Hi guys,

Hope everyone is coping with lockdown okay.

I was driving my 04 Stilo to work on Wednesday and as I was in 5th and pushing towards 60 it felt like the car just juddered and had no power under the accelerator. It only happened for a split second. I took it out of gear put it back in 5th and everyone thing seemed to be 'okay'.

I have been waiting for it to happen again so I can try and work out what it is.

Just now as I was driving home from work, as I got to 60 again in 5th the exhaust started firing out smoke and it felt like I was hitting a bit of a wall. Neutral again, and back into 5th and everything seemed 'okay' again.

Now obviously something is wrong and needs attention but just wanted to see if you guys had any ideas before I take it somewhere. My local and normal guy is shut at the moment so I fear it might be a KwikFit job.

Thanks if you can shed some light.

All the best!

petrol or diesel?

It’s a Petrol 1.6.

Hi

If it happen for example:
1. On an uphill when more power is required than on a level road so you put more foot then most probably it is a blocked fuel filter.
Not enough fuel is going through and the car struggles.

Both times were on flat A roads unfortunately.

How many miles, and what's its history ?

.

90,000.

I have had it two years, never had any issues. Replaced brake pads last year around MOT, which only had a couple of advisories. Mechanic said it was in decent nick.

I would suspect a failed HT coil or coils. If they are the originals they are due to fail by now. Easy to fix.

The good news is that at 90,000 it will be worn, but not worn out. You haven't said about servicing, especially checking the fuel filter, checking around the engine bay, etc, etc.

The only time I've had something similar was many moons ago with a car which ran perfectly unless it was on a smooth straight road when it cut out but it always started again once it was at the side of the road. Eventually, and I mean eventually as it was well before the age of modern diagnostics, it turned out to be a corroded earth connection on the fuel pump which would cause an intermittent cut out.

Okay wind the clock 35 years forward and you have a similar issue whereby the car appears to be fine apart from isolated incidents which if nothing else will cause you to worry about the cars reliability.

My suggestion is that you thoroughly check over and service the car looking for any sign of damage/chaffing, and invest in a error code reader and see what that gives.

Unfortunately if you can't find it yourself its likely that further in-depth diagnosis will be expensive, and could be more than the cars worth .

,

Well worth checking earth connections. On my 1.4 petrol the main earth strap was a two piece affair - the first cable went from the negative battery terminal to a junction under the battery tray. A second cable went from that junction to the gearbox. This second cable was too short and too stiff to accommodate the movement of the engine on its flexible mountings and it gradually broke. Before it broke completely the engine would occasionally fail to start.

My money is on a coil or plug... since they tend to show up ginger when they're hot and/or being asked to do more work (such as increasing the engine revs).

It's worth taking the plugs out one at a time (I presume the coil sits on top of the plug, so you can inspect those too).

Look for any sooty/oily plug, especially if the others are light grey and dry.

For the price of a plug it may be worth just fitting new ones (since the pain is in the time/effort poking around, not so much the cost of new plugs).

The coils ought to be in good condition with no signs of melting, damage or arcing (grey lines all over the connectors to the HT leads). Sometimes removing them, cleaning them out, giving it a clean/squirt of WD40 and re-assembling does the job...

But coils aren't too dear and last for ages so even a second-hand one might solve the problem for not much £.

It's worth sticking 300ml (Cola can) amount of kerosene in the tank the next time you fill up (to the brim). It'll give the injectors a clean-up. Kerosene (if you can get into your local B&Q etc.) is sold as "Turpentine Substitute" ... but this is not the same as White Spirit or Brush Cleaner (so only go with something that has "Turpentine Substitute" on the label).


Ralf S.

Well, I am hoping this turned out to be a rather easy if not slightly embarrassing problem.

My girlfriend topped up the oil, and put in 3 litres too much. I didnt think it would be something so simple but when I checked the dipstick the level was way off. She just put the whole bottle in.

I have drained it this morning to normal levels and I am hoping that no lasting damage has been done and that was the cause of certainly the smoke at least.

3 litres to much oil... ouch!

Will also be holding thumbs that it is not the rings that broke because of this. ?