Fiat Punto "Chugging"

Hi everyone,

Hope someone can advise. I've got an '01 Punto 1.2l and I've noticed a problem recently enough with it. When I apply pressure to the accelerator the car seems "reluctant" to accelerate properly..ie. when you put any pressure on the accelerator the car doesn't move freely and this is repeated throughout the gears.

It's pretty concerning as if I am to overtake anyone I don't have the full confidence that the Punto will allow me to overtake freely

I'm hoping it isn't anything too serious but I don't really know where to start - any advice appreciated!

Regards

I certainly am not a car expert but a friend of mine had a very similar problem and it turned out to be a blown head gasket - its a very common problem with puntos (happened mine as well).

is the car over heating ? check the oil also - is it white / milky ??

My sis has the same type punto. It was slow esp on take off but it didnt happen constantly. She nearly got mashed pulling out from a junction because it was so slow when she acc.

My dad checked it out and there were sparks happening under the bonnet. It was to do with the lead going to the plugs. He put some tape on it but has to get her a new lead.

All very vague but I know it wasnt a major job. Hope it helps.

thanks for both reply's, I'll check the engine tonight to see if anything mentioned stick's out...hopefully it's the lead or something similar but I've heard the same story's about he head gasket+Punto's+had hoped I would get away without replacing it!

The exact same thing happened with my last Punto (Was '00 reg). Garage could not figure out what it was for ages until the put the engine through some computer test thingy. It ended up being the lambda sensor which they fixed pretty quickly. Not sure if this is whats wrong with your car, but the symptoms your having is exactly what happened to my car.

This could be caused by any one of a huge list of potential faults.

When was the car last serviced?

Hi again,the car moved freely for some reason last night..there was no chugging/staggered acceleration at all! So it does seem to happen infrequently for some reason??

I read somewhere that it may have something to do with the headgasket or valves...during wet weather water accumulates around the valve head or something + this may contribute to the problem?

nb. The car was serviced about a month ago - top up of oil+new battery