Got in car this morning, started it up - no problems, away we go to work.
Start driving and the car is struggling. Here's the details:
1.2 97' Clio RN Province
The car sounds normal when revving with no gear (or when clutch is in).
When trying to accelerate the car feel like it is struggling, steering becomes a tad jerky and it sounds like shit.
When sat in traffic doing a steady 15mph in second gear the car was very jerky. Normally it will happily pull without touching the revs but today it was literally bouncing over the road.
There's no warning lights appearing and the car doesn't usually suffer from problems with the cold. It may be 12 years old but its only got 71,000 on the clock (and yes the timing belt was changed 3,000 miles ago)
Any help appreciated, but I feel a call to the AA coming on here.....
If you need more info just ask
Battery? Alternator?
Just a guess.
I'm not too technical when it comes to cars - that's why I have AA cover and some good mates who can help out. The alternator was done a few months back.
Gonna give my pal a ring in a bit (too early to ring him now!)
Whats the rev counter doing when you are accelerating? sounds like clutch to me.
Ben
Management system unit could be faulty. This provides all fuel and power steering management control. Also could be the MAF (Mass Airflow sensor) or another sensor which has decided to give up.
Call the AA and see what it is.
MAF, or any other sensorOriginally Posted by bossman
Management system unit could be faulty. This provides all fuel and power steering management control. Also could be the MAF (Mass Airflow sensor) or another sensor which has decided to give up.
Call the AA and see what it is.
I've seen this problem far too much, it's a tiny filament that snaps, your Management System than detects the car is running really cold and starts automatic choke, than cuts it out as the car should be running warmer. So it constantly cycles the choke on the car since the sensor is shot.
mmm...could be clutch, yes. Or wet plugs/leads/distributor cap...IIRC, the older Clios (it's about the same age as my astra) had DIS ignition but still kept the cap. I know my 11 did.
Dry rag, wipe over the HT leads (engine off). Pop them off the plugs, wipe plug bodies dry and put back. Make sure none of the leads are brushing against the engine block.
Maybe undo 2 screws and pop the dizzy cap off (watch the springloaded carbon brush), dry inside that and refit.
Blast the lost with WD40 or similar.
If it's misfiring, it'll jerk. Mine surges after a cold start for 30 seconds or so until cylinder 4's hydraulic lifters wake up. The autobox damps it out though, especially in snow mode.
RAC to the rescue - will let you know their response. I thought about the clutch but it doesn't seem to be slipping, it certainly doesnt sound like its slipping (car revving and getting no where)
I had a similar problem with my Hyundai Coupe when I had it, albeit not quite as bad as this. It would be jerky and lose power, even in higher gears
Replaced the HT leads and it solved it
My first job in September after the main service is a full check of leads. Every plug off, blasted with cleaner and WD40, packed with lithium grease and reconnected. The HT leads come off, get cleaned and dried, then the plugs get checked and it all goes back together and gets a coating of spray HT sealer.
Clean out the throttle body, grease all cables, battery out, earths dismantled and cleaned, regreased and redone, battery cleaned and back in.
It's a couple of hours tops, but I've never had any electrical issues. IIRC, these splitfire plugs I'm running are 2 years old now. The HT leads are 5. I might change the plugs this year..heh.
My money's on the HT side.
Last edited by Sirbendy; 6th January 2009 at 10:26 AM.
Sounds quite a lot like when my ignition coil conked out, but I'm not a car guru. When you get up to higher speeds does it feel a bit better?
Only took about 40 minutes to get through to them on their 'Emergency' helpline but there is now an engineer on route to sort it out.
Will update when he has been.
i had the exact problem just before christmas. the car was okay once i got over about 40 mph but lack of power until that point.
took it to garage and they had to replace two coils, costing about £160
... and before 40 it sounds like your cylinders have been replaced by a set of small overweight gnomes jumping on trampolines in a random order?
could be something a simple as a frozen clutch cable??? have you checked anti freeze and such lately??? just a couple of ideas.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote