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sam2.0

16v struggling

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I drove the car 120 miles on Sunday, didn't miss a beat. But, driving home at lunch yesterday, pulled into my car park and it was just stuttering and not pulling at all. Pulled over, car off, left it a few minutes and back on, it worked enough to get me to my space, but it soon started spluttering again. The fuel was in the red, so assumed maybe just some crap has got though

 

Later on after work, I put 5 litres in via a jerry can and then drove to the petrol station. Again, it was jumping about like a kangaroo, and not pulling. Pulled over again, left it and then it worked enough for me to get it home. I let it idle for 10 minutes and it didn't miss once, so figured the fuel lines were all clear. Went to the petrol station, chucked £20 in and it made it back no issue.

 

Went to drive to work this morning, fine for a mile, then started doing it again. Had to park up, let it rest for a minute and go again, I done this 3 times to go about 200 meters!

 

What the feck is wrong with it now? Bearing in mind my local indie reckon the head gasket has gone, a small crack between the coolant and combustion chamber, could it have just got worse and now even more coolant is going into the combustion chamber and causing it? I am/was going to do the gasket this weekend, typical.

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could be that crud has got into the metering head, some 16v's have a small gauze filter in the feed from the tank where it connects to the head. Have you ever changed the fuel filter?

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The filter was changed 6 months ago. Worth putting some of that cleaner stuff in the tank to break down any bits that shouldn't be there?

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Water is usually the main problem, not much crud usually gets past the main fuel filter, worth looking into the tank with a torch to see if the fuel pickup is clear.

The 16v has a lift pump in the tank as well as the main pressure pump under the car, worth checking that the lift pump is running OK too as if they fail they will put a strain on the main pump.

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when it plays up again, have a listen to the pumps (one in the tank and one on the underside of the car) and assess if they sound noisier than normal. Give them a tap (or the tank a tap) and you may notice the noise goes away. this may help pin point if the pumps are at fault. plenty of threads on this.

 

all the best

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Almost exactly the same happened to me. Car would just kangaroo like mad. Fault was with the in-tank fuel pump. When this happened, my under-car-fuel-pump was super loud like struggling to shift the fuel or so. Once the one in-tank was replaced problem was fixed instantly.

 

As a short and quick fix I was told to drive with full tank as it helps pumps to operate properly. Not sure how true that is but it helped me to drive car for over a week like that.

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Well I've driven it a few times and its not spluttered or anything, so I'm hoping it was just a bit of crap from the tank that was sucked up. I'll ensure I don't go into the red at all from now on.

 

I'm not going to spend time looking for an issue that isn't there.

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One guy on here a while ago tried everything and it turned out to be water that had got into the airfilter element, so it's worth a check around all the inlet area and give that throttlebody a good clean.

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I tried a few things tonight.

 

Firstly I tried the car with the blue temp sensor cable off, and it was bad, plugged in it and it was better. So that works.

 

I noticed a lose cable near the metering head, it was brown/white and with a white plug on the end (see attachments) it came from part of the loom that ran along the left wing (looking at the engine bay). It had a piece of metal wedged in the connector connected to nothing.

 

I also noticed the white 'tube' was not attached to the bottom of the air box. So that's reconnected, not sure what it does though!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]72187[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]72188[/ATTACH]

Edited by sam2.0

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On my 1995 16v, that wire attaches to a sensor by the cylinder head cover, alternator end, by the injectors, its the under bonnet temp sensor and helps prevent fuel vaporization when the car is hot and not running.

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