Started with a suspected fuel relay problem on an Punto 1.2 8v. That was my 'phone diagnosis so headed up to the daughter's place, plugged in the K lead, MES immediately confirmed a relay fault. Couldn't get a relay locally so left it and got one sent to her. It still wouldn't start. Went up again, forgot the MES lead and after a lot of messing, re-gapping plugs etc, and after a lot of cranking it started. Drove it round the block to get some life into the battery, red engine light on, but I gathered from here that it would reset itself after a while. That it did, and for a couple of weeks has been fine, but the red eng light came on again briefly last weekend.
I tried to hook up MES, but it kept insisting that I needed the three wire lead. Gave up, she had to go home. She came down again this weekend, car's been fine, no red light, but thought I should have another go at finding out what caused the light last week. Once again, insists on three wire. I've played with all the settings on the usb settings, com port and then in mes itself used the tests etc. Still no connect. Then tried deleting previous cars and bingo, connects - but drops out a couple of seconds later. I've tried it in the similar engined Panda just now, no problem, connects perfectly.
But guess what, now the Punto won't start. Spins, no firing.
I'm thinking the problem's on the car end of the cable, but I find it hard to believe that trying to connect has changed anything so that it won't start. Baffled, because that's the only thing I can think of.
Edit. It did start, reluctantly. Since initially posting :-
Disconnected the ecu plugs and gave them a shot of cleaner. Disconnected the battery, shorted the neg cable to the positive. Hooked up jump leads to a running car to give a bit of a boost. Left it charging for 20 mins and it started - rough to begin with, loads of smoke, but that's to be expected with a load of unburned fuel in there. Not sure that any of that helped, or if it did, which part.
After making sure it would restart I then tried mes again with the engine running, still no dice. Connects and drops out after about a second.
At this point I'm suspecting the ecu?
I tried to hook up MES, but it kept insisting that I needed the three wire lead. Gave up, she had to go home. She came down again this weekend, car's been fine, no red light, but thought I should have another go at finding out what caused the light last week. Once again, insists on three wire. I've played with all the settings on the usb settings, com port and then in mes itself used the tests etc. Still no connect. Then tried deleting previous cars and bingo, connects - but drops out a couple of seconds later. I've tried it in the similar engined Panda just now, no problem, connects perfectly.
But guess what, now the Punto won't start. Spins, no firing.
I'm thinking the problem's on the car end of the cable, but I find it hard to believe that trying to connect has changed anything so that it won't start. Baffled, because that's the only thing I can think of.
Edit. It did start, reluctantly. Since initially posting :-
Disconnected the ecu plugs and gave them a shot of cleaner. Disconnected the battery, shorted the neg cable to the positive. Hooked up jump leads to a running car to give a bit of a boost. Left it charging for 20 mins and it started - rough to begin with, loads of smoke, but that's to be expected with a load of unburned fuel in there. Not sure that any of that helped, or if it did, which part.
After making sure it would restart I then tried mes again with the engine running, still no dice. Connects and drops out after about a second.
At this point I'm suspecting the ecu?
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