karlos85
New member
My car is a 45 reg Fiat Punto Active 8v, nothing special! I'm having some problems when I start the engine, the RAC geezer tested it with his laptop and guessed it was something to do with the ECU, and possibly the earth wire. From reading the forums it seems that either of those problems are very likely. Here are the symptoms:
- Car doesnt start from cold almost all of the time unless I give it about 2000-3000 revs and then it reluctantly ticks over.
- Once I have left it ticking over for a couple of minutes if I put in the clutch the engine stays on, but AS SOON as I shift gear towards reverse the engine cuts out! On the second or 3rd attempt of doing this it is possible to stop the car from cutting out by revving really high and lifting the clutch very slowly to creep backwards.
- Once idling the engine lets me shift into 1st no problems, and I can coast away, after that there are seldom any further problems. However on occasion the engine will cut out when I shift into 1st.
- Approximately 50% of the time the power steering takes around a minute to kick in - when this happens ALL of the warning lights are on but as soon as the steering kicks in they cut out.
- Once the engine is fairly warm the symptoms completely dissapear...stopping at traffic lights is no problem, going round roundabouts etc...I quite often do 2 hour journeys after having the ignition problems!
Any help with this is much appreciated. I have been advised to go straight to a fiat dealer to help solve this mystery but I am reluctant to do so without learning a little extra from the fiat forum! Hopefully you guys can arm me with some ammo so the guys at the fiat garage dont rip me off! Any suggestions on fiat specialists in the yeovil area are much appreciated too. Many Thanks
- Car doesnt start from cold almost all of the time unless I give it about 2000-3000 revs and then it reluctantly ticks over.
- Once I have left it ticking over for a couple of minutes if I put in the clutch the engine stays on, but AS SOON as I shift gear towards reverse the engine cuts out! On the second or 3rd attempt of doing this it is possible to stop the car from cutting out by revving really high and lifting the clutch very slowly to creep backwards.
- Once idling the engine lets me shift into 1st no problems, and I can coast away, after that there are seldom any further problems. However on occasion the engine will cut out when I shift into 1st.
- Approximately 50% of the time the power steering takes around a minute to kick in - when this happens ALL of the warning lights are on but as soon as the steering kicks in they cut out.
- Once the engine is fairly warm the symptoms completely dissapear...stopping at traffic lights is no problem, going round roundabouts etc...I quite often do 2 hour journeys after having the ignition problems!
Any help with this is much appreciated. I have been advised to go straight to a fiat dealer to help solve this mystery but I am reluctant to do so without learning a little extra from the fiat forum! Hopefully you guys can arm me with some ammo so the guys at the fiat garage dont rip me off! Any suggestions on fiat specialists in the yeovil area are much appreciated too. Many Thanks