I HATE my car

[Cloggy Saint]

Ok, I'm seriously very close to breaking/scrapping my piece if shite touring. I have a recurring problem that NOBODY seems able to sort out. About every month-6 weeks it runs like an absolute pig for about a week and then magically fixes itself until the next time. The symptoms are massive over fuelling, clouds of black smoke, erratic idle and just general crapness. I've done everything I can think of, checked for air leaks, cleaned the connectors up under the intake manifold, cleaned everything on the intake side, changed plugs, changed blue temp'sensor, changed distributor cap/rotor arm, changed ecu. Short of changing the entire fookin' car what else can I check??

[rix313]

Buy a brand new Citreon and get 2 grand scrap for it.

[Sanchez]

Buy a brand new Citreon and get 2 grand scrap for it.

[nickso]

air flow meter? just a guess.

[Sanchez]

Im in Amsterdam next week for 'Queens Day'(not the poofy type, its the Queens birthday and a damed good party.)

Ill bring it to Scotland

[gooner1]

Ok, I'm seriously very close to breaking/scrapping my piece if shite touring. I have a recurring problem that NOBODY seems able to sort out. About every month-6 weeks it runs like an absolute pig for about a week and then magically fixes itself until the next time. The symptoms are massive over fuelling, clouds of black smoke, erratic idle and just general crapness. I've done everything I can think of, checked for air leaks, cleaned the connectors up under the intake manifold, cleaned everything on the intake side, changed plugs, changed blue temp'sensor, changed distributor cap/rotor arm, changed ecu. Short of changing the entire fookin' car what else can I check??

ICV, TPS, Fuel injectors/flter/pipes/pump?

Know how you feel, but with mine, it,s more a case of my stupidty, ineptitude and general anarchaic method of working.
Don,t give up fella, i won,t.

[abelai]

I know you have cleaned it but hve you tryed pulling and pushing on the injector harness connector (bottom half) while its running to see if this changes anything

[Cloggy Saint]

ICV, TPS, Fuel injectors/flter/pipes/pump?

Know how you feel, but with mine, it,s more a case of my stupidty, ineptitude and general anarchaic method of working.
Don,t give up fella, i won,t.

I've replaced all of the above parts apart from the injectors, which I ran some cleaner through. Would any of these explain why the problem comes and goes? It's been doing this for literally years!

Im in Amsterdam next week for 'Queens Day'(not the poofy type, its the Queens birthday and a damed good party.)

Ill bring it to Scotland

You'd better have a pocket full of cash for petrol. And if you return it, fixed, you can name your price!

I know you have cleaned it but hve you tryed pulling and pushing on the injector harness connector (bottom half) while its running to see if this changes anything

Not tried that

[abelai]

Intermitant fault normally has to mean electrical and usually wiring or connectors.

[hongkongfuey]

how often do you fill up with fuel ???

[cliff_costa]

chang entier engin loom

[ProToZyKo]

how often do you fill up with fuel ???

Haha probably once a month ;) That would be nice.

[Jhonno]

earth?

[Cloggy Saint]

I fill up with fuel once a week or there abouts. Which earth should I be looking at Jhonno?

[sam325is]

earth?

+1

or injectors

[Cloggy Saint]

Where is the earth I should be checking? Would a faulty lambda sensor cause these kinds of problems??

[320Touring]

Where is the earth I should be checking? Would a faulty lambda sensor cause these kinds of problems??

Earth on a facelift m20 is usually from the sump to the LHS chassis leg. 13mm bolt and nut hold it on-def worthj taking off and cleaning

[Cloggy Saint]

Cheers, I'll give it a try.

[badassyas]

i say ecu...

[Simon13]

are the injectors noisey? i'd be possibly thinking along those lines

[redsmasher]

I had a problem with the same symptoms but no real pattern as to when it would occur.
Bit of lateral thinking (in general how does the ECU work out its fuelling, TPS, AFM etc.) Took the AFM off when it was running badly and found it had jammed wide open making the ECU think it was getting shit loads of air... it was idling with black smoke!
Bit of a steady touch with the die grinder and sorted.
Try opening the AFM manually and see if it jams.

[Brianmoooore]

You say you've cleaned the connectors up under the intake manifold. The connectors aren't normally the problem - it's the wiring immediately below the bottom half of the connector that rots and gives trouble.

[Cloggy Saint]

are the injectors noisey? i'd be possibly thinking along those lines

Replacement or just needing a clean?

[Bob_S]

Where is the earth I should be checking? Would a faulty lambda sensor cause these kinds of problems??

Next time it does it get a jump lead, clip it onto the lifting eye at the front and to the earth point on your nearside strut.

Lambda? yes.

[Brianmoooore]

The lambda sensor can only have a very limited effect on the fueling, so I doubt if this is the problem. A faulty lambda sensor usually just switches more slowly than it's supposed to, so the main noticeable effect it has is to produce a rhythmic surging in idle speed. If the sensor dies completely, the ECU will just use a default value, as it does with catless E30's.
Engine earth strap faults would normally show up dramatically when cranking the engine, in the form of heating and smoke, unless the resistance of the connection is so high that it won't crank at all.

[Cloggy Saint]

I've just noticed too that the heat shield on the exhaust manifold gasket is covered with oil/petrol by the cylinder nearest the front of the car. Could this be relevant??

[Cloggy Saint]

Quick update. The car barely made it in to work this morning. It was driving 1 in 4 (1 litre fuel to travel 4 km!!) I disconnected the battery for the day and apart from a few stutters it drove home more or less ok. Still stinks of fuel though. I guess this might suggest the ecu is the problem, but I've already swapped it twice in the past and the problem is still there.