Technical Fiat punto mk2 1.2 8v overheating advice and timing belt

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Technical Fiat punto mk2 1.2 8v overheating advice and timing belt

Deggersz

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Hi there im a fairly new guy too the forums but have enjoyed spending endless hours reading through posts

Ok so i have recently acquired a Fiat punto 1.2 8v 2002 in really nice condition for 250quid on my usual thought of bodywork is good mechanical can be fixxed :)

So firstly got the car started for the first time last night to let it get up to temperature which it did and the fan cut in Great i thought, left it another 5 - 10 minutes and the temperature light came on and there was water Pi**ing out the radiator cap so i shut her off immediately, now i have been reading numerous posts on this forum and see that head gaskets and thermostats seem to be the norm,
Although im not very experienced i am fairly mechanically minded, would i be right in checking the thermostat first as i would have thought the headgasket would leak the water into the oil or vice versa and not through the cap, checked the usual milky caps etc and there doesnt seem to be any oil in the water so advice here would be great unfortunately i didnt think to feel if the hoses were getting hot from the rad ill check that tonight

2nd issue
I also noticed when running the engine there was like a whirring squel noise, after peeling the cam cover back slightly i see the cambelt is kind of moving from side to side on the pulley would i be right in thinking this could be a tensioner if so ill do the whole lot inc water pump but would rather find out if i need to do the head gasket first as its fairly pointless in putting new cambelt on etc to take it off again

Please dont flame me as i could and probably have found the answers already here but i would like someone just to confirm my thinking or if im going slightly wrong

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
 
ok so of what i know, that sometimes the caps arnt so great and from what ive read on here they have a tendency to wreck there seals, so if theres water pissing out and your loosing a large amount then yes the engine will over heat due to lack of coolant, these are high pressure systems. i would have a pressure test done very quickly to make sure that head is fine, as for the belt, yes deffinalty sound like your tensioner is on the way out, very common fault, there is a guide on here how to change the belt and tensioner, but if you do change your water pump at the same time as its all driven together and they fail too. just make sure you bleed the air out of the system well, there is guide on here how to do it, but to help there is a bleed screw for coolant just behined airbox on the right, and also a bleed screw on the radiaitor on the right as you look down on it, thermostats are said to be replaced every 24k so you could be due, as well as a rocker cover gasket which fail quickly. just be sure too get all air out of your coolant as that will deffinatly cause your head to blow its gasket, youl know if you havnt as you will get a gurgling from behined the heater matrix when you first start the car is more common. the guys on here know there stuff so if ive left anything out, im sure they will be able to help
 
Thanks for the quick reply chriseo, will give these a whirl tonight, yeah i was pretty certain about the tensioner, will test thermo tonight and bleed system then get back ty
 
don't kid your self the head gasket has gone

Haha just what i didnt want to hear :), the cars been sitting for a year though which is why i want to rule out everything else being stuck etc first, dont mind if it is though only a saturday morning on these engines really
 
get the thermostat changed first
they dont like being stood and always stick shut causing your problem
tesioner wheel will have gone off due to being stood change it soonest
you must remove rear drums after all this time looking for leaks of the cylinders and delamination of the shoe braking material,do the front pads too these delaminate as well once stood this long

remember to do an oil and filter change and give all the electric switches a good work out as these too dont like being stood----- bein fiat an all---

;) good luck:)
 
get the thermostat changed first
they dont like being stood and always stick shut causing your problem
tesioner wheel will have gone off due to being stood change it soonest
you must remove rear drums after all this time looking for leaks of the cylinders and delamination of the shoe braking material,do the front pads too these delaminate as well once stood this long

remember to do an oil and filter change and give all the electric switches a good work out as these too dont like being stood----- bein fiat an all---

;) good luck:)

Absolutely bang on checked the thermo tonight didn't open till 95 degrees so put a new one on but worse than before, no heaters etc anyways opened bleed valves on rad and near thermo and must have had a massive air lock as it just drained 2 litres of water cars now been running fine for 2 hours on tickover fan cuts in heaters warm etc so happy days thanks for all the advice appreciate it , next job cambelt and as you say brakes hand brakes high and adjusters all way up cheers guys
 
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Absolutely bang on checked the thermo tonight didn't open till 95 degrees so put a new one on but worse than before, no heaters etc anyways opened bleed valves on rad and near thermo and must have had a massive air lock as it just drained 2 litres of water cars now been running fine for 2 hours on tickover fan cuts in heaters warm etc so happy days thanks for all the advice appreciate it , next job cambelt and as you say brakes hand brakes high and adjusters all way up cheers guys

Im struggling to find this rear bleed valve. Is it best accessed from above or underneath?
is it a white screw in plastic one like on the radiator?

Many thanks.
 
It'll be near the heater matrix, where the water pipe goes through the bulkhead. Will be similar (but not identical) to the front one.

From on top.

so centrally, at the back of the engine compartment, near to where the cabin firewall is?

I think i found it maybe, on top of 2 pipes connected as a little unit, with a black screw in circular flat dial on top. i undid the dial, and the coolant level has gone down (but did not check the level directly b4 undoing this dial) so i put more coolant in, but none came out of this opening, as it does the radiator bleed valve when overfilled.
 
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