Technical problems starting and overheating

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Technical problems starting and overheating

whiskyclass

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Had fiat bravo 1.2 16v sx w reg for last six months just recently its started to overheat replaced thermostat bleed radiator oil is fine and fan working as it should seems to be losing water but cant see from where. When it starts u get like a slushing sound of water from behind dashboard is this normal??? wondered wether it might be temperatue sensor or water pump? Also when its idiling at traffic lights seems to be alot of white smoke from exhaust.

If it is water pump how wud u test to 2 see if its working and it being attached to the timing belt what would it cost to replace????? it also has problems starting sometimes wont turnover then later it will any ideas anyone. Nightmare !!!!!! :bang:
 
Had fiat bravo 1.2 16v sx w reg for last six months just recently its started to overheat replaced thermostat bleed radiator oil is fine and fan working as it should seems to be losing water but cant see from where. When it starts u get like a slushing sound of water from behind dashboard is this normal??? wondered wether it might be temperatue sensor or water pump? Also when its idiling at traffic lights seems to be alot of white smoke from exhaust.

If it is water pump how wud u test to 2 see if its working and it being attached to the timing belt what would it cost to replace????? it also has problems starting sometimes wont turnover then later it will any ideas anyone. Nightmare !!!!!! :bang:

Im always having to give bad news lately....
The fact it is over heating tells me there there is insufficient water to keep the car cool, although rad fan should be triggered before she gets too hot unless the car is really empty of water.
This is backed up by the sloshing sound, it means there is not enough water going through the heater matrix pipes which is a small radiator behind dash to provide warm air for the heating. The noise is the water sloshing through them.

Now the really bad bits, you say no water leaks, if left over night or to run for 10mins then something should be dripping if a leak.. or the passenger carpet should be wet if it's the heater matrix leaking into the car.

which means water is leaking into the engine

confirmed by the cars poor starting and the white smoke which will most likely be water burning and releasing as whitish steam.

probably not starting as a result of low compression and wet spark plugs.

probably wise to compression test and check plugs, sounds to me like a head gaskett failure :(
 
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Ok thanks mate will ask guy at local garage to do compression test for us and check spark plugs looking at sourcing parts off ebay they go for around £20 for head gasket kits what u reckon would be total cost with labour cheers.
 
I have a 1998 Fiat Bravo 1.4 SX. It has suffered from chronic overheating problems which are driving me crazy (and into penury!).

A few months ago I noticed that the engine was running slightly hotter that usual and then one evening the engine boiled over without warning and I had the car towed home. After looking at the water and the white exhaust it was clear something was wrong and the garage diagnosed and fixed a new cylinder head gasket – skimming the head at the same time to make sure.

Unfortunately this did not fix the problem of overheating and the engine has boiled on 2 occasions since. The garage then fixed a new thermostat, radiator, and fan sensor without much result.

I have noticed that the electric fan only comes on when the last position before the red (hot) line on the temperature guage is reached and then only cuts in for about 30 seconds which is clearly insufficient and the temperature then rises to boiling without the fan starting up again.

I heard somewhere that on some Bravo models the ECU overrides and controls the cooling fan and I am wondering if the problem lies there. Can anyone advise?
 
There's probably a temp sensor on the engine that feeds into the ECU to allow it to control the choke etc. They are quite cheap and easy to replace, this seems to be the last thing to try if everything else has been checked and changed properly.

You could always get the ECU diagnosed for logged faults and have it reset as well.
 
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