(G) Need Some Help!

I have a problem with my poor Uno and was wondering if you guys could help.

Here are the symptoms:
Terrible fuel consumption (9.5L to 10L per 100Km) Uno Fire 1100

When ever i turn the car on and apparently when i take off, my car belches massive amounts of fumes. (White i think)

From full oil (on the indicator) to a quarter of the marker in 300Km! ie the car is burning oil in massve amounts of oil.

The car seems to be severly lacking in power in 3rd gear and generally across the range.


My dad says the piston rings could be stuffed, but how can i be sure?

Could be piston rings, but I'd go for cylinder head gasket starting to go (same symptoms as mine earlier this month).

Only way to find out for sure is to lift the head, you can then also have a look at the pistons while you are in there. Once you have the head off you might as well replace the gasket and timing belt while you are there.

I'd be inclined to do a compression test first. You can get a little gadget that looks like a tyre pressure gauge, to push into the spark plug holes and measure the compression in the cylinders. If the readings are balanced, that's good news. They should be at least 140psi, preferably more like 160psi. If they are less than this, put some oil in the spark plug holes. If the readings then pick up, it is a sign of worn piston rings.

If one reading is much lower than the others (e.g. 40psi or even less) then it suggests a broken piston ring or burned valve etc. which will definitely sap power and drive up the oil consumption.

If it checks out OK (even and reasonably high) then the head gasket is the next suspect as RobinS says.

Incidentally the white smoke on driving off is normal condensation, it is almost 'winter' after all (if 'winter' exists in Durban).

Depending on how much money/time you have at the moment, you may like to try a can of 'miracle cure' (e.g. STP Stop Smoke or similar) to see if there is an improvement. I have seen cases where it made a real difference. You have little to lose by this, as if it makes no difference you're only down R50 or so, and it won't cause harm to the engine (as certain other coolant-leak additives can...)

I have even heard of a technique that involved pouring ATF (automatic transmission fluid) into the carb with the engine running quite fast. Apparently the thin oil helps to un-stick and re-seal the piston rings. I think this would be a similar theory to the 'Stop Smoke' can, but probably cheaper.

Also, the approach you take depends a little on how many kms the engine has done. When I write the above, I'm assuming less than 200,000km... More than this and you may have engine wear that I haven't seen before

-Alex