DaveX
New member
Sorry for the attention seeking thread title, but that is basically what I seem to have discovered on my car!
I posted recently about a randomness in the running quality of my 1.6 Stilo that has happened for most of its life, while remaining elusive to tracking down, never throwing any error messages up.
Mr. Deckchair5 was a great help in providing possibilities to what could do this, and the two things he mainly mentioned were the O2 sensor and the MAP sensor. The car recently passed its first MOT with flying colours, and when I asked, the tester said that the emissions test indicated that the oxygen sensor was working fine.
I put the random running to the back of my mind, as the car is now 3 years old and I have basically learnt to put up with it. The car can run quietly and smoothly, or sound really gruff and underpowered.
Today, after a particularly rough ride home, I decided to have a look at what I presume is the MAP sensor.
I carefully unscrewed it, only to discover a film of oil over it. If it sits in the air intake area, how has that got there? I very carefully removed most of the oil by gently touching the end of a piece of tissue against it and letting it soak it up, possibly a wrong thing to do I know, but after 3 years of banging my head with it, I was willing to risk anything. I let it soak all I could see (but the sensor itself inside the plastic guard is still shiny gloss black (is this how it should look?) and then screwed it back in.
I gingerly started the car, awaiting loads of error messages, but none came. I whizzed the car around for a mile, and it appeared -ok-, possibly placebo effect, or the car deciding to have a good turn (it can do this when it wants), or maybe fingers crossed, the removal of the oil has helped.
My questions, if anyone could help; should the oil be there, will removing it help anything (and if it does can it be properly cleaned), and if it shouldn't be there, has the sensor been ruined - I know new ones aren't cheap.
Secondly, and worryingly, the sensor wires going to the MAP sensor and another sensor that I am not sure about, have a small area (please see picture below) where they are bundled together, but on my car the individual wires have small areas where the plastic looks like it has been scorched and slightly burnt through, showing small bare areas with black surrounding them - no bare areas are touching, but the black fabric straping that is wrapped the two sets of wires has crumbled away only in this area, as if it has been singed.
Any ideas?
Thanks all for reading, sorry if I don't explain things too well!
Dave
I posted recently about a randomness in the running quality of my 1.6 Stilo that has happened for most of its life, while remaining elusive to tracking down, never throwing any error messages up.
Mr. Deckchair5 was a great help in providing possibilities to what could do this, and the two things he mainly mentioned were the O2 sensor and the MAP sensor. The car recently passed its first MOT with flying colours, and when I asked, the tester said that the emissions test indicated that the oxygen sensor was working fine.
I put the random running to the back of my mind, as the car is now 3 years old and I have basically learnt to put up with it. The car can run quietly and smoothly, or sound really gruff and underpowered.
Today, after a particularly rough ride home, I decided to have a look at what I presume is the MAP sensor.
I carefully unscrewed it, only to discover a film of oil over it. If it sits in the air intake area, how has that got there? I very carefully removed most of the oil by gently touching the end of a piece of tissue against it and letting it soak it up, possibly a wrong thing to do I know, but after 3 years of banging my head with it, I was willing to risk anything. I let it soak all I could see (but the sensor itself inside the plastic guard is still shiny gloss black (is this how it should look?) and then screwed it back in.
I gingerly started the car, awaiting loads of error messages, but none came. I whizzed the car around for a mile, and it appeared -ok-, possibly placebo effect, or the car deciding to have a good turn (it can do this when it wants), or maybe fingers crossed, the removal of the oil has helped.
My questions, if anyone could help; should the oil be there, will removing it help anything (and if it does can it be properly cleaned), and if it shouldn't be there, has the sensor been ruined - I know new ones aren't cheap.
Secondly, and worryingly, the sensor wires going to the MAP sensor and another sensor that I am not sure about, have a small area (please see picture below) where they are bundled together, but on my car the individual wires have small areas where the plastic looks like it has been scorched and slightly burnt through, showing small bare areas with black surrounding them - no bare areas are touching, but the black fabric straping that is wrapped the two sets of wires has crumbled away only in this area, as if it has been singed.
Any ideas?
Thanks all for reading, sorry if I don't explain things too well!
Dave