Technical Cutting out while driving!!

[Pink_Cinque]

Hello all!

Yes! Another problem with my cinque.. :bang:
7th one this month -score!-

This time, in the world of my annoying pink cinque..
When I set off in first - Its fine..
Change to second - Fine..
Change to Third & 4th - Fine..

Try changing down gear from 3rd to 2nd..
Well, its not always when changing down.. But that was the first time I noticed it..
Now it's just got more unpredictable..

When driving, after changing to ANY gear, I go to put my foot on the accelerator (naturally) and theres no acceleration.. The car starts to roll to a stop, and no matter how much I press the pedal it doesn't get any speed.

The engine will still be running when it comes to a hault, but it makes a funny irregular humming noise..
If I try revving it for sometime while stationary (trying in every gear to get it moving) it will then stall out..

I then turn my engine back on, let it run for a moment, rev it a few times (to check if theres any crap bunged anywhere :yuck put it in first, drive for a moment, then it will slow down and wont pick up speed when I press the accelerator, then comes to a hault again.

It will drive.. As yesterday I drove a mile yesterday with no problems.. It's so irregular.
I believe its the spark plugs..
Anyone else have any ideas? :idea:

Sorry for the long lecture.. :bang:

 

[Hellcat]

Could be the coils - I'm no cento expert but i've seen them be the culprit in many a story of cento woe.

 

[Pink_Cinque]

You really think it could be the coils? :idea: Why would they make my car act the way it does?

If it's the spark plug, it makes more sense, or one of the cables..

 

[Hellcat]

After thought - if its ticking over, and reving without power though could be a fueling problem.

after after thought. Sounds like the problem I had with my tipo where i suddenly lost power and it slowed and slowed to a stop and stalled when i tried to start again. I changed leads (loads of arcing present) and plugs. They're the cheapest option so try them first?

 

[custard]

bit more info.are the plugs,leads new(ish)?

 

[Hellcat]

Try drying the leads? wet weather might be adding to the problems.

 

[Pink_Cinque]

bit more info.are the plugs,leads new(ish)?

I'd imagine them quite old.
The old owner didn't take good care of the cinque..
When I took the battery out it was covered in plant life :/

 

[Pink_Cinque]

I'll try changing the plugs this week and see what happens :/

 

[custard]

right well before you go into technical stuff you need to carry out the basics.
i would definatly do both the plugs and HT leads.

take a note/pics of the colour of each off the plugs you remove

 

[Pink_Cinque]

right well before you go into technical stuff you need to carry out the basics.
i would definatly do both the plugs and HT leads.

take a note/pics of the colour of each off the plugs you remove

So you agree it could be a good chance its the plugs?

 

[custard]

well i agree they need changed. needed or not you cant really diagnose the problem easily till you can discard certain items.

if the plugs/leads are new then you can look at other areas if it still presents the fault

 

[Pink_Cinque]

well i agree they need changed. needed or not you cant really diagnose the problem easily till you can discard certain items.

if the plugs/leads are new then you can look at other areas if it still presents the fault

Is it true, that ROUGHLY in a cars life, you should only need to change the plugs once or twice?
My car was defo battered when I got it..

 

[Hellcat]

Maybe in a crappy ford.. But fiats last for ages so it needs more changes

 

[Pink_Cinque]

Maybe in a crappy ford.. But fiats last for ages so it needs more changes

Lol.
Well I'm going to pick some plugs up on my dinner. And Hopefully do them tonight.. (Curse the winter daylight!).. So I'll be working in the dark around half 5. Eeep.

I don't feel so bad adding loads of new stuff to my car.
Cinquencento parts are so cheap and easy to get hold of, and I enjoy the reasurance of knowing it will be reliable once I've finished.

 

[Pink_Cinque]

I've checked the Spark plugs, they seem fairly knew with about a 2mm gap. Which seems perfectly fine.

I've put some redex in my tank over night then I'm going to give her a little drive to get it through the system. I'm also buying a new filter to see if thats the problem.

If it was an electrical problem my car should do it all the time.
And last night she drove for an hour without doing anything wrong!

 

[Jamieboy]

The symptoms to me point to the throttle position sensor (potentiometer/ pot). If the sensor is giving an intermittent output and defaulting to fully closed throttle position, then this could certainly account for the trouble you are having.

 

[Pink_Cinque]

If it was the sensor wouldn't it do it most of the time?
Thing is I can drive for several hours / miles and it wont even do it. Even over rough terrain..

 

[Pink_Cinque]

Isn't that just a problem with injection cars?

I didn't think my SX was injection.. Its not even a litre engine!!

 

[Jamieboy]

If it was the sensor wouldn't it do it most of the time?
Thing is I can drive for several hours / miles and it wont even do it. Even over rough terrain..

Not necessarily. An intermittent fault is just that - intermittent. It depends on what annoys it: temperature, vibration, humidity, etc.

 

[Jamieboy]

Isn't that just a problem with injection cars?

I didn't think my SX was injection.. Its not even a litre engine!!

Yup, it is! A single injector. The ECU gathers information from several sensors on the engine and then applies these values to the ignition timing and fuelling maps to give the correct control values.

Is the engine management warning light on? (red light, looks like a spray nozzle)