Hey folks,
I have a 1.6 51 reg brava with 55k on the clock, all running sweetly until a week ago when starting up it sounds a little like a diesel, and when pulling away or under load the engine vibrates madly. Any ideas? I'm thinking jaybe knock sensor or injector probs, in which case would wynns sort out the injectors?
thanks folks!
brian the brava

Are all 4 cylinders firing or does it sound irregular?

Are all engine mounts still good? (Preferably do this when the engine is cold. Open the bonnet, grab the top of the inlet manifold and try to give it a good shake. It has some movement but it should feel "firm". If it feels like you can toss it around then one of the mounts has broken)

Definitely think all four are firing, there doesn't seem to be any loss of power, is it worth wynns-ing it anway? will try and establish if engine mounts are the cause. Thanks gregovic!

Giving it a good "internal clean" won't do any harm. If it's running on all 4's the injectors are probably not to blame (or the sparkplugs for that matter)

Righty, I havve checked the engine mounts, apart from the slight side to side wiggle they all seem to be ok, taking to garage tomorrow to identify the source. Could it be the timing belt? The oil level is good, there's no overheating, and theres no lights on the dash, but i'm presuming a diagnostic will pick up the cause? Does the light go on when the timings gone I wonder

if the timing is out of wack slightly, you would definitely feel a lack of power. (or even not run at all)

worth checking the ignition coil and injector resistance with a multimeter, details are in the haynes manual

Been to the garage, turns out it's the exhaust - some rubber part has deterioted and is causing the rattle, which is worse when under load, notjing to worry about, sounds worse than it is. Cost negligible. Good result.
Furthermore, I am going to now try some wynns anyway, and i'm going to try and test the injectors with my multimeter so I know for future diagnosis! I will repost once i've tried to see how easy I found the process.

Thanks everyone!