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Fiat Bravo - gone!


SmokinWaffle

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Management had a 1.2 Brava (the 5-door version) when we got together. She’d had it from new and it was a very solid thing. Various electrical and locking issues saw it passed on to a young person in the family to make way for the Mk2 CR-V which I wanted she needed .  

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I am not sure about whether or not these already had OBD socket (probably depends on MY), but if so, you can get "white" ELM327 interface and either Multiecuscan or AlfaOBD (both free, although the free versions have some limitations) to investigate. If not, AFAIK there are reducers for the old diagnostic socket readily available for not too many golden nuggets.

As said already, these engines were notorious for chewing camshafts, which is why they were later replaced with brilliant 16V FIREs.

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2 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

I love this website. Only this specific group could get so excited about an R reg Bravo. Much love to all.

 

@stephen01  @Bitzer - the oil pickup feed I assume is something I can check when I give it an oil change to avoid camshaft woes?

You'll know if it's giving you trouble from the screeching it'll make - ask me how i know! 

You'll have to remove the cam cover to access it and then its a couple of bolts holding it on, but if it's been looked after then it should give you no trouble.

 

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Dun dun........daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Picked it up, gave it £15 of shells finest and gave it a rag, lovely car. Drives well, hoping the idle issue will clear itself but it's just a bit low when it's cold and smells fuelly, so no big deal. Once you're going it drives normally, idles perfect when warm. Even came with a CD that had Sweet Caroline on it. 

Nippy, steers well, stops very well, for £200 I'm chuffed. They were glad it's gone to a good home.

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Even came with a brochure

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Only came with the last 3 MOT's but 3 keys, main one, just doors and the weird brown one you use to make more.  The guy did all the servicing himself so not worried.

I'll check the oil, sunroof drain and take it for a rag down the motorway later, I imagine just being used more often should clear it out a bit and get it happier.

Now is it worth actually fixing the sunroof drain or just taping it up....

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My stepfather runs 4 of these, 2 Bravos ( Hgt 2.0 & hlx 1.8) & 2Bravas (the 4 door, with weird rear lights) , a 1.4 & 1.9 diesel.  He also has 3 Mareas, kinda big brother... 

He has always said that they are a bargain that will only go one way, with little that ever goes wrong. He adds bigger wheels ( his preference 15 or 16” Fiat Coupe  alloys)  to fill the arch’s, but otherwise leaves them standard.

The original stereos seemingly fail quite often now,  but a  straightforward plastic fascia can enable any stereo figment. Servicing is easy, costs stay low, and they do appear to be relatively bombproof. Rust hasn’t shown itself to be an issue on any, yet. 
 

Good luck, I’m sure it’ll be a sensible, anodyne acquisition. 

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Sunroof drains fixed/uncloged, left one was blocked thus the passenger seat being wet, now drains happily.


Just seen maybe the reason for the dodgy idle, should these holes be covered?

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And this could do with some putty or something on to seal this leak/gap...

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Unblocked the front washer that was blocked, seemingly somewhat sorted the rear washer although it seems to have air in the system, I'm sure it'll clear. Not blocked, wasn't working, took it all apart and blew it out now I can get mostly good spray out of it if a bit lackluster but it's an old motor and it's spraying upwards onto the rear window which is a neat design.

4 washer jets / holes in each front washer. Crazy.

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2 hours ago, Ian_Fearn said:

I doubt that’s the cause of your idle issue. Looks like the old single point fuel injection, is that right? It’s probably very similar to my old SPi Panda. Have you got the injector light on?

What are the exact symptoms?

Unsure. I won't worry until I've put a few miles on it to be honest. I had it idling for a good hour and the injector light doesn't come on at all now - but it needs to sit overnight really. Might just need some running as it's done <700 miles last year.

Turns out that the weak rear washer was actually because of a totally brittle split pipe, which I discovered after being just about to go into my house then finding a small puddle in the boot where I'd been trying to flush the "air" out:

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Pipe was totally brittle:

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So I won't use the rear washer until I've replaced that. Cold and dark now. Rear speaker filled up with water which is annoying as that's probably a bit shagged now. All boot carpets taken out.

