Headgasket - Punto

MySelf56

To all the Petrol heads

I have 99 Fiat Punto(yeah yeah I know what FIAT stands for). I was using it for 1 year, suddenly on my way to office yesterday Engine Temperature gauge is showing very high. It Halted in the middle of the road.. After 5 th time it started again… I don’t want broke my car in the middle of the road cause huge tail back in our “fair city” so I pulled and took to the nearest garage.

Anywho, today I got call from mechanic, saying that my headgasket is gone, so it need to replaced along with the timeing belt. I asked him whats the damage. He priced me it will 500 yoyo including labour. Is it reasonable?

Over to you all! :-)

Anan1

I'd be a bit concerned about what other damage may have been done, a blown head gasket shouldn't of itself cause the engine to cut out. Is the car in otherwise good condition? What mileage?

Dampsquid

Happened to my girlfriends 00 punto last week at newlands cross. 500 euro is what she was charged too. Also needed to replace the fan, extra 200 odd euro.

daedalus2097

Sounds roughly right alright... At a guess I'd say 60-80k on the clock - I know of far too many Puntos that have blown head gaskets around that mileage for it to be a coincidence... Still, if the rest of the car's in good shape, it's worth getting done for what seems to be the going rate.

Masada

thats a bit expencive really., i presume the car is a punto 8valve as the 16v dont really give them problems, it'll most likely be a punto SX or along them lines.,
the 8v engine is a very simple engine as its a non-interferance engine, which means that if the timing belt goes everything doesnt meet in the middle and explode like other cars.,
the benefit of this is that you can afford to get the timing wrong when your refitting the head, there wont be any problems caused.,

anyway, you should get a few prices for a Head gasket kit and might aswell get the timing belt kit at the same time, ring places like consort, multipart etc,
then when you have the quotes for parts ask around a few garages for the work and tell them you have the parts.,
dont be afraid to go to the smaller independant mechanics, the punto engine is a simple one and it shouldnt take too long,.,
also make sure that if its being repaired that the head is being skimed aswell, that costs about 70 on its own and punto heads warp pretty easily.,
good luck with it.,

Drax

Bloody Puntos! I had one which almost over heated... the problem was the temp sensor went which stopped the fan working, which led the engine to heat up. I was lucky to catch this. If I hadnt been paying attention to my temp gauge I would surely have burnt the gasket out.

500 sounds ok with the timing belt change and replacement head gasket. Maybe get the temp sensor checked aswell. Good luck!

MySelf56

Thanks all for your opinions!

Anan1 wrote:

Is the car in otherwise good condition? What mileage?

Yeah Car is running all fine, 5 days strange sounds (a very small tik tik sounds from bonnet) . Milegae 75K so far.