basically - don't rest your hopes on a Fiesta being much less hassle!

Regarding the fiesta - i am aware of this and i am presuming the car is having problems due to its age more then anything, apart from the HG, as it is X reg and 11 years old.

Only reason i say this is because my aunty has a GP and it has a never ending list of electrical problems. Water dripping onto air con pump, had a new air con pump, alternator's gone, twice, starter motor, then recently all electrics completely went and had to have a new ECU fitted (cost quite a bit lol)

In addition to fraguzz reply, yes because I've not had my car serviced every year, most of them at a Fiat dealer, I've not got a brother that can do most things on a car and fix's fix's nearly everything for me. How dare you tell me i don't look after my car.

Thanks andy for that, i have a spent quite a bit on repairs keeping it into shape recently, which is why I'm a little annoyed now.

Part of the problem with repairing it is the car is only worth around £500, the repairs would cost around the value of the car And quite simply, we do don't have the money to fix it atm.

Looked into it a bit further this morning, and its a confusing one. I moved the car onto the street, checked oil and it does appear to have risen a tiny bit. But there is no coolant loss, actually marked where coolant was few weeks ago and it is still there. There is no 'hiss' when taking coolant cap off, and no 'mayo' in oil filler cap. Only thing as i say when you turn engine off there is a very quiet and suttle "glug . . . . glug"

I have heard a blown HG in a rover 25 (Due to the ridiculously small coolant capacity and appalling design of the engine) And the noise was much, much louder. Thing thats worrying me, is is this the start of a HG failure, or am i just looking for problems ? Hmm

Glug glug could just be air in the coolant needing bled out.

Oil level "rising" half way - you have to let the oil drain completely into the sump to get a repeatable accurate reading. You should do this a couple of times to get a reliable reading.

Dodgy back lights + dodgy temperature gauge + dodgy fuel gauge = bad electrics.

This *might* be the only issue you actually have -

I'd guess that

1. You've no problem with oil = bad reading
2. You're 1/4 tank = bad reading due to bad fuel gauge
3. "worrying" glug glug is nothing to worry about
4. Engine behaving sporadicallly - well, it relies on the electrics to set the engine parameters.

So, if you're an optimist like me, it might be a much smaller issue than you currently think!

LOL you sound like an old lady
(How dare you tell me i don't look after my car.)

it was abit hash to say.. sorry i dont know the entire story..

i assumed it because you drove around with the engine temp all screwed up.. knows there are something rong with the breaks at the rear and do not try to look in to it.. could be dangerous..
I know money are a problem this is not a ferrari forum lol.

FiatPuntoMad said:

Regarding the fiesta - i am aware of this and i am presuming the car is having problems due to its age more then anything, apart from the HG, as it is X reg and 11 years old.

Only reason i say this is because my aunty has a GP and it has a never ending list of electrical problems. Water dripping onto air con pump, had a new air con pump, alternator's gone, twice, starter motor, then recently all electrics completely went and had to have a new ECU fitted (cost quite a bit lol)

In addition to fraguzz reply, yes because I've not had my car serviced every year, most of them at a Fiat dealer, I've not got a brother that can do most things on a car and fix's fix's nearly everything for me. How dare you tell me i don't look after my car.

Thanks andy for that, i have a spent quite a bit on repairs keeping it into shape recently, which is why I'm a little annoyed now.

Part of the problem with repairing it is the car is only worth around £500, the repairs would cost around the value of the car And quite simply, we do don't have the money to fix it atm.

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