1998 Fiat Brava S from UK and Ireland - Comments

First of all the exhaust went.

Then the alternator belt snapped.

The RPM sensor went next what ever that is. This caused the car not to start intermittently so I couldn't go anywhere without someone to give me a push start.

Next without warning the engine dropped a valve and I have been told that I now need a new engine. Fiat explained that the engine had become starved of oil. This is impossible as the recovery man who recovered me said all my levels were fine.

This car was a waste of time and money.

I can't trust it to start anytime.

The dealers at Fiat are unhelpful and arrogant.

When fully maintained how can a car need a new engine after four years with no realistic explanation of fault.

We have had problems with our fiat as well, ours was starved of oil because the pipe that takes the oil to the top part of the engine wasn't doing that and so when you checked the oil it had looked like it had plenty, but it was not reaching the top part of the engine and so the engine was not getting any oil. The Brava engines must have a fault somewhere as a lot of people are trying to get new engines for their fiat bravas. The is the second time we have had a problem with the engine so at the moment we are trying to find a cheap engine to get it fixed (no money). FIAT - Fix It Again Tomorrow.

I know a Fiat Mechanic well and he tells me if you don't use semi- or fully synthetic oil in the bravo/bravas etc the pipe that feeds the oil to the top of the engine becomes blocked and therefore leads to engine trouble. The pipe at the top of the engine has fine holes and can block if ordinary oil is used.

The problem isn't so much the type of oil as the frequency of oil changes and services. Skip oil changes and the feed to the cam sprayer bar blocks, letting the cams go dry.

Oil type would be a secondary factor... although the problem seems to kill most 1.4's in the end.

The oil pump screwed my engine, had to shell out for a second hand one........ which wasn't nice.