Technical starting and running problem

[nickspuntos]

My 1996 Punto 55 S is reluctant to start.It does always start eventually,but sounds as if it's running on one, then two, then three, then four cylinders.Once it is running, it continues to run unevenly until it warms up.When it is warm, it dies when I put my foot hard down eg.overtaking or pulling away at a junction, so I have to build the revs up slowly.Other than that,it runs OK.I've changed HT leads,which made no difference at all.The car starts easily when warm.Any suggestions?
Thanks.

 

[faster4_tec]

how many miles has it done? Has this come on gradually getting worse or within a very short period of time (like a month vs a week).

If its a high miler it could be massive lack of compression, i.e piston rings are totally shot, or head gasket is blowing badly.
Bad spark, intermittant bad connector somewhere, usually that side of things on puntos is pretty good (fully electronic ignition on a 1994> car compared to something like a ford Ka, which even now are still selling with a 50year old engine and distributor point ignition LOL).
Check your radiator water is it slimey and oily/missing, that would be head gasket.
Check your oil, have you got mayanase in the filler cap (thats water from radiator, so headgasket, they are very commomn to go on these cars), does it smell like burn;t tyres (piston rings allowing compression to burn oil in the sump!, in bad cases can lead to pressurising the sump and shoots 5litres of very hot oil out of the dipstick!).

Sorry if these ideas sound in anyway trivial but half the topics on here are in some way related to a bust headgasket.

 

[nickspuntos]

Hi Faster -4 tec
Thanks for your reply.The car has brought up 96,000 miles today.I don't know if that's high for a Punto?
I'll check out your suggestions.
This problem started overnight, one day it was fine ,the next day the problem started and had stayed the same since.
Thanks again.

 

[thefishdude]

hmm if it came on all of sudden then i think there is les chance of themore serious problems. you changed the leads did you check the plugs ?? when you strat the car does it turn over ok? or turnslowly ?

 

[nickspuntos]

Thanks for your help guys, but in the end it turned out to be the inlet air temperature regulator. The end of the linkage was broken!

 

[judgedread]

i have the same problem...takes a few attempts to get the engine running, sometimes the battery gives up before the engine can start, the batteries been tested and fine....ive just changed the HT leads, have new plugs, ive had mayonaise like stuff in my breather pipe, but im hoping thats just condensation not being burnt away in my engine because i only do short journeys...im about to go and look at the headgasket anyway, see if i can see anything worth mentioning...other than that, i dont really know what else to do, not very knowledgeable on cars to be honest...

any help though would be appreciated! cheers!