Felicia 1.6Glxi W reg owned from new 56000mls.

Hello,

I have had couple of sluggish starting incidents in the last year...once just after service March/April time..that was cured by battery disconnect and all restored to normal...the thought at the time was a low electric event perhaps caused by a low battery event whilst in the garage??

The second needed the air inlet body cleaning October time it was really grim and filthy black (cleaned previously at service).. and then a battery disconnect reset to restore normality.

A couple of days ago the sluggish start re appeared followed by a kangaroo-ing journey to work...not good on the freezing roads that were like glass..skating rink.

One mile out from home at the road works traffic lights the revs at tickover were erratic to say the least rising on their own to 2500 at one time.!!

I left it ticking over once at work...not really a tickover but a gutless 1500 revs...opened bonnet....and to my horror the exhaust down pipes below manifold just above corugated? flexible? link were glowing orange:eek:.

I quickly switched off the engine wondering how the heat would disipate..!!

It quickly cooled..(engine temp gauge was normal throughout journey)...and at luchtime it started ok but with a very tinny clear exhaust note.

On the way home at night it more or less behaved ok..perhaps a bit winded gutless feel.?

The next morning it was a bit sluggish start but ran and drove ok.

After a battery disconnect the keen eager starting/running and normal settle to fast idle and then low tickover once warm has returned all ok.

The car does a regular 5mls trip to work and back...occasional 4 times a year 300 mile round trip.. It doesn't get hammered about but if all is clear I run to road speed when able.

Today a 40 mile round trip with 3 up and still with my hefty work tools in the boot..it behaved all ok except for one stall into a roundabout as I changed down...starting again as I lifted my foot off clutch into next lower gear..perhaps a bit off par needing a slight bit more accelerator to maintain speed on the way home....but then it was above my regular load and I'm a bit jittery after its stunt the other morning.!!

:holmes:..any thoughts on the poorly running would be appreciated..

it really was scary bad at the time...:hbomb:.....:bike:

Thank you,

Clive

i have had this same thing with an octavia and it turned out to be coil pack. swapped it and it was soon sorted. them down pipes glow like f**k though dont they.

had a similar jittery problem when car was running even on a long journey it would occasionaly drop of power . garage changed the crank sensor and i havent had a problem since. hope this is of some use

i would point to something in the ignition system, cap or rotor arm, it's possible that the cold weather has allowed the condensation to freeze and crack the cap

Check ignition timing, and that cam belt hasn't slipped a tooth.

the idle speed is confusing to me, and please mind you that i don't have a injector model (boy i wish) the acceleration could be due to the "load" system (the one that gives th engine power when you do a fast acceleration, go up a hill or put a heavy load on the engine for a second) in some car that a vacuum timing advance to the distributor, on other a sensor and in others i don't know.

the cangarooish effect is manifold turbulance (i believe) mixed with over rich fuel mix or a problem going from idle circuit to partial (4 fuel delivery system total, idle, WOT, partial and load if i'm not mistaken, but thats in carburetors, i don't know the mpi counterpart for this)

orange looking manifold could be sticky valve problem mixed with the fore mentioned rich fuel

since mpi system rely on computers i would fisrt check all (every single one) of the sensors in the system and plug in a vacuum gauge in the manifold to check for valve problems , and check the air filter see if its missing a piece

My guess is that the base plate in the distributor is sticking and giving the ignition a permenant advance, this will give a weak fuel mixture and hotter exhaust gasses, thus making the downpipes glow

the trigger plate in the dizzy is fixed on this engine and the ignition timing is controlled by the ecu.. but it is possible however that the trigger disc has moved slightly which would throw the ignition timing completely off. on some of the distributors the trigger plate is a interference fit and on the others it's rivetted on

timing is control by the computer (timing and load advance) as far as i know on injection engines, but no matter how off the ignition timing is is would not account for the glowing downpipe, the fluctuating high rpms, only the rough idle, but it would manifest as loss of power, low km/g (kilometers per gallon) and rough idle...

could you check the fuel pump presure?, that could be giving you fluctuating idle speeds, and the crank position sensor (wich in another post was the culprit in loss of fuel)

the 1.6 engine doesn't have a crank sensor..

if the timing was retarded a long way it wold make the exhaust glow.. fact..

the other thing that springs to mind is to check that the o-ring on the dissy drive shaft isn't allowing oil to seep into the hall sender

Dorimower's auto reving reminds me of the same problem with my 1.6 SLXi at similar mileage. You feel a bit silly queuing in heavy traffic. No joy finding the problem initially. Eventually it was found to be the cooling system. The thermostat broke up which damaged the water pump. After the thermostat, water pump and cambelt were sorted the problem went. If they haven't been changed already it's time. Incidentally, after replacing the thermostat the garage couldn't get air out of the system and the manifold glowed. That was when they found that the water pump had expired. For a while it looked like the engine was shot. There's also a sensor on the thermostat housing which could be faulty.

dorimower, what happened to the car, is the issue resolved ?

Hello,

Thank you for the prompt to type an update.

I was only thinking on the drive home this evening that I ought to post such an update...I thought the same last evening but I was a bit reticent in case I said all was ok..in case it went poorly again.!!

Well, it would seem to be good news...after the battery disconnect overnight last week the eager bursting into life starting that has been the norm' for this car from new returned...along with correct settle back of revs and then progresive settle further to the regular firm tickover once warm.

I previously reported of a 40 mile round trip just after this reset and that it did seem a little down on go..and there was one stall into a roundabout.. The lack of go may just have been me listening for every change in engine note.??..or an after effect of the event.?..and also the car was more loaded than usual...that was last Friday.

On Monday morning for the trip to work it burst into life fine again..and ran just fine...if anything it now seems to have settled down and I feel it is performing in fact better than it has for a few months.??!!..

I have to admit to only doing a visual inspection of things under the bonnet...much more is out of my league.

The morning that it ran poorly with glowing exhaust etc was cold and it had frozen quickly and sharply... so that may have had a bearing on the event.?? I did wonder if I stopped and switched off and left it a minute or two to transfer heat it may have been ok.??..but then I needed to get to work and thought the other way that if I switched off it may not have restarted so I kept going.!!..I was also having to negotiate a long section of roadworks at the time too...with little opportunity to pull up.

With ref to the thermostat..as far as I am aware the event did not cause an undue coolant temp increase.

So touchwood...all is ok.?..and the event, I hope, was a transient one...

Best regards,

Clive.

A further update...

I had another incident of reluctant start and wildly erratic tickover and engine self reving up....this time I did stop and switch off for a few minutes....on restart the event seemed to have passed.?

At lunch time at work I decided to take a look at the distributor cap/rotor arm... I found the end of the rotor arm was well cruddy as were the faces of the four pick ups... I cleaned things best I could and all seemed ok.

Another event overtook things....a broken front spring laid the car up for 3 weeks as I could run my fathers car and I was able to wait and get the spring repair, annual service and MOT done at the same time at the first date that could preserve a month of existing MOT.

Nothing untoward showed up on checks at service...and touchwood...start up etc seems ok.. It did gain new air filter, fuel filter, new spark plugs at service.

So touchwood again.!!...I hope it was old fashioned distributor crud upsetting and or confusing the new fangle 'lectronics.???

Clive.