Fiat Punto 1242cc 8valve 1999 Mk1.
Wife took it into Fiat Main Dealer garage today because she is getting fed up with the car idling badly.

After waiting around 2 Hours a mechanic came out and said that it was misfiring on cylinder number 3 I think it was. They took out all spark plugs and they were all OK except for spark plug number 3 which is black and sooty which denotes problem on that cylinder but 'they could not trace the fault!!' - not spark plugs or spark lead problems because they are all brand new. The mechanic guy told her to drop it back in again and they would have another look to try and trace the fault.

Any Idea why just one spark plug is sooty like this? - all the plugs were changed at the same time. Does it sound serious like a piston ring or valve or could it be anything else less serious?

Thanks for any helpful advice. She has lost faith in them and don't want to take it back to them because after 2 hours of checking they couldn't say what was wrong and she still had to pay them!

Thanks,

Andy.

i wouldnt of paid lol

I would of said,, "I COULD OF TOLD YOU THAT I BROGUHT IT HERE TO BE FIXED NOT LOOKED AT"

punto_cruiser said:

i wouldnt of paid lol

I would of said,, "I COULD OF TOLD YOU THAT I BROGUHT IT HERE TO BE FIXED NOT LOOKED AT"

Click to expand...

Good point, they told her that the charge was for putting it on the diagnostics machine (65.00 Euro, we are in Ireland) - which I think they said did not throw up a problem on it, but if it was mis-firing on one cylinder sure this would have thrown up an error on the diagnostics machine would it have not? - very strange all this and I would have thought that them being a proper FIAT main dealer garage that she bought it into would have been immediately been able to pinpoint the problem and not admit that they could not find the fault.

The mechanic guy also was a foreigner (Spanish or something) she said and not very good at speaking English which made it a bit more difficult to understand but she think he said that 'they think the problem is on the outside instead of the inside!' - make of that what you will, maybe he meant that the problem was not inside the engine????? - I dunno.

not being racist,, but most foreigners cant speak english

i always put the phone down when i ring up norwich union to change my policy,, keep ringing back tell somene ansers the phone with good english otherwise i get no where lol

and i can't see why they had to put it on the machine totell u about 1 spark plug WHICH they should of checked before charging you money in the first place so to speak