Puntos and the head gasket

flogen

I'm looking at picking up a Punto that I've seen for a good price but I remember someone telling me about a certain year or model of the Punto having head gasket problems and wanted to check about it here.

What are the troublesome versions to look out for and is there a way of seeing what the situation is with the particular car bar bringing a mechanic along to check it out?

Thanks.

colm_mcm

The 1242cc 8 valve engine is particularly troublesome. standard fitment from late 1999 till the Grande Punto came out. any old ones with "60" on the front wings would have this engine too.

ELX 16 Valve, HLX, and Sporting models didn't have this engine, they got the 16 valve version as fitted to the Bravo/Brava and Stilo. this is far less risky, and given the amount of Puntos out there, you may as well get a well specced one.

If you're buying one, get a mechanic to check it anyway, there may be gearbox issues you won't spot as well, syncromesh can go causing crunching of the gears under enthusiastic driving, this can get progressively worse till you need major surgery.

flogen

colm_mcm wrote: »

The 1242cc 8 valve engine is particularly troublesome. standard fitment from late 1999 till the Grande Punto came out. any old ones with "60" on the front wings would have this engine too.

ELX 16 Valve, HLX, and Sporting models didn't have this engine, they got the 16 valve version as fitted to the Bravo/Brava and Stilo. this is far less risky, and given the amount of Puntos out there, you may as well get a well specced one.

If you're buying one, get a mechanic to check it anyway, there may be gearbox issues you won't spot as well, syncromesh can go causing crunching of the gears under enthusiastic driving, this can get progressively worse till you need major surgery.

Thanks for that.

Looks like the one I'm looking at would have the troublesome engine - it's a 99 but it seems to be an early one (hard to tell from the picture but it seems to have the 60 on the front wing - certainly has something.)

Were there fixes for it and is there a way of knowing if they were done to an individual car?

colm_mcm

a lot of head gasket failure can be attributed to owners not keeping water topped up, some can be due to airlocks caused by inexperienced mechanics changing the coolant (they are a pain to do correctly on that engine IIRC) and not bleeding correctly.

other head gasket failures on this engine don't involve coolant, and the gasket breaks down between 2 of the cylinders, you don't lose coolant, the car doesn't overheat, it just misfires due to lack of compression. it'll drive like a car with defective spark plugs.

Have you considered buying something else, like a Clio?

flogen

colm_mcm wrote: »

a lot of head gasket failure can be attributed to owners not keeping water topped up, some can be due to airlocks caused by inexperienced mechanics changing the coolant (they are a pain to do correctly on that engine IIRC) and not bleeding correctly.

other head gasket failures on this engine don't involve coolant, and the gasket breaks down between 2 of the cylinders, you don't lose coolant, the car doesn't overheat, it just misfires due to lack of compression. it'll drive like a car with defective spark plugs.

Have you considered buying something else, like a Clio?

Wasn't set on a Punto, just saw one for a good price with a recently-passed NCT.

To be honest my check list is simply that it has 12 months+ on the NCT, has a small enough engine so I'm not selling my soul to get insurance and it's roomy enough for me to sit in comfortably (as I'm over 6ft and find a few cars quite a squeeze to sit in).

Naturally the less I pay for it the better - I'll be learning in it so it's something I want to be able to scratch up a bit if necessary!

colm_mcm

get the best Yaris you can afford.

FearDark

If its the engine your worried about your more than welcome to have my 1.7TDI engine in my punto, its running like a clock with 150,000 on the clock.

zilog_jones

I don't see why people consider NCT expiry length such an important selling point. You want to buy a car that isn't a complete lemon, don't you? So why should the NCT be a problem?

I bought a car with no NCT and (after realizing the previous owner put the wheel nuts backwards on one of the wheels :rolleyes:) it passed no problem.

flogen

zilog_jones wrote: »

I don't see why people consider NCT expiry length such an important selling point. You want to buy a car that isn't a complete lemon, don't you? So why should the NCT be a problem?

I bought a car with no NCT and (after realizing the previous owner put the wheel nuts backwards on one of the wheels :rolleyes:) it passed no problem.

I'm not too confident that I'd spot all the problems with a car and I don't want to buy something that's a large investment away from passing the NCT.

I obviously understand that the NCT doesn't mean it's in great condition at purchases - just that it was passable at the time that they saw it - but it's a good starting point for someone in my situation.

All I want is a car that I can use to pass the test in with as little hassle and investment as possible - if needs me I'll look at putting more money in after that.

mumblin deaf ro

I am not techincally minded but thought that a 'mayonnaise'-like residue under the oil filler cap was supposed to be a tell-tale sign of head gasket failure?

zilog_jones

Well it means water has got in with the oil somehow, but it can also happen from condensation if the car does a lot of short trips. If the residue is also on the dipstick it's more likely head gasket failure but still no guarantee, and I guess it varies with different engines (not sure if that happens on the Punto ones).

Mycroft H

mumblin deaf ro wrote: »

I am not techincally minded but thought that a 'mayonnaise'-like residue under the oil filler cap was supposed to be a tell-tale sign of head gasket failure?

On its own it could just be on a engine that never reaches full operating temp, or during the winter.

When its combined with coolant disapearing for no apparent reason, and oil in the coolant tank and/or white 'sugar' smelling smoke from the exhaust, then you suspect the head gasket.