need more opinions on VERY hot running car

4743hudsonj

my girlfriend has a 1.2 8v(i think) fiat punto y/2000 reg

recently its been taking a little longer to catch and start up (bettery is brand new and working)

a few days ago she noticed the car juddering almost asif she was about to stall at various seemingly different situations (some at speed, some at breaking and others moving off)

so much so that the other day she stopped the car in worry as it didnt "go away" like before:rolleyes: she called her step dad who noticed the coolant was non existant
, so he topped it up with water just to get it home

stupidly of her shes been driving it around hoping its fixed itself:cool:

now im not a mechanic but i sell spare parts at a job of mine (not halfords thankfully) so know some things. I suspected the usual, plugs leads, maybe air filter

i read into it more and found it could be ecu, injectors, head gasket going out, anything that could go wrong near enough.

she attempted to drive it over to me so i could clean and maybe replace some stuff against my advice, got half way and the temperature soared, she lest it sit by for 20 mins, turned it on, the gauge was about half way and she turned around, after just 2 mins it was on the red light.

3 stops later and shes home (should be a 5 min drive).

this sounds like an obvious coolant leakage somewhere, maybe a gasket has indeed gone?

any thoughts?

thanks in advance

Ezmondino

When the temperature went up, did the fan kick in at all?

colino

Unfortunately small Fiats overheat and destroy their headgaskets remarkably quickly. Get it checked by a friendly garage.

4743hudsonj

shes at a garage now, they say £40 quid each for new tyres(she needed some anyways coz hers are bald and cracking - she didnt say if it includes fitting, i dont think it will?


they say the tracking needs doing which i agree with cos her tyres are wearing very unevenly. £30? havnt got a clue of normal price


as for the problem they say the fan doesnt seem to be kicking in so its the rad fan switch most likely, theyre checking the thermostat and other bits though, no price on this as of yet.

and they say her brakes need doing (rear) £130, which if its just for the parts is a rip off, i can but them at staff price for a fraction of the cost, but not sure if it included fitting

so anybody got advice on whether these prices are good and if they are likely to include work?

Volcano

If you're saying that the overheating is directly caused by lack of water, then an unseen leak could be due to the head gasket leaking.

If you're saying that it's overheating despite having plenty of water then this could be due to the thermostat not opening properly. Leaky headgaskets can also pressurise the system forcing coolant out.

I personally wouldn't get my car fixed at a garage where I took a vehicle in for an overheating problem and was then quoted for tyres and tracking, even though the overheating problem hadn't been diagnosed yet!

blued

Forget about replacing anything until the over heating problem has been diagnosed. If the head gasket has gone and the head is warped you could be looking at £500 to have a garage do the work. At this time of year a fan not working shouldnt mean that the engine over heats unless you're sitting in stationary traffice or moving very slowly. It could be that the thermostat isn't opening and allowing water to flow round the radiator. This is quite easy to check yourself by removing the thermostat (plug the hole it comes from with something to stop coolant loss) and dropping it in boiling water to see if it opens. Be aware that you will need to check and top up the coolant if necessary after. It sounds like you're going to need to change the coolant in the system anyway though if there was next to nothing in it and it was topped up with water only.

I would also not deal with this garage because it sounds like they saw her coming. If you dont have a garage you use regularly ask a friend to recommend one. If she took it in there with a over heating problem they have no reason to check her tyres, brakes etc

4743hudsonj

Volcano wrote: »

If you're saying that the overheating is directly caused by lack of water, then an unseen leak could be due to the head gasket leaking.

If you're saying that it's overheating despite having plenty of water then this could be due to the thermostat not opening properly. Leaky headgaskets can also pressurise the system forcing coolant out.

I personally wouldn't get my car fixed at a garage where I took a vehicle in for an overheating problem and was then quoted for tyres and tracking, even though the overheating problem hadn't been diagnosed yet!

well it over heated and was then topped up but then filled up anyway, she cant check her levels though (doesnt know how) so dont know that.

as for the tyres, i think she bought it up, as she wanted it doing anyways.

4743hudsonj

blued wrote: »

Forget about replacing anything until the over heating problem has been diagnosed. If the head gasket has gone and the head is warped you could be looking at £500 to have a garage do the work. At this time of year a fan not working shouldnt mean that the engine over heats unless you're sitting in stationary traffice or moving very slowly. It could be that the thermostat isn't opening and allowing water to flow round the radiator. This is quite easy to check yourself by removing the thermostat (plug the hole it comes from with something to stop coolant loss) and dropping it in boiling water to see if it opens. Be aware that you will need to check and top up the coolant if necessary after. It sounds like you're going to need to change the coolant in the system anyway though if there was next to nothing in it and it was topped up with water only.

I would also not deal with this garage because it sounds like they saw her coming. If you dont have a garage you use regularly ask a friend to recommend one. If she took it in there with a over heating problem they have no reason to check her tyres, brakes etc

i thought it could be the thermostat, im able to test them but she cant get to me(lives 15 miles away) so its this garage or nothing

none of the garages (3-4 of them in total) in her tiny town have a good rep, one charged £230 for a £15 handbrake cable, not inc fitting........

i know some that would do very cheap and reliable but like i said, she cant get here.

LandyAndy

4743hudsonj wrote: »

well it over heated and was then topped up but then filled up anyway, she cant check her levels though (doesnt know how) so dont know that.

as for the tyres, i think she bought it up, as she wanted it doing anyways.

Show her.;)

No excuse for not knowing how to check levels.

4743hudsonj

LandyAndy wrote: »

Show her.;)

No excuse for not knowing how to check levels.

haha i have countless times but she doesnt remember or bother

LandyAndy

4743hudsonj wrote: »

haha i have countless times but she doesnt remember or bother

I suppose you could point out that all this hassle and expense might have been avoided if she did bother.:rolleyes: