Hi all, im new, only owned my Felicia 1.6 glxi for one month, it's been great fun to drive and is a much better car to commute 20,000 miles a year to work in than a porsche 944 3.0l

I was driving last night, very near the end on my 70min drive home the car suddenly felt down on power, a slight smell of exhaust gases and a different engine noise above 3500-4000 rpm. car feels like it's lost approx 20bhp bhp.

Started the car this morning and it idles the same as it has always done, it revs cleanly up to the limit when in neutral too, only changes engine notes at higher rpm when under load.

My only thoughts are a exhaust manifold issue? they are definate signs of a repair to the exhaust manifold, i thought it could be the exhaust manifold gasket has blown?

Please anyone post if you have any ideas.

It's not the air flow sensor before anyone mentions thats. cos i have two and quickly switchedx them over last night to see if it had an effect.

I will admit my car is in need of a service which has been booked for the end of month, having done 13000 since it's last service, but when i purchased the car last month i put new ht leads on and checked the plugs which looked almost new. so i don't think it's related to that.

I think you may well be correct in thinking that it's an exhaust leak.

In my experience, a knock to the downpipe can crack the manifold, and the repair to mine showed signs of failing after a month or so. Check for a sooty exhaust and general signs of running too rich - if the leak gets worse you may also notice rougher idling and harder starting, along with the revs sticking at ~2000-2500rpm instead of dropping to idle when you lift off the throttle.

It's probably worth taking the manifold off to check it thoroughly (if it's cracked, it's quite likely to be on the bottom where you can't see it), and at least replacing the gaskets while you do - if necessary you should be able to pick up another manifold for around £40, and usefully it's exactly the same part as those for the AEE engine in Polos, Jettas and various SEATs (I got mine from a specialist VW breaker). The parts catalogue says part number 032253031H, although the one on mine was revision G.

Thanks for the replies, someone at my work place said it could just be my Cat converter that has gone because that could also cause a loss of power.

I have never taken a manifold off before, is there anything i should know before i do it,

If it does turn out to be the cat i think i will replace the manifold anyway, is there anyone that does a cheapish, under £200 performance manifold otherwise i will source a used one, thanks for the info about the engine code AEE

it could also be one of the exhuast silencers collapsed internally, happened on mine which gave the same symptoms

you can get stainless 4-2-1 manifolds form ebay for a 1.6 polo for less than £180 which you can adapt to fit

not quite sure on the airflow sensor, the aee engine doesn't have an airflow meter, it uses a manifold pressure sensor on the intake manifold, but they very rarely go wrong anyway

Edited 24 November, 201015 yr by TeflonTom

it could also be one of the exhuast silencers collapsed internally, happened on mine which gave the same symptoms

you can get stainless 4-2-1 manifolds form ebay for a 1.6 polo for less than £180 which you can adapt to fit

not quite sure on the airflow sensor, the aee engine doesn't have an airflow meter, it uses a manifold pressure sensor on the intake manifold, but they very rarely go wrong anyway

Cheers Tom, it's just the sensor cap that goes plugs in just before the inlet manifold that i changed, i wasn't sure wheather it was a airflow meter, looks like i made a bit of a fool of myself though.

Thanks for the info about the manifold, i will check ebay for one.

wheather it's the cat or the manifold i have decided that i will get a whole new system, probably a 4-2-1 manifold, a cheap 200cpi sports cat 50mm bore and the rest of the system i will fit the 1.9d exhaust system as they are 50mm not 42mm so it should fit straight onto the cat and also be slightly more free flowing without the extra noise.

If i do i will put some pictures and a little write up on here if it proves benefical and cheap, i think i can do it all for approx £300 if i can find someone to do the welding cheap.

Edited 24 November, 201015 yr by Sonner

wheather it's the cat or the manifold i have decided that i will get a whole new system, probably a 4-2-1 manifold, a cheap 200cpi sports cat 50mm bore and the rest of the system i will fit the 1.9d exhaust system as they are 50mm not 42mm so it should fit straight onto the cat and also be slightly more free flowing without the extra noise.

yes, i have a diesel exhaust system on my pickup which is indeed 50mm, it's not a straight fit though.. on the diesel engined ones the downpipe and diesel particle filter are formed as one piece so the diesel centre box is slightly shorter at the front end to compensate,

on one of my previous hatchbacks i hacked off the conpesator joint from the stainless manifold and attached it to a length of 50mm stainless tubing and binned the cat, at the gear stick end you can see the difference in pipe size, i used a 50-42 reducer sleeve which i got from ebay for a tenner

in the engine by there is very limit clearance to the radiator fan cowling, you may need to move the whole radiator over a touch to clear it

Looks like you have pretty much done what i intend to do in some form or another,

i like to service my cars and change pads and discs, induction kits, strut braces but never really done any other home mechanics, such as changing manifolds or exhaust system. i might try it if i had a mate that was interested in helping me

I will take it all to my local garage and ask them to 'make it work' so hopefully i don't have to worry about complications.

Just a thought - the fan from an aircon radiator is nice and flat and doesn't have a cowling, so there's plenty more clearance than the one pictured, however I don't know if the mountings are different to the standard 1.6 radiator.

they are the same mountings on the aircon radiator, but the wiring is completely different on them, but i guess there's no reason why you can't bodge something together to make it work