Bravo 1.8 problems, any advice?

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Bravo 1.8 problems, any advice?

S

Steven

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Hi fellow bravo/a owners,

any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have a P reg 1.8 Hlx with about 60,000 miles on the clock. Great car except for a few very minor but annoying problems.

The car has terrible mpg giving about 25 miles to the gallon around town and never exceeding 30 when given a good run and driven sensibly. I do admit to driving quite hard but surely this is much lower than to be expected (to give an idea 250 miles from £37).

Secondly and most probably connected the car is full of flat spots and doesn't seem to have the same performance as it used to. The air filter and spark plugs are all fairly new.

Are these due to a dodgy lambda sensor and am I on the wrong track.

Sorry for the essay and once again any help at all would be much appreciated.

Cheers Steven
 
Some of the members of this forum will suggest either a dodgey lambda or for you to try some injector cleaner.

If it was the lambda sensor you'd REALLY know about it, the light on the dash would come on ;)

And injector cleaner does nothing useful.

Fiat engines are not good for MPG and they do have quite bad flat spots as standard.

How new is 'fairly' new? My guess is its gotten used to old worn plugs and a blocked filter and hasn't adjusted back to its normal state.

Try resetting the ECU, disconnect the battery overnight, reconnect it, start the car, let it idle for at least 5 mins, stop it and then away you go.

Drive it sensibly, ie. not full throttle everywhere. It will take a few hundred miles for it to settle down.
 
cheers tom

will def. give that a go, any ideas what mpg I really can expect around town.

Might replace the air filter as well, any advantage with an aftermarket one and if so which one would you recommend.

Once again thanks

Steven
 
The stock paper filter works just fine really, the only reason to change would be to get more noise.
 
Fuel filter too, don't forget.

You can get aftermarket Lambda probes for about £45.00; thses do NOT alway mean that you'd really feel your engine was bad if it was buggered.

I had a Punto 1.2sx a while back that had a terrible flat spot and a slight "miss2 in a certain rev range, all due to a faulty lambda probe.

It's worthwhile spending the money to replace it, also, about 25/30mpg isn't too bad for a 1.8. As our knowledgeable colleague Tom says, Fiats are not renowned for good fuel economy figures.
 
cheers for the responses,

roughly how much would it cost to get the lambda probe replaced or is it an easy do it youself job?

Steven
 
250 miles, that is shocking!!! i get at least 300 from a tank i can even squeese, (and i mean from full to the brime to coasting into the petrol station) 350!!! i think you need to get your car down fiats to get it checked out on the old plug in computer thingy magigy!

I do not drive like a grandad either! but i dont kill the car either! however my 15mile journey is down a single carrige way with a 60 limit and my speed always floats between 50-60 so its always running at the most economical speed ( i believ its something like 56??)


Try toms suggestions first, he has been right more times then i can remember!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Paul R
 
Resetting the ECU would be my recommendation (but then again it always is...lol...well, it worked for me)

As you have no lights showing on your dash, it would be useless taking it to Fiat, they will charge you for a diagnostic, and then say they can't find anything.

Daz
 
I average 29mpg and probably around 32 on a long run. I've just got 350m out of tank (light on) but usually do 300m (no light). I reckon I'll need 55 litres and that about matchs your 250m for £37.
 
Cheers for all the repsonses, I reset the ECU last night and drove like a granny to work this morning. I will try hard to drive sensibly for the next 100-200 miles and keep you all posted.

Glad to hear that some other 1.8 owners are getting around the 30s, I didn't expect great mpg but 25 is having a laugh. I think what gets me is my dad with a 325 steptronic gets 32 mpg, he has a good mixed run to work but all the same he doesn't spare the horses so to speak.

Anyway thanks again and I shall update you soon.


Steven
 
I have a 1.8HLX on my most recent fill up i put (£30) 7.5 gallons in the car, for this i got roughly 280 miles.

This means my average mpg was 37.3 mpg.

My journeys include a mixture of city and motorway driving but i do drive hard now and again mainly on the motorway.

My car is well maitained.
 
You need to work it out accurately Andy - 37mpg sounds quite impressive

But if you only got 7.5 gallons for £30 - that means you paid 88p per litre for it! 82p is a more realistic figure which means for £30 you got 8.13 gallons, which means u only got 34mpg!

Sorry, i am just being pedantic i know, but my mate always used to reckon up in his head that his fiesta did fifty some mpg. When i actually worked it out he was getting under 40, all those little rounding errors certainly add up!

Apologies if you live somewhere really rural and actually do pay 88p a litre for fuel :D

I usually get 33mpg from my 1.8, which is very respectable as i do drive it quite hard.

Jonathan
 
Its not 82p for optimax mate.

I think its actually 89p per litre here.
 
I think you will find the workings are as follows:

89p per litre

£30 worth of fuel

33.7 litres bought which is 7.4 gallons.

280 miles = 37 to the gallon
 
37 mpg is bloody fantastic mate!!!

To be honest I wouldn't really expect anything that good as my drive to work is through heavy traffic, however I am reassured that other 1.8 drivers are doing much better than 25.

I will be very interested to see if the ecu reset does the trick, think I will change the air filter as well anyway.


Cheers
 
Hi

Yes its true traffic does really restrict you mpg.

I never really see traffic as i work odd hours so the roads are usually empty, i just try not to accelerate too hard in the low gears and dont drive like a boy racer all the time......lol
 
Hope the ECU reset works for you. Made no difference for me ... and don't even think about going the Ecotek route
 

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