Would this indicate a slipping clutch in the car?

[Jamie.]

Hello, I bought a car for 200 quid, a 1996 Fiat Punto 75 SX.

Raked the shit out of it for a week and then decided to sell it as a few people had offered more than I paid for it.

My mate is a mechanic (A trainee) I wouldn't let him touch anything!
We took the car down to his work and gave it a proper clean, He put the pressure washer on the engine to clean it, And it did, Sparkling.

BUT

Since then the car hasn't been running right, I noticed it didn't have as much power on the way back to my house, Not much less, But noticible.

It started getting worse over maybe 20 miles and now when you put your foot right down it feels like it's got no power at all, When you ease off the throttle the power comes back again.
When this happens, The revvs aren't going up or down, Just power loss.

If the clutch was slipping wouldn't the revvs go up?

It used to start instantly on a turn of the key, It takes a bit longer to start now, Maybe a second or so.

Could it be something as simple as water around the plugs?


Any help appreciated as the car is in the paper and people are calling, I have to tell them to ring back as the 'seller' isn't home.

[Cigaro]

Yeah, sounds like water around the plugs to me.

It's italian.

[Finglonga]

As said its electrical not the clutch. Dry it out, remove HT leads dry plugs, caps, leads Coil/s. Hate old Fiats, as their electrics are crap!
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Andy Sez....
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[McGee]

[thegubner]

I had that happen after a jet wash on a golf a few yrs back, I just dried out every electrical connector I could see under the bonnet with a hair dryer, it ran perfect after that.

[Cigaro]

WD40 also helps.

[Nb]

If the clutch was slipping the revs would increase at a high rate but your speed would hardly increase.
Sounds like the jetwash has done something to the car, modern cars can get away with being jetwashed but older cars dont like it unless you bag everything electrical up.
The only things i can see on that engine that might cause it from jet washing is either the coil or MAP sensor.
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[Phoenix]

Not a fan of jetwashing engines, but seeing as that's what obviously caused the poor running, that's the problem no doubt. Best way to test a slipping clutch, which it's not, is find a bit of a hill, slow down and try to climb it in a high gear, if it slips then you have your answer. But as said, the revs will rise while the car doesn't accelerate.

[Jamie.]

Ok thanks for the replys

He was blasting the fuck out of it so I really hope this is all thats wrong.

I forgot to add that the last time I did around a 3 mile trip to the shop and back, When I got out of the car there was a smell of plastic burning, Maybe related to an electrical short?
It gets dark at about 7:30 now so I didn't have time to get a look.

I really hope a hair dryer will fix this, Everything else on the car is sound, The radio even works!

Cheers.

[Cigaro]

A hairdryer may not fix it, best thing to do is to take off all the plug caps, dry them as best as you can, and spray WD40 around them to get rid of any excess damp.

Don't suppose water could have got in the airbox somehow? If it's fuel injected that could foul the MAF sensor apart from the usual problems associated with water ingestion...

[Jamie.]

It's possible, But the car ran reasonably ok for about 20 miles, Now I wouldn't trust it go further than the end of my street. We'll see in 30 mins when im home.

[owdamer]

Ha ha. So there is such a thing as karma.

[Jamie.]

Quick update: Checked all the electrical connections I could before it got dark, None were wet. I 'think' it runs worse when the lights are on, Not 100% sure.

After a few mins up and down my street, The car smells like fireworks when you get out.

There is also quite a lot of white/light blue smoke from the exhaust when it's warmed up.

[Cigaro]

Whatever the problem is it doesn't sound too good.

Are any engine management lights on?

[Jamie.]

No, I left it running for quite a while and the engine management light still didn't come on. I know it works as when you rag the tits off it, It comes on. (I haven't done that since it's started running bad)

The temperature gauge dosen't go more than half way up even after ticking over for about 20 mins.

When the revvs get to about 3k it seems to run fine with plenty of power alough sounds a bit rougher than it used to.

It's getting harder and harder to start, Maybe it's the head gasket going..

[McGee]

When or has the cambelt been changed out of curiosity ?
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Its pronounced Jixxer!

[Jamie.]

I don't know when, Is that the same thing as the timing belt? My mate said you can read the writing on the timing belt, Which usually means its been changed recently, Alough I don't know a thing about cars and he usually talks shite.

[McGee]

Aye its a timing belt it should be changed every 60,000 - 63,000 miles on the punto. Just look to see if its worn or has splits or cracks if it does it needs changing.

May be worth getting a diagnostic done can cost between 25 - 50 quid. Just get them to look for the problem.

It could be a number of things by how your describing it.

Could be the air flow meter, lambda sensor, coil pack, plugs, crank position sensor or a number of other sensors
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Its pronounced Jixxer!

[10 pence Short]

Sounds like a misfire then?

Chugging kind of thing? It will sound better higher up the rev. range as the other cylinders are louder than the misfire noise.

Smell will be the CAT. it's burning the fuel the cylinder isn't.

Probably got wet with the jet washing and as you've driven it, caused arcing, Carbon gets on the plug insulation and leads causing an easy path for the spark to earth, rather than in the cylinder. Use a plug tester to test which cylinder is at fault.Or if you're brave, pull each lead off in turn and see which lead doesn't affect the engine. Thats the bunny.

Take the plugs out and look for a black line on the white ceramic section give them a good wipe off or even bodge a bit of insulation tape around the ceramic bit.
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[Jamie.]

Ok thanks again, It's a pain in the arse as by the time I get home from work and ready to start having a look at the car its getting dark.

Something else which I have discovered is that when the engine is cold, It runs almost perfect (Apart from taking around a second to start)

Then when it warms up a bit and the temp gauge comes out of the blue, It gets worse and worse.
There is speckles of what looks like oil on the inside of the throttle body, How would oil get in there..

Going to change the plugs and HT leads at the weekend and see how that goes.

[cagiva gezzer]

www.fiatforum.com

Is it loosing coolant?

My guess is that water got in the airbox somehow.
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"because one stroke isnt enough and four strokes waste two"

[Harold_Shand]

Fuck Puntos, man. I had one for a while, 5 months of hell.