Technical 2001 Brava, Loosing Power, Noisy, Warning Light

[DerK0missar]

Hey all.

3 months ago i bought a 2001 Brava for £380. With only 80k on the clock i thought it was a sweet deal, so far been happy with it, it took me to germany and didn't miss a beat.

But yesterday, it was low on fuel, i was driving it to the petrol station, and up a steep hill i started to notice it was loosing power, then the amber engine warning light came on the dash board. Thinking it was just because it was low on fuel, i just filled up thought nothing of it. However, when it started again, it was exactly the same

-VERY noisy when idle, vibrates
-Huge loss of power, I was in third just to keep it at 60mph!
-Amber Warning light, flashes and stays solid.

What could be the problem? Is the fuel something to do with it?. I'm not too car savvy, i've done basic dashboard cluster replacements on mondeos and changed the odd stereo, but nothing engine related. Is it an easy job?

Much appreciated

 

[Neverth]

If it is 1.6 it is most likely an injector. They burn themselves sometimes on that engine (easy to check with multimeter, 5-pin plug on the side of the intakerunners, on the end where battery is, middlepin is ground, measure resistance to it).

Maybe a coil/bad plug?

More info needed on enginetype, also if you got a reader, just read the codes.

 

[DerK0missar]

Thanks for the reply. It's a 1.2 16v, also call me a noob but what do mean by reader?

Cheers

 

[bluejohn125]

You need to get a garage or auto -electrician to run diagnostics on the ECU. It is indicating a serious fault with the amber engine/injector light. There should be a fault code or two to say whether the fault is an injector, sensor, or something else. Then you will have a chance at tracking down the problem.

With these engines it could be one of the lambda sensors, crank or cam sensor, temperature...

Worst case you may have a head gasket failure, these engines can suffer from this if the coolant hasn't been changed or maintained properly.

If you're lucky then it will be just something that needs replacing (plugs, leads, sensor)... The diagnostics reader will reset the error codes as well.

 

[Neverth]

As it is 1.2, check what colour the coolant and oil are (maybe plugs while youre at it).
As said, they sometimes cook the headgasket.
If the gasket had failed between cylinders, I doubt it would even idle with 2 cyls. It running on 3 cylinders is more likely.