Thanks.
Been googling it and there is so much conflicting advice eg wait till you are low on fuel etc.
I know my questions are so basic but I drove company cars for 35 years and really have no idea
Car mechanics......advice please.
- Thread starter Dave7
- Start date
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Been googling it and there is so much conflicting advice eg wait till you are low on fuel etc.
I know my questions are so basic but I drove company cars for 35 years and really have no idea
oldwheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Isle of Mull
I had a Fiat Panda with a mysterious problem as the OP has. When winter kicked in the battery failed so did not mess around but got new battery immediately. Problems vanished. If there is a new battery just fitted try cleaning the battery terminals and the earth connection.
Nigeyy
Legendary Member
- Location
- Massachusetts, USA
Think yourself lucky 
If it was a 1960s mini I'd have added in points and distributor cap and rotor arm..... Really, start with the cheap easy stuff first as others have said!
If it was a 1960s mini I'd have added in points and distributor cap and rotor arm..... Really, start with the cheap easy stuff first as others have said!Thanks.
Blinkin eck.....bring back my 1960s mini cooper
Levo-Lon
Guru
Think yourself lucky
I had a misfire on a mazda 323 in the 80s
I changed everything, condenser, plugs points leads,cap still the same.
Ended up taking it to a local specialist Dynatune, good man and it turned out to be a small build up on one lobe of the distributor cam., really small build up too.
He whipped the distributor off and light ground it off.
Car was perfect, cost me £15
If only I'd done that first
It was a B reg and did have points and distributor. But at least even I could access and play with those things. And I sometime got it rightThink yourself lucky
. I even managwd to change the fuel pump once although I did gey covered in petrol.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Points! We hit them with a hammer and mash them with a masher!
keithmac
Guru
I've done 5 bikes over the past month and a half with sporadic running faults, all of them had water in the fuel.
The fuel floats on the water so depending where the pickup is in the tank it can suck a "globule" of water in and stall the engine.
A plant sprayer with some water in can be used to identify a failing Coil On Plug.
A fitting set of plugs at £10 a set is a no brainer for first thing to replace and tick off the list, I only use NGK personally.
If it is only at tickover it could possibly be down to a failing Lambda sensor in the exhaust knocking the fuel trim lean, but you really need to watch the trim and sensor voltage in real time to pick that up (until it gets bad enough to throw a code).
The fuel floats on the water so depending where the pickup is in the tank it can suck a "globule" of water in and stall the engine.
A plant sprayer with some water in can be used to identify a failing Coil On Plug.
A fitting set of plugs at £10 a set is a no brainer for first thing to replace and tick off the list, I only use NGK personally.
If it is only at tickover it could possibly be down to a failing Lambda sensor in the exhaust knocking the fuel trim lean, but you really need to watch the trim and sensor voltage in real time to pick that up (until it gets bad enough to throw a code).
