Felicia Niggles!

[Elvis Parsley]

Hi everyone, been on the site looking for advice the last couple of days and have decided to join the forum and the debate. I have bought a 2000 model Felicia pickup Mpi 1.3. Brilliant little thing........but it appears to have inherited all the niggles that so many of the posts refer to.

Here goes;

1, Fuel gauge mostly zero sometimes chirps up a bit

2, Temp gauge zero unless in severe traffic then climbs a little

3, Goes like a steam train in top gear but is holding back in lower gears. Back off and feather the throttle and it picks up more.

I sumised that as the temp was reading low and the sensor on the stat housing also incorperates a sensor for the fuel that it thought it was running cool and was over fueling slightly hence the pick up when lifting off.

Stat is ok so I replaced the sensor in the top. Instant mid table temp and ran the same.....bugger! Dissconnected the battery for an hour to see if it needed time to recalibrate the ECU....no! Temp gauge has now returned to it's former lazy zero self..........you get the picture by now!

Seems strange that it goes so well under load in the higher gears and won't rev cleanly with full throttle and mid revs.

Had the dash out many fold to check connections as I have all the under bonnet connections. Only had the car three days and I'm desperate for it to run sweet. Cilla says to just shoot it but I kinda like it now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, thank you very much,

EP

[Tech1e]

1. How do you know the thermostat is ok?

2. Have you fitted the correct temp sensor?

[Elvis Parsley]

The temp sensor is correct as supplied by my local main dealer.

I removed the stat housing and checked the contents as I've also read many posts regarding the issues with this item. All ok as is born out with lots of hot air when called for in the cabin.

[pinkskud]

The temp sensor is correct as supplied by my local main dealer..

dosen't mean its the correct part

(sorry, my dealer would sell you a dog and tell you it was a cat.)

[Elvis Parsley]

Went in to dealer with the part number taken off the original sensor 357919501A, yellow ring with plastic rectangular end that sits in water. Dealer gave me an updated (?) blue ringed item with flat round metal end that sits in the water. Supplied with new O ring.

Worked fine for one outing as did the fuel gauge come to think of it.

[daverapid]

I've tried economising myself by replacing just the coolant sensor on the Felicia MPi engine but have learnt that it's not worth messing about....just fork out the

[TeflonTom]

if both of the dials/guages are playing up i would suggest it's a faulty voltage regulator in the back of the dashpod

[Elvis Parsley]

Thanks for your input so far everyone. Plenty of food for thought. I'm prepared to take the dash apart once again to check my voltage regulator, where might I find it?

[TeflonTom]

you wont find it unless you take the dashpod apart, it may be easier to just get another one from a breakers yard and try that

[KenONeill]

if both of the dials/guages are playing up i would suggest it's a faulty voltage regulator in the back of the dashpod

:iagree:

[Elvis Parsley]

I've already had it apart down to the componant board so another extraction won't be a problem, it's reasonably simple to take apart. I do however need to know what I'm looking for once I'm back in there.

Any pics or a good description would be good, is it one of the multi pin chip style things?

Many thanks.

[fordfan]

I don't think that there is a traditional voltage regulator as such. There is a printed circuit board with lots of soldered components on it. Are there any fault codes, have you cleaned the throttle body?

[Elvis Parsley]

Just cleaned the throttle body with big surprises.

More even tickover but slightly high,

Blip the throttle and engine races, blip it again and it returns to slighttly high tickover, same time after time in two blip cycles!?

Temp gauge has started working correctly again as if by magic,

It seems to run a little better on the open road but is still holding back with full throttle acceleration. Top gear is still very good from 70 upwards, have I got a huge fly wheel in the pickup as this would explain a little of the symptoms. Saying that in 4th gear it doesn't pull as well as 5th.

Have now disconnected the battery for a while just in case with the throttle body clean that there's an improvement and the ECU wants to refresh itself after coping with prior set up. Does this ever work or am I expecting to much?

Thank you very much.