Anyhow, I also took out the damp passenger seat:

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And now the seat, and all of the various boot carpets are drying on various radiators around the house. My house also now smells of screenwash. I'd rather find the issues now than later though!

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3 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

Sunroof drains fixed/uncloged, left one was blocked thus the passenger seat being wet, now drains happily.


Just seen maybe the reason for the dodgy idle, should these holes be covered?

PXL_20210203_154735845.thumb.jpg.7ab977a4b14d8c43b5449d602db324f2.jpg

And this could do with some putty or something on to seal this leak/gap...

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Unblocked the front washer that was blocked, seemingly somewhat sorted the rear washer although it seems to have air in the system, I'm sure it'll clear. Not blocked, wasn't working, took it all apart and blew it out now I can get mostly good spray out of it if a bit lackluster but it's an old motor and it's spraying upwards onto the rear window which is a neat design.

4 washer jets / holes in each front washer. Crazy.

The corrugated pipe is there to direct heated air from  exhaust manifold to the inlet of air filter box. There is a flap inside the airbox controlled by a wax (?) thermostat to regulate the hot air flow. The point is to improve running/consumption of a cold engine.

It has nothing to do with injection light.

I believe it will be easy to get Haynes BOL or proper factory repair manual from them intertubes. I remember I had one (2500+ pages) in pdf file for my Mk1 Punto.

www.fiatforum.com is your friend, true well of wisdom.

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20 hours ago, stephen01 said:

If you don’t want it for £200 I do! Serious.

1.4 were notorious for the oil feed clogging and starving the camshaft of oil and them wearing out very quickly! But who care for £200! 

I was just going to add that! I remember them coming in siezed,  with blue round camshafts..

Now get down to Halfords and purchase a set of Ribe  bits...

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4 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

Dun dun........daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Picked it up, gave it £15 of shells finest and gave it a rag, lovely car. Drives well, hoping the idle issue will clear itself but it's just a bit low when it's cold and smells fuelly, so no big deal. Once you're going it drives normally, idles perfect when warm.

It's going to be the coolant temp sensor, likely located in the intake. Seems to be a Fiat thing of that era.

When they fail, they usually idle a bit lumpy but don't throw the light, only after a long while will eventually throw an injector light and will start dumping fuel in and run mega rich. I've had one fail so badly it sooted the back of car up in 30 miles and was spitting raw fuel down the exhaust.

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PHWOOOAAAAARRR!

I'll have a random when it comes to it. My parents had a P reg Brava when I were a lad, and I even did 2 driving lessons in it before it got replaced with a Xsara Picasso 2.0HDi, which went a lot better than the 1.4 Brava!

Oh, you're in Kent aren't you? Fuck it, still would. Make a long weekend out of it.

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58 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Has it the fabled red key?

It does! I guess this is for programming others as far as I remember.

45 minutes ago, Bitzer said:

The corrugated pipe is there to direct heated air from  exhaust manifold to the inlet of air filter box. There is a flap inside the airbox controlled by a wax (?) thermostat to regulate the hot air flow. The point is to improve running/consumption of a cold engine.

It has nothing to do with injection light.

I believe it will be easy to get Haynes BOL or proper factory repair manual from them intertubes. I remember I had one (2500+ pages) in pdf file for my Mk1 Punto.

www.fiatforum.com is your friend, true well of wisdom.

Thank you very much :-)

21 minutes ago, Mrcento said:

It's going to be the coolant temp sensor, likely located in the intake. Seems to be a Fiat thing of that era.

When they fail, they usually idle a bit lumpy but don't throw the light, only after a long while will eventually throw an injector light and will start dumping fuel in and run mega rich. I've had one fail so badly it sooted the back of car up in 30 miles and was spitting raw fuel down the exhaust.

That's super useful - thanks. It's initially very rich and struggles to idle and will stall, if you hold the revs a bit it'll idle around I estiamte 3 - 500RPM stable and won't stall, when it warms up it's totally fine.

Took it for a run up and down the Motorway near me, bit boggy but otherwise okay, I'll service it when I get a moment and get some injector cleaner down it, look into that temp sensor suggested above.

