Hello I have a Fiat Punto year 2000 1200 16v, the car has been a very good runner however about 4 weeks ago the car started struggle on taking power, every time I take my foot off the pedel then reapply the car gives a shudder and sturggles to get power. The only way I can explain it "is the car seems like it is going to backfire but it don't" The RAC said it may be the coil so I have changed it and the spark plugs, the car seems to be running better but it stills struggles.

ANY IDEAS ?

Hi mate,

Have you noticed any rise in temperature, plus maybe change the air filter. Have you noticed any smells like strong fuel smells etc, black smoke from the exhaust.

All the best
Michael

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Hello there don't seem to be any smell of fuel or black smoke from the exhaust that I have noticed, I will change the air filter to see if that helps.
I have noticed that the temperature is rising a lot quicker than it used too?

It would lead me to thing maybe a gasket problem then. Possbily the head gasket beginning to fail. When your car is cool, and be very careful that the car is very cool. Have a look at the colour of your water in the coolent system, is it oil'ly in feel, perhaps discoloured as well, with a bit of a stange smell?

Plus check that the water in this system is at the right level, you could just be short of coolent fluid.

There are other possibilities but may take a few more steps before we look at those, as they get worse and more expensive to fix as we go down that road.

Cheers Michael

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hi have checked the coolent and it's at the correct level, to me it is not oil'ly in touch but is slightly discoloured (brown) and of a sweet smell but not sure if this is the coolent?

The sweet smell is the coolant yes, have you had to top it up at all?
Did you notice what colour the spark plugs you removed were?

The coolent levels were find and there was no need to top it up, one of the spark plugs was yellow towards the bottom when I replaced them the rest was white

White would have been my guess.
White spark plugs are caused by cylinder temperature that’s too high and/or fuel mixture that’s too lean. Orange/yellow is caused also when exposed to higher than normal temperatures.
I would say that you ether have a defective/lazy Lambda/Oxygen sensor causing the engine to run too lean, or as Michael suggested a head gasket problem.
The easiest way to test the sensor is to get your car plugged into a diagnostic scanner and look at the live data from the sensor whilst driving.
Prior to this, as you have mentioned that the engine runs hotter than it used to, but is not using any coolant. Check that the cooling fan is cutting in and out as it should and that the radiator hoses don’t seem overly pressurized when hot. The fiat FIRE engine is generally a good engine but it’s a bit head gasket happy, however in my experience it (the gasket) normally goes coolant to compression causing a bit of a cold start misfire initially but will always ‘use’ coolant. Most garages can also test for this type of head gasket fault by carrying out a simple ‘block test’ which essentially looks for combustion gases in your coolant.
Best of luck and let us know how you get on.