Fiat Punto HELP!!!

[lawrence567]

Morning all,

I'm after a bit of advice as to what the problem for my Punto maybe.
Yesterday i was driving down the M-way & the car suddenly started to lose power, it eventually stopped, it'd start again, run for a minute & die again.
I called the AA, he recovered me to a nearby garage, he suspected it was a blocked cat.
The garage removed the cat, which was blocked but there was still problems as it'd lose power again after a few minutes.
I'm now carless & with a OH who does'nt drive & a 6 week old baby it's not ideal.
The garage is a bit stumped as they've not been able to identify the problem with a diagnostic check, there was also no warning lights, prior too, or after it conked out.
Electrics etc however are fine.
It's a 1.2 Mk 2 punto which funnily enough apssed it's MOT last week with no problems.
ANY pointers would be muchly appreciated as my technical knowledge extends to putting air in the tyres!

[crostonian]

This has probably been checked by your garage but have they confirmed it is not the beginnings of a blown head gasket. I have a 1.2 Mk 1 Punto 85 as a pub car and for a couple of weeks after a 20 minute motorway run it would misfire and have a loss of power but after a couple of miles it went back to normal although there was a whiff of coolant which gave it away. It carried on like this for 200 miles without overheating and being fine in local use before eventually giving the full james bond smoke screen which was the cue to see my mechanic!

[lawrence567]

The garage have found out the timing slipped 2 teeth.

[crostonian]

not too bad as the punto 1.2 FIRE engine is a 'safe' engine ie when the belt slips or breaks it doens't damage the valves so should be a cheap repair in theory.