Recently I bought a 1995 Punto Cabrio ELX from a local dealer. I found though these problems...

Sometimes the Key Code stays on after ignition. The brake ON light sometimes works and most of the times doesnt.

I noticed as well that as fuel consumption this car is totally drinking a lot of fuel...is this normal ???

The car dealer I got it from told me that the car has the a/c not functioning well and he needs to service that at an electrician. Already in the past I had bought a fiat coupe and exactly a day after the a/c went dead and my electrician told me that the electronic box was dead so dont want to pass from same story grrrr...

any suggestions please ?

Thanks from Malta

seems i got a ****ty cabrio :S

Just bought 3 weeks ago. Problems that I encountered....

Fuel consumption is enormous..am paying huge bucks for petrol seems I got the ****ty 16V grrrrrrrr

Installed new alarm and the electric windows are so lousy and lazy to come up that alarm is not working well....I mean the windows dont come up and they get stuck when I switch on the alarm ....

Now I have a warning light on ( I presume its the injection led ) after the guy installed me the useless electric window module

Seems the electronics are not working any good...some warning lights on the dashboard come on and then go off by themselves and whenever they like it...

Seems I have a leakage in the wiper water tank....

One of the front lights is pointing to the sky doh

well I was quite happy to go for a Punto Cabrio that now I am so guilty that I did the worst mistake of my life in getting this stupid car....:bang:

the 16v is the good one, its the 1.6 8v that got replaced.

sprat window runner with silicone spray, if that no work motors are only about £15 from scrappy, hard top ones fit.
warning light, try a bottle of add to tank injector cleaner, if it isnt that could be a coil pack, they are cheep also.

there are knobs to turn on back of headlight to make it aim right

sounds like the car has been in an accident, hense the bad headlight and leaking washer tank.


as for electrical problems, I would imagine the garage that put your electric window module in have messed it up.

electrically the mk1 is a far better car than the mk2 (seperate area wiring harness's, better quality 3rd party electrical componants rather than cheaper in house jobs etc).


as for fuel consumption, the 1.2 16v is MUCH MUCH Better engine than the 1.6 8v.

try taking the battery cable off (black, negative lead) for about an hour, to reset the ecu, then put it back on, and drive the car. it will be slow and idle fast to begin with, but after about 50-100miles it will be much better (or I hope it will be).

if not, maybe a lamda sensor is playing up. or maybe the engine isn't getting warm enough?? the needle should be close to half way, otherwise the engine will be running rich to try and warm itself up. and therefore, use lots of fuel.


punto cabrio's are cool. you just got one thats got a few problems. seriously, none of your problems are major, they are all simple to fix. you can do them all yourself for free. DO NOT TAKE TO A GARAGE, THEY WILL SPEND HOURS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT THE PROBLEMS AND CHARGE YOU BIG BUCKS FOR THE PLEASURE