General Punto Issue

[AwesomelyPsycho]

Hey guys

I've been having this issue with my car, and at first it was nothing but now it's getting pretty serious. When I first bought it, it ran beautifully. Unless I stalled. Then when I went to turn it on, a key light came on on the dashboard and it wouldn't start. We figured they key needed to be recoded.

After waiting around 15 minutes it would start again. We'd go for days without problems and then something else started happening... it'd just cut out. We'd be driving and it would all suddenly cut out. Turning, roundabout, straight road, reverse... you name it, it stopped.

We were furious so we took it back to the garage we bought it at and demanded he fix it or we wanted our money back. This guy's a pretty nice guy and he was friendly about the whole thing. He changed two parts (the immobiliser was one), thinking it was the main problem as well. We had no issues for weeks... until tonight.

My Dad was driving home in my car, down a nice straight road. He wasn't changing gear, or pushing it too hard, yet it just stopped. This time it wouldn't turn back on. He tried for nearly an hour. So tomorrow we're going back to the garage and we're demanding that he fix it properly this time, or give us a full refund.

But the thing is, I really like this car. When it's working fine, it drives like a dream. It's the perfect first car for me. I wanted a few of your opinions on what might be up. Thanks

Oooh, by the way... It's a Punto Mia, year 2000.

Wow... that was a pretty long post and I think I used the wrong prefix

 

[PuntoSS]

That's dangerous! If your car did that on a motorway when you were travelling at 70mph, and the engine cut out... Could it be the ignition? Didn't know they created the Mia in 2000

 

[PuntoPower111]

Have you got the RED KEY/KEY CODE CARD???

It sound like your engine immobiliser they mess up most of the time and the RED KEY/KEY CODE CARD fix it. Well thats what it sounds like to me and to get it fixed it costs about £160 from fiat dealer ship you get 2 new blue keys and 1 RED KEY/KEY CODE CARD. Try starting the car with the clutch in that helps it from messing up

 

[AwesomelyPsycho]

Have you got the RED KEY/KEY CODE CARD???

It sound like your engine immobiliser they mess up most of the time and the RED KEY/KEY CODE CARD fix it. Well thats what it sounds like to me and to get it fixed it costs about £160 from fiat dealer ship you get 2 new blue keys and 1 RED KEY/KEY CODE CARD. Try starting the car with the clutch in that helps it from messing up

I always start it with the clutch down

I only have two blue keys. How could it be the immobilisier if I had a new one put in?

 

[Lozzy08]

It could be something to do with the fact you havent got a red key as red to fiats is what water is to africans. Its the master key which encodes the ECU when its new, the blue keys are coded BY the ecu. If the immobliser is messing up it could possiably be the fact you don't have a red key

 

[Natty]

Sorry I cant help with your problem but I have a X (2000) Mia, it came with 2 blue keys no red key and I have read on this site that past a certain year, cant remember which year though it was prior to 2000 the red key system was dropped, I am sure someone will confirm this or do a search on red key, good luck with the fix.
Starting with the clutch in helps reduce load on the starter but thats all as far as I know.

 

[focus]

Sorry I cant help with your problem but I have a X (2000) Mia, it came with 2 blue keys no red key and I have read on this site that past a certain year, cant remember which year though it was prior to 2000 the red key system was dropped, I am sure someone will confirm this or do a search on red key, good luck with the fix.
Starting with the clutch in helps reduce load on the starter but thats all as far as I know.

Think it was only on Mk1 Puntos not Mk2. Mine is a W (2000) reg Mk2 and it doesn't have a Red key.

 

[Mdeko]

mk2's dont have a red key. The key cards were taken away when they were imported into the contry so you wont have one of those either.

As said it could be an ignition problem, If it was the sesnor for the key or the code box you would just get the car not starting and/or the code error light on the dash when the car is running occasionally,it wouldnt cut out once its started.