Oil is clean and the coolant is fine too which is nice. Warms up and holds temp well, heaters are luuurvley.

I've made the executive decision to gorilla tape the sunroof though - even after I've fixed the drains. The draft/wind noise on the motorway was abysmal and it's clearly not sealed in any position, - so this is the best way. Not too bothered!

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Gonna get this moved to the AS section of the forum - but in the meantime...

I was thinking of just unplugging the various sensors and plugs one by one and giving them a good clean to see if that helps anything. What would you chaps use? I use contact cleaner at work for light electrical work - would that do? Obviously a paper towel and a good blow too.

I need to take the CD out of the CD player, every time I turn it on the beginning to Sweet Caroline comes on. I'm starting to develop some sort of weird Fiat based PTSD.

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  • SmokinWaffle changed the title to Fiat Bravo - daily tales
20 hours ago, Mrcento said:

It's going to be the coolant temp sensor, likely located in the intake. Seems to be a Fiat thing of that era.

When they fail, they usually idle a bit lumpy but don't throw the light, only after a long while will eventually throw an injector light and will start dumping fuel in and run mega rich. I've had one fail so badly it sooted the back of car up in 30 miles and was spitting raw fuel down the exhaust.

You might be onto something here. Went to the shop and it was an arse until it warmed up, on the way back I noticed the temp gauge was 1 notch over halfway which was odd, then it suddenly dropped to 2 notches below halfway and the injector light came on...

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21 minutes ago, SmokinWaffle said:

1 notch over halfway which was odd, then it suddenly dropped to 2 notches below halfway and the injector light came on...

The needle dropped when the thermostat opened to the main radiator and there was an inrush of colder coolant.

Actually, my sister had similar weirdness on her 1.4 MPI Phobia. She had the car through several garages and they always found the same error - coolant temperature sensor. Which they replaced. And then the thermostat. An then the cycle repeated. It seems the root cause was the design of the sensor, which could not cope with sudden rush of colder coolant after the thermostat opened.

Which, of course, does not necessarily mean that it is your case, too.

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Well...interesting turn of events.

Got some brake cleaner out of the garage and unplugged literally every plug I could see in the engine bay and doused/sprayed/cleaned them all. One of the ones beneath the throttle body had a fair bit of oil/black liquid around it inside which all came out nicely, unplugged the lambda sensor connector cable bit and gave that a good dousing too.

Waited for it to dry a bit, paper towelled the remainder, plugged it all back in, started it and it started better than it ever has. It hadn't been driven in 2-3 hours so was fairly cold. Idled at 1100 which then dropped to a rock solid stable 1000 shortly after which it's never done. Never idled that well even when warm.

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Took it for a drive, no hesitation or bogging down, no idle issues, drove like a totally different car. A lot more power for sure, smooth delivery without the hesitation that was there before. Leagues better than it ever has been even when it was very warmed up after a half hour motorway run. Not half as fuelly smelling as it was, no injector light, no nothing.

I'll leave it overnight/until about 11PM tonight and try it again when it's stone cold, but if that has fixed it I'll be beyond chuffed! Fingers crossed.

Maybe the chap wasn't quite as caring as I'd hoped.

Can we also appreciate how awesome these rear lights are - especially for a 24 year old car?!

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2 hours ago, SmokinWaffle said:

You might be onto something here. Went to the shop and it was an arse until it warmed up, on the way back I noticed the temp gauge was 1 notch over halfway which was odd, then it suddenly dropped to 2 notches below halfway and the injector light came on...

I was away to say the coolant gauge wouldn't really necessary point any harder to the problem, because Fiats can normally run up to 3 coolant sensors, one in the inlet for fuelling mix (which is the one that normally goes bad on 90's Fiats), One on the head for the gauge and one in the rad for the fan.

But they started combining them on a lot of the later 90's MPI setups, some had them on the thermostat housing and did everything. some had them on the rad and done 2 or 3 things etc.

It was pretty much the most Italian point of Fiat, they'd even do the different setups on the same engine for little apparent reason. A total lucky dip what one is on what car most of the time.

Glad to hear it sounds like a little fettling and cleaning seems to have helped!

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