Jivetalkin
New member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2014
- Messages
- 8
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- 1
I just thought I would share my experiences of the various things I have done to smooth out the running of my 2004 Multipla petrol as various threads have gone into different causes, however I have found that it can sometimes be a combination of problems.
Bought said Multipla in February 2014 with 108,000 miles, no service history and many not so careful lady owners. The car ran great at first but as there was no history I shelled out £275 to have the timing belt changed, glad I did, just in time as the belt teeth were just about falling off. Anyway, engine ran fine however it was also noted that the exhaust manifold was cracked.
A month later the car began to run on and off on 3 cylinders, I bought a cheap £15 OBD reader and found the injector on number 1 cylinder had an open circuit, ie not working. I stripped out the injector rail (not too bad a job but skinned a couple of knuckles) and found the injector number and bought a new one off ebay for £60 with the same number IWP109. I put it all back together and lo and behold I had another open circuit on cylinder 3, basically in the removal and refitting I had damaged the fragile circuitry on another injector. After a bit of reading up I found that the later Fiat Stilo injectors (IWP164) were a more improved kind and as a full set of 4 was £88 off Ebay (used off a 2006 car with 32000 miles) I opted to replace the lot. Fitted and all was cured
Incidentally, during this fault finding I also changed the HT leads and coil, this made no difference, but at least it was a good routine thing to do.
Whilst I replaced the injectors and in the removal of the oil dipstick retaining bolts and pipework I noticed the breather pipe from dipstick to air intake was seriously gunged up, I cleaned out this and thought nothing more of it.
A few weeks ago my wife complained of rough running at idle, and at low speeds when approaching junctions also the car was over revving randomly at standstill. Various threads have suggested fuel pumps and breathers, however I had no air locks in the tank, and the pump seemed to be whirring quite strongly. The engine light was coming on and off and the OBD spoke of a throttle sensor fault. I thought it could be worst case the throttle body (£130), however I also noticed throttle sensors were about £55 new. I read of people complaining about starting problems when hot, or bad running at hot temperatures, however I knew this to be a crankcase sensor fault having suffered the same on a Saab 9-5 caused by hairline cracking of the plastic that covers the sensor causing incorrect readings as the crack gets bigger when the engine is hot, I found the solution was to pour water on the sensor then it started first time
I decided to strip the air intakes and throttle body and hopefully get to the problem, I also thought it was time to tackle the cracked exhaust manifold. I removed the plastic box on the top of the engine, removed the air box and took the throttle body off the car. I noticed a bit of sludgey oil in the plastic box, and throttle body which I put down to the clogged breather pipe which I mentioned earlier. I WD40'd all of the throttle body, sensors and pipework and cleaned up the butterfly valve on the throttle, I also lubricated the throttle cable with WD40 and then removed the throttle position sensor which is screwed into the plastic '16v' engine cover bit. I found this to be a bit gunged up with crud so spent a while cleaning with WD40 and a cotton bud.
Meanwhile I removed the manifold which I will post separately and had it welded!
Anyway, after I put all the bits back together I turned the key and went for a drive, guess what, perfect running again. So my tale ends that running problems could be a few things that a poorly maintained Multipla could suffer from, it could even be the cracked manifold causing running issues that is now welded in 4 yes 4 places!! All I know is by the combination of fixes it is now running fine, for the moment. If anyone is interested, I have also done the following:
Replaced front anti roll bar bushes with polyurethene ones
Replaced full exhaust system
Replaced front suspension linkage (a cutting disc is an essential tool!!)
Fitted DAB radio
Removed and refitted exhaust manifold and CAT (manicat)
Stripped down rear boot release from tailgate
I am about to change front springs and tackle the rear subframe bushes, maybe :bang:
Bought said Multipla in February 2014 with 108,000 miles, no service history and many not so careful lady owners. The car ran great at first but as there was no history I shelled out £275 to have the timing belt changed, glad I did, just in time as the belt teeth were just about falling off. Anyway, engine ran fine however it was also noted that the exhaust manifold was cracked.
A month later the car began to run on and off on 3 cylinders, I bought a cheap £15 OBD reader and found the injector on number 1 cylinder had an open circuit, ie not working. I stripped out the injector rail (not too bad a job but skinned a couple of knuckles) and found the injector number and bought a new one off ebay for £60 with the same number IWP109. I put it all back together and lo and behold I had another open circuit on cylinder 3, basically in the removal and refitting I had damaged the fragile circuitry on another injector. After a bit of reading up I found that the later Fiat Stilo injectors (IWP164) were a more improved kind and as a full set of 4 was £88 off Ebay (used off a 2006 car with 32000 miles) I opted to replace the lot. Fitted and all was cured
Incidentally, during this fault finding I also changed the HT leads and coil, this made no difference, but at least it was a good routine thing to do.
Whilst I replaced the injectors and in the removal of the oil dipstick retaining bolts and pipework I noticed the breather pipe from dipstick to air intake was seriously gunged up, I cleaned out this and thought nothing more of it.
A few weeks ago my wife complained of rough running at idle, and at low speeds when approaching junctions also the car was over revving randomly at standstill. Various threads have suggested fuel pumps and breathers, however I had no air locks in the tank, and the pump seemed to be whirring quite strongly. The engine light was coming on and off and the OBD spoke of a throttle sensor fault. I thought it could be worst case the throttle body (£130), however I also noticed throttle sensors were about £55 new. I read of people complaining about starting problems when hot, or bad running at hot temperatures, however I knew this to be a crankcase sensor fault having suffered the same on a Saab 9-5 caused by hairline cracking of the plastic that covers the sensor causing incorrect readings as the crack gets bigger when the engine is hot, I found the solution was to pour water on the sensor then it started first time
I decided to strip the air intakes and throttle body and hopefully get to the problem, I also thought it was time to tackle the cracked exhaust manifold. I removed the plastic box on the top of the engine, removed the air box and took the throttle body off the car. I noticed a bit of sludgey oil in the plastic box, and throttle body which I put down to the clogged breather pipe which I mentioned earlier. I WD40'd all of the throttle body, sensors and pipework and cleaned up the butterfly valve on the throttle, I also lubricated the throttle cable with WD40 and then removed the throttle position sensor which is screwed into the plastic '16v' engine cover bit. I found this to be a bit gunged up with crud so spent a while cleaning with WD40 and a cotton bud.
Meanwhile I removed the manifold which I will post separately and had it welded!
Anyway, after I put all the bits back together I turned the key and went for a drive, guess what, perfect running again. So my tale ends that running problems could be a few things that a poorly maintained Multipla could suffer from, it could even be the cracked manifold causing running issues that is now welded in 4 yes 4 places!! All I know is by the combination of fixes it is now running fine, for the moment. If anyone is interested, I have also done the following:
Replaced front anti roll bar bushes with polyurethene ones
Replaced full exhaust system
Replaced front suspension linkage (a cutting disc is an essential tool!!)
Fitted DAB radio
Removed and refitted exhaust manifold and CAT (manicat)
Stripped down rear boot release from tailgate
I am about to change front springs and tackle the rear subframe bushes, maybe :bang:
