Grr, GT gremlins

[Krupa]

Bloody engine, I've had enough!

I didn't use the car yesterday, spent the whole day indoors and it bucketed it down outside which was lovely.

Drove to Caroline's house earlier, and when I started the car it was rough as f**k.

All of the way up my road going bubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbub. Revved it a bit and it coughed out some grey smoke, but didn't sound too healthy.

It's been a little rougher recently, not too bad but not as smooth as it has been for ages. Thought I was past getting s**t off this engine, but I was wrong.

I'm getting normal MPG, which is wierd (37mpg on the way back from Oxford the other day). The inside of the exhaust isn't sooty like it used to get when it had problems before either.

However, when warm, if you disconnect the blue temp sender it doesn't rev slightly higher but instead struggles to keep running.

Any quick (cheap) fixes till I can turf this engine out and get a G40 in there?

I wanna be able to sell this engine soon, I can't exactly shift it if it's running like crap, not truthfully anyway.

[bstardchild]

Bloody engine, I've had enough!

I didn't use the car yesterday, spent the whole day indoors and it bucketed it down outside which was lovely.

Drove to Caroline's house earlier, and when I started the car it was rough as ****.

All of the way up my road going bubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbubbub. Revved it a bit and it coughed out some grey smoke, but didn't sound too healthy.

It's been a little rougher recently, not too bad but not as smooth as it has been for ages. Thought I was past getting **** off this engine, but I was wrong.

I'm getting normal MPG, which is wierd (37mpg on the way back from Oxford the other day). The inside of the exhaust isn't sooty like it used to get when it had problems before either.

However, when warm, if you disconnect the blue temp sender it doesn't rev slightly higher but instead struggles to keep running.

Any quick (cheap) fixes till I can turf this engine out and get a G40 in there?

I wanna be able to sell this engine soon, I can't exactly shift it if it's running like crap, not truthfully anyway.

sounds ignition related to me......

[amstrange1]

The fact that the revs don't rise when you unplug the blue temp sender usually means that you have a sender out. But in this case I'd say it's a likely to be a tired/worn ignition component making Digifant's life difficult. What's your dizzy cap and rotor arm like? HT leads all okay?

Another point worth mentioning, is that when the battery voltage is quite low Digifant isn't happy. I regularly leave my car stood for a couple of weeks, and when first starting the car will be quite 'chuggy' 'til I blip the throttle a bit - the battery voltage then rises and the revs settle.

[Krupa]

It could be, um, the leads are new (bought the week before the RR day) and the dizzy/rotor arm/cap are all new bought in 2002.

Could be the battery, it never had any problems last year when I was doing constant motorway trips and charging the battery up weekly by doing so. These days it does mostly short trips, maybe that doesn't help.

The washer bottle's overflowed recently too (me not concentrating) maybe the coil's wet, but that was a week or two ago surely it'd have dried out by now?

Dodgy electrics makes sense as far as performing like s**t after rain is concerned.

[toXXin]

When were the plugs last changed?

[hardhitter]

Yeah, make sure all the above is right. Are you using the correct bosch plugs ?

[Krupa]

It had new plugs at the last service in October - NGK ones - which replaced the NGK ones I had last year. I had Bosch Super4's and they wore out in about 6 months, but if it fixes the problem it's worth going for.

Sorry don't read this wrong, tis not a challenge against what you're saying, just curious.

I don't wanna spend bucket loads of cash on an engine I'm gonna end up selling soon that's all, but at the same time I don't think I can put up with it how it is.

New brakes haven't bedded in, so are pretty weak, and it's trying to stall. Not a nice car to drive atm.

[DanW]

is it mainly doing it at low revs?

Worth giving the battery a slow charge overnight... How old is the battery?

[Krupa]

Yeah it does seem to be mainly at low revs.

Braking hard it tries to stall, but it's nothing like how it once was, it has yet to stall on me.

Sometimes it idles at about 500rpm when I'm stopped. The exhaust fumes smell, but not of petrol.

At about 3,000 revs, it occasionally looses power and if you floor it then back off it judders like a b***h.

I wish my dissertation hand-in wasn't so soon, I'd get rid otherwise.

[JWC]

I had a similar problem and thought it was water in the fuel. Used Wynns dry fuel additive. But in the end when I opened the bonnet at night, the dissy cap was arching all over the place. So I got a new cap and WD40 and it was fixed.

[Krupa]

I think I have a spare dizzy arm and cap somewhere actually, came off the dizzy I have on there at the moment and have never been used as I replaced the cap and arm on my old one and transferred these across.

I'll see if I can dig them out.

[Krupa]

The battery's three years old nearly thinking on it!

[toXXin]

Idle air controller?
MAF?

Just to throw another couple at you...

[Krupa]

Bizarrely, I drove to my parents place earlier with no problems.

I don't understand!

Before I drove here though I topped up my coolant (which is leaking at the thermostat housing, don't understand why as the housing and seals are brand new, replacing a badly fitted old one that had to be broken off, which replaced the one cracked when the HG went in 2003) and when I took the cap off the expansion tank it went pffffffft like it was pressurised.

This was at 3pm, the car hadn't been driven since 10pm yesterday. Surely it shouldn't still be pressurised?

I'll check out the dizzy cap now the engine's cooled down again, but I'm concerned that once again my head gasket may have blown.

On the flip side, my brakes are beginning to bed in and I like the setup!

Knowing my luck I'll end up with a demon G40 engine too!

[hardhitter]

Best thing is to sort the coolant leak and go from there.

The correct plugs to use are Bosch W6 DTC, don't bother with super 4 or NGK's they aren't as good. They are 2.50 ea at GSF which is very good value.