Technical Seicento cuts to tickover after 15 miles

[Seistuart]

Can anyone help. My 2001 Seicento multi point injection starts and runs perfectly for about half an hour and then loses power completely. If I dip the clutch the engine is still running but only on tickover, It won't rev or pull. Switch the ignition off and back on again and it bursts back into life. But once it has started doing this then it only lasts about 5 minutes and then repeats the problem, getting worse and worse. When the car is left for an hour to cool down then it's OK again.
The ECU feels cold, no warning lights on, the coolant is normal.
Any ideas?

 

[rallycinq]

Really needs to be read. Being MPi it is OBD2 compliant.

D

 

[Ralf S.]

If it's still idling then the beast must be okay for fuel and sparks... but maybe not when its hot.

I'm inclined to think it's ignition related but the idling would be lumpy (or it would die) if a coil/lead/plug or TDC sensor fault was emerging when hot... so I think it's more likely to be fuel related (especially if you can read the ECU codes and find nothing there).

Where I'd look - either fuel pump is not delivering enough fuel (could also be a blocked filter), or the fuel pressure regulator may be faulty.


Ralf S.

 

[Seistuart]

I have a Vgate Maxiscan which shows no faults but I don't think this scanner is any good, can anyone recommend a decent scanner?

 

[Seistuart]

Ticks over really smoothly. When driving at the point that it loses power you can switch the ignition off and back on without stopping and the fault clears immediately for a while. It seems that the ignition off/on is resetting something or giving the fuel pump/system a jolt.
I'll try to get a better /obd scanner. Also have a deli under the back seat to find the fuel pump, am I right in thinking that the filter on this model is inside the tank?

 

[Ralf S.]

Yes, I think it is. Switching the ignition on primes the fuel rail... so it's interesting that a boost of benzina keeps it running.


Ralf S.