Holden Barina Spark Engine Problems

It sounds odd, but sometimes you can overheat an engine and do lots of damage, but the engine will still run. The problem is that more and more damage can be accumulating during this process, to the point where it then won’t run at all. Perhaps that’s what’s happened here.

Overheating can cause mayhem under the bonnet and you really need to have the engine assessed to see if its fixable or junk. Damage associated with overheating can include a blown head gasket, warped cylinder head, damaged piston rings and even complete engine seizure (although that’s clearly not the case with yours).

If the engine is toast, perhaps a tested second-hand replacement engine from a wrecked Barina might be the most financially appealing solution.

Yes, I would suspect that there is an underlying issue that hasn’t been addressed. I would be having a compression test done on the engine to see if it could be a blown head gasket or something similar.