Bravo - jerking and backfiring

[Timea]

Hi there, I'm hoping someone may be able to help with this...

My mother has a bravo, R reg 1.4. It has in the past few months begun jerking (gently at first and now sometimes with whiplash intensity along with backfiring intermittently). This happens once the car is warm and when pulling away having slowed down i.e on approach to a roundabout when you slow but then accelerate if you don't need to actually stop.

Local garage suggested it could be the ECU or a coil failure.

A while back mum had the clutch replaced and the battery was taken out. No red key was used - should it have been - was wondering if it is the ECU then would using the red key to reprogramme solve the problem?

So main questions are how much is a coil replacement likely to be? and if it's a red key reprogramming issue can we do it ourselves and if so how?

Many thanks and sorry it's so long

 

[Anonymous]

check the spark plugs they break down eventually and when the car is warm/underload it is actually harder for them to spark so if they are stuffed it could cause this problem i.e. tickover is fine but driving is not!

 

[Timea]

thanks - but car was serviced in feb, and mum mentioned sparks, so they were changed, so as long as they did change them would they have gone again so soon?