Afternoon, My father's girlfriend has a 70,000 mile fiat punto that should have been taken out back and shot a year ago. Its had 1 full service in its life (done about a week ago, by me), it drives like a death trap, and now it drinks petrol like there's no tomorrow. She works about 20-30 miles away, and has take her £20 to get to work (that's one way with fuel price is about £1.30-£1.40 a litre here). When I serviced the car, the air filter was black. I changed it, but I think there may be an air leak in the carb (single point injection, I can't think of a better term than carb, as that's how it acts) as I can really hear it sucking air somewhere (might be around the seal from the airbox to car body). Can anyone suggest other things to check while I'm there? Should I try re-setting the ECU (from research I just have to unplug the bat and leave it for 10-15mins)? Or do I just swear at it and hit it with a mallet? Details of the service; Changed; Oil & Filter Air Filter Spark Plugs Coil Packs (No one wanted to spend money on a service, but £25 coil packs, that's okay. I still got the originals and could try refitting them, doubt it will make a difference). Thanks for any advice.
Has she changed her driving style at all? A car like that isn't going to get good MPG unless it's driven fairly slowly... Sorry can't offer any more technical advice.
Yo, I got no idea really. I'm doubting she's flooring it everywhere (part of the police, so ... maybe she does for the hell of it).
1.1 engine means either shes really reving the hell out of it or its got a leak someplace. but that sort of car is not a great mpg car to begin with. Lack of serving does not help the cause. From what you have said you have a air leak some place but its difficult to say where without looking at the car directly.
Hey, Well, I'm a bit of a berk and tend to forget things. So any suggestion of things to check I'm going to write in a note pad to take with me, or I'll just forget about it. So any suggestions would be top. Car sounds like a bag of spanners, and she is looking to finally put the poor thing out of its misery. I have yet to drive a more terrifying car (it pulls all over the place, the clutch bite point is about a 1/4inch off the stop, the engine clatters as does everything in the car).
Lets start with the easy bits. Check along the fuel lines breather pipes and vacuum hoses for dampness or a smell of petrol/oil thatll point out if you have a leak or blockage. Ifa breather tubes blocked try some carb cleaner down it to get rid of the old oil. Check the MAF is connected on the airbox. and has its wiring harness attached some cars you have to unhook the harness to change the filter. Check tyre pressures low pressure will hurt economy Check your fuel filter (spotted its not been changed so worth a nose) if its old they can break up or clog Check the Lambada sensors with a multimeter if you have one. a damaged sensor will make it over fuel badly http://www.lambdapower.co.uk/Diagnosis/Diagnostic_index.asp#q11 Whip out the plugs make sure they are gapped etc properly if the engines sounding rough its possible its misfiring pinking etc. Also look for discolouration on them over fuelling should turn the tips black pretty quick. Pulling all over the place may be simple as the tracking or could be control arms etc worth getting looked at. The clutch may just be worn, if its a cable one you may be able to adjust it if its hydraulic then itll need changing.
Can you pull the plugs and inspect them, if they've got a tan/grey look to them then every cylinder is firing as it should. What your looking for is a dead cylinder or rich black deposits indicating to weak spark or no spark. Did you change the leads? Another good check for a dead cylinder is your nose, get down to the exhaust and give it a good sniff, if it's rich then it could be a misfire/dead cylinder. Has the engine got a lot of top end shake when started up?
Ooow, so thats how you test a lambda sensor, always wondered (all my cars have been minis, so never touched one before). Don't think it has a MAF sensor, and the owner lost the book so I have no idea where to look for one. Air box is pretty free of electrical connectors and things that look like sensors, but I'll have a poke about for one. Plugs - Only been in a week or so and not sure she's driven it much. I will have a look anyway as they are pretty easy to pull out. As for tracking. This is the sort of owner who won't pay a penny on maintenance. She says the car is fine to drive, so ... shrug. I just had to drive it to make sure it would work under its own power again. So sketchy to drive. Leads, I don't honestly know how to check them. Owner doesn't want to pay for em (I've been told to do this as cheaply as humanly possible). Plugs haven't been in long, and the car hasn't been driven much. Last set had a 5mm burnt out gap and where black as midnight. Which tells me about as much as tea leaves. On the exhaust, what am I smelling for? Fuel or ? And on the engine, a bit. But no more than my van does. Fine once its running. Cheers for the advice so far people. Got to lot for the note pad.
Black like carbon, or a bit shiny/greasy? Being a carb model I'd suggest it's over-fuelling if there's nothing obviously wrong with it, but you're getting fuel consumption that low. Get the carb checked over either by a garage or grab the Haynes and have a tickle. ETA:
I think my dads old '97 reg Punto did about that many miles and with it's 1.2 got about 40-50mpg to give you an idea. Sold it a yea ago though
Black and greasy enough to look like it should have been dripping (again, 70,000 miles no service). Last time it was serviced was when the head gasket went and I had to change it. Service was just oil and filter which was a year and a half ago (you remember, this one - http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=212663). As for Haynes, she had one, she lost it. I'm too crap a mechanic to touch most cars without (unless it's a Mini). So theres a touch of flying blind. The carb is just a butterfly and a fuel injector (?) thing. Not really much to go wrong, but I'll give it a look over.
It's a carb fuelled '95 Fiat engine powered shitbox death trap... I'd be surprised if it wasn't drinking fuel to be honest Really though, that's only a slightly worse MPG figure than the 1 litre Toyota Yaris courtesy car I had to drive 60+ miles per day when my last car was written off...
if there black and greasy, then I would put money on a weak spark. You can't test leads, sure you can put an ohm meter on them but even a bad lead will come back positively fine with an ohm meter. Leads are cheap so if you've done the coil pack and plugs I am surprised you used old leads.
Just so I'm understanding this right (as it looks like some others might have missed the severity of the fuel consumption), you say it's about £20 of fuel one way for 30 miles? If so that's about 14.8L of fuel (£1.35/litre) to do 30 miles, which works out at ~9.2 miles per gallon. Even revved hard, you'd struggle to get a 1.1 to less than 25 mpg over a whole journey, and with that kind of distance a fair amount of that must be out of town, so you'd expect more like 30-35 at worst...
I may not be as technical as some of the other petrol heads here, but.. It sounds like even if you do resolve the fuel guzzling issue, that there's a strong chance it'll need a lot more expensive work done to it if it sounds like a bag of spanners (Last car I had that sounded like that, the crank shaft was on the way out), and the clutch might not be too hot either if the bite is that high..
She says it should be better, not got much on tomorrow, so might as well. Still going to moan about it. Well, after 70,000 miles, the spark plugs I took out had a 5mm gap and black / greasy. Everyone said it was the coil pack, so they bought them, I fitted them. Then I got annoyed and bought some spark plugs. It then fired up like a bit of a champ. I know what you mean on the plug wires, but in a perfect world I wouldn't have to work on this POS car in a cat poop covered GRAVEL back lot in the rain. Yeah, thats what she said. There may be some hyperbole there but I'll give it a look. Probably right on the "it needs work" part. When I replaced the head gasket it was meant to last another year. Its been a year and a half now. My van has 70,000 miles as well and everything tight as a drum, runs like a champ, but this Punto ... I'm sure she must have used it for racing or something.
No excuses, I just did my Head gasket in the snow few weeks ago, on gravel and mud hitting temps as low as -10 C If the consumption is as you say it is, then it's not firing as it should
