General mk2b - Its broke!

[MattMk1]

Ok so my ma's 3 year old mk2b Active sport is playing up, it's not driving as it used to, seem's hesitant and juddery. Also, temp gauge showing temps higher than normal.

There's a engine light on the dash too.

I'm guessing it's got a little hot under the collar? But I don't see how that could cause it not to drive properly, I thought that would just cook the HG? I wouldn't be surprised if the coolant hasn't been changed since it was bought tbh.

I know sweet fa about the mk2b so any suggestions will be very helpful
cheers.

 

[The Sultan]

fiat say change coolant at 3 year intervals so i wouldnt be suspecting a head gasket problem due to corosion just yet but a thermostat or failed cooling fan could well have caused it to go if it got to hot

now if the gasket had blown this could well cause it to run rough and the engine light may be on as it will have detected a misfire if it's running bad

if it isnt gasket related witch i doubt then it may be a throttle potensiometer causing the hesitation and rough running but when these cause problems they don't bring up an engine light

so i supose the sensible thing to do would be to have the codes read first to give some idea of what the ecu thinks is wrong

then it's time to find out what's really wrong

but for now you can check his coolant level using the bleeders on the radiator ut more importanty the one round the back to check if there is any air in the block

if there is no air in the block and no coolant lost then discard the head gasket feory

as if it had gone enough to cause bad running it would not still have a ful tank of water would have eaten it all

also as it's 3 years old when were the plugs last changed

if plugs are not changed they begin to play up about 36 to 38k miles should be changed every 24k miles

 

[MattMk1]

Thanks for the reply pip.

Now the car is back home I had a quick check over it. Couldn't see this dash light she was on about, only one I saw out of the ordinary was the typical seat belt light.

Coolant & oil levels seem ok. But it's still running a little rough. It just doesn't go like it used to.

Maybe some tb cleaner will see it running better?

 

[The Sultan]

Thanks for the reply pip.

Now the car is back home I had a quick check over it. Couldn't see this dash light she was on about, only one I saw out of the ordinary was the typical seat belt light.

Coolant & oil levels seem ok. But it's still running a little rough. It just doesn't go like it used to.

Maybe some tb cleaner will see it running better?

ok so if there's no light and it's running rough and is hesitant until you open the throttle wide specially around 2500rpm then that's most likely the problem fiat had with the throttle potentiometers also if it revs up after throttle released to change gear sometimes

carb cleaner can't fix the potentiometer I'm afraid before you ask it has to be a new one it's to do with incorect resistances as it turns it is available from fiat and they also have tools to fit it it's quite cheap also