Been driving the touring from my rescue thread (viewtopic.php?f=112&t=268862) for half a year or so now, with no major running issues.
A month ago, it struggled to start one morning. It might have been sat a week or so, I can't remember as I use my vehicles sporadically, and ever since then it's had the same issue. It used to start in a second, now it takes 5-10s of cranking, then it kind of grumbles around 400-500rpm for a bit, before spluttering in to life - it also seems to pick a new idle speed with each start.
I don't have a smoke testing machine (as they're £150 and I only need it once), so with a personal vape, some rubber tubing, a rubber glove, and some cable ties, I blew as much vape in to the boot as my lungs would allow, and I found some small leaks around the idle valve, and from a crease in the boot, a hose also had a slightly split end.
I have replaced part 3 (the boot) and part 10 (hose with adapters, that connects to ICV). I also removed part 5 (idle valve) and re-seated it with its rubber grommet (part 6) as it seemed a little unseated. I've been round and checked all hose clamps, everything is tight, and my DIY smoke test no longer shows me vape seeping around the engine bay.
A couple of others bits to consider... when I got this car it wouldn't run. I ended up fitting new spark plugs, removing the injectors + fuel rail, and then I hooked them up one-by-one on my bench to a motorcycle battery, and I blasted some pressurised carb cleaner through them. Once back in place the car fired up and it's ran fine since, but wondering if they've become blocked again. I've dumped 25L of petrol + a carton of injector cleaner through, and spent about 20 mins thrashing it, but no improvement on that front. A second thing to consider is I replaced the fuel pump a while back as the old one was whiny:
Unfortunately I can't remember where I got this pump from, so it could be an eBay cheap Chinese jobby, and maybe that's causing my issues (as I noticed it seems louder than it was when I first fitted it, but that might be a placebo effect) - I'm thinking it shouldn't be the fuel pump though, as it'll sit at high revs without much bother - it's lower in the RPM range I have my issues.
Here's a couple of vids, first one shows what it's like starting it up:
The second gives you an idea of what it's like to drive it in the lower rev range, if you go from no throttle to full throttle, the car kind of 'bounces' and jerks forward until it becomes smoother higher up the RPMs...
Tried a few things now, was hoping it'd be a vacuum leak but no dice yet, possible issues with ICV/MAF?
Any help appreciated as always.
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