Running Rough

[M21MFS]

Right, just had a look at martyns car (in the dark!!!), and i have a few Q's....

Rumbling coming from aux belt area, are belt tensioner pulleys like this when needing renewed? Vx ones screech so not sure if its the same and also couldnt see lol.

How easy is it to do a timing belt and what tools would i need to get? i.e. cam locking kit... where from and how much?

How much for a coil pack? not sure if its needed but need to know just in case lol.

In the dark, though I still spied that surprise a mile off. Man, your neighbours REALLY dislike my car :lol:

Anyway folks, any help appreciated. Think we're going to tackle a nigh full service tomorrow, plus a clean of Throttle Body/MAF just to make sure.

On the drive to Stuarts tonight she seemed to struggle mainly between 2-3k revs. On the way home, after prodding at some HD leads (suspected duff one) she seemed to run a bit better for the first mile or two before descending into splutteryness again!

 

[Venters]

I've heard of groaning tensioners when the bearings are shot.
Dunno about timing belt.
Coil packs go all the time with the 1.6 in the Stilo. Pretty sure the Bravo is identical. Although they do have injetor issues aswell.

 

[M21MFS]

I've heard of groaning tensioners when the bearings are shot.
Dunno about timing belt.
Coil packs go all the time with the 1.6 in the Stilo. Pretty sure the Bravo is identical. Although they do have injetor issues aswell.

I remember talking to you(?) about injector failures when I was looking for the car...is there a quick and simple way of troubleshooting, do you think?

 

[ABZSTILO]

Did I miss something - did you try disconnecting the MAF and see how the old girl ran without the MAF connected :?:
Unless you're absolutely skint I'd avoid a secondhand one. Fair play, new ones from Fiat are mind boggolingly expensive :shock: but shop4parts are competitive and also there's the wonders of eBay which is worth considering.

I'd heartily agree with all the suggestions that have gone before, and certainly coil packs would be a prime suspect in my list of things to check. State of the plugs may be an indication as to what's going on, but if the elctronic 'thingmy jigs' are misbehaving it can be a right pain in the rectum to track down the fault :smt017

Sounds like the auxiliary belt tensioner is on the way out, although if you get the belt off and there's not too much play in the bearing it's amazing what a wee drop of 3in1 can do for them - although these days I'd err on the side of caution and change it in the past I've managed to get one or two to 'live on' with some gentle TLC

There's no real quick way to check the injectors, sadly, except whip 'em out and get them bench tested. Taylors Auto Electrical on the Lang Stracht used to do it (but that was a while ago when I had 5 injectors done) but any competent mechanic could whip 'em out and leave them seeping in something like Redex for a few hours to get rid of any **** then blow them through with a high pressure air line (ooooh that's probably not allowed now :roll: ) before bunging them back in and hoping for the best.......

Be very careful with the MAF when you clean it, if you can remove the sensor from the housing do so and clean it with 'kids gloves', don't use anything much stronger than carb cleaner and even then better applying said cleaner to some cotton wool buds or similar to clean off the sensor.

Good luck mannie :smt023

 

[Venters]

Copied from elsewhere
you can check by measuring the resistance of your inejctors, any less than 13ohms should be replaced. there is a connector at the right hand side of the fuel rail, disocnnect it and then use a multimeter to test the resistance of the injectors, use the centre pin as earth and the other 4 pins are each for an injectors, test all 4. a good injector is 15-16.5ohms


Also I'm with Hamish on cleaning the MAF. Be extremely careful. If your cleaning stuff is an aerosol, I wouldn't even use cotton buds now. Just the pressure of the spray to clean the element.

 

[Stuart]

cheers for that lads, much appreciated, something i forgot to mention tho was that when i looked closley at the leads in the dark, i could see them arcing to anything beside them leading me to think they could do with replacing too, when i took the car for a spin it felt like there was water in the distributer(if it had one but i know its got a pack so not that) will try to get another pack from scrappy the morn and do plugs, leads and oil tonight, then pack and tensioners the morn and price up a cam belt

 

[mrcinquecento]

im heading to the scrappys sunday for a few bits, they have a few fiats in there, so if you still need any bits, il have a look about

 

[M21MFS]

im heading to the scrappys sunday for a few bits, they have a few fiats in there, so if you still need any bits, il have a look about

Cheers,

Aux belt tensioner - Hamish, is that an easy enough thing to look at? Anything more than changing plugs is a bit above me but Im meeting up with Stuart again later (last nights plans were put aside due to lack of parts) plus Andrew maybe. Hopefully we can find, and resolve, the groaning noise.

There's no MAF as such on the Bravos - hence I couldnt find one on fleabay or shop4parts. It's called something else (cue MrCento) but rather than buying pats Im going to see what we find today/tomorrow.

Persley is on my list of calls today but if I need parts mark I'll let you know! Cheers

 

[mrcinquecento]

right on cue, :lol:

the 1.6 bravo runs a map sensor, rather than a maf as on the 2litre hgt and 1.9jtd etc. most manufactures run mafs on evertything 1.4 upwards from what i can remember, but fiat being fiat are an exception to this and run map sensors instead it seems.

anyway, no problem Martyn, just gives a shout if your short of any parts still, and ill see what i can find

 

[M21MFS]

Good news!

Just spend the day (with help courtesy of my mate Alan) fixing the Bravo...seems the problem was a result of a combination of things.

Right enough, one of the HT's may have been shot as the first spark plug was burnt. The rest were worn, but not near as excessively. The MAP/MAF or whatever its called was black too, so that was cleaned up with nothing more than a few squirts of contact cleaner. Same with the throttle body.

I've still got an intermittent issue with the thermostat, despite topping up the engine coolant levels the heaters are still being troublesome, but it's nothing a good jacket or three wont fix!

Must say Im a lot happier tonight, I even managed to take part in my first oil change (at last!)

To loud grinding/knocking noise from the belts area appears to be a possible clearance issue, but by all accounts it's nothing that should affect my motoring. A belt change is on the cards for the next few weeks anyway so we'll see what happens. Incidentally, a squirt or ten of WD40 in the affected area seems to have quietened things down a tad

 

[mrcinquecento]

great news , glad its on the road to recovery!

its my turn for car fun now, my clutch died tonight, so i need a new clutch, cable and quadrant

fiats eh? :lol:

 

[M21MFS]

Well thats over a week since the service and she seems to be running great!

Also just hit 125k yesterday so now it's a mission to see how many miles I can squeeze out of the car. Though the MOT is due in Feb so still decisions need to be made! :slayer:

 

[j3bnl]

Though the MOT is due in Feb so still decisions need to be made! :slayer:

You could always get a 500 Martyn.
Would save mine being lonely on the forum!!!

 

[M21MFS]

Ach there'll be more I'm sure!

You know something...a 500 Abarth I think I could do, but that'd be years away if at all!