Technical Marea miss-fire

[John Mc]

Okay here's one for all you petrol heads!

Fiat Marea 115 ELX 1800 Weekend.

Fine on acceleration and deceleration. When holding a constant speed, however, it feels as if it is only firing on three cylinders.

I changed the spark plugs, but this had no effect.

I took the car to Grays Garage, Warwick with a carte blanche to sort it out (oops! Check the wallet!).

They had the car for 5 days, ringing me each evening with a progress report.

Now I'm going to be a complete swine and tell you that they repaired it ......... but I'm not going to tell you what it was!

Any ideas?

 

[wolfracepunto]

New coil? I dont do engines but its just a guess

 

[John Mc]

After ruling out the plugs I was very nervous that it might be that, but "no".

They also checked the timing and that was OK as well.

Anyone else?

 

[jayfishII]

ah do tell, my bravo is doing similar and i wouldn't mind avoiding garage bills

 

[John Mc]

Nah, that would be too easy (and not half as much FUN)!

Next clue: -
I suggested a blocked fuel filter. Wasn't that.

Grays suggested the Lambda sensor (whatever that is) at c.£90 or an air leak.

They changed the sensor. Wasn't that!

Air leaks are a b1tch to find, but they had a go ................... and couldn't find any.


Any other guesses?

 

[John Mc]

Oh, well, since you asked so nicely: -


Gray's (www.graysgarage.co.uk ) went through all the usual suspects, checked the computer for errors and only found records of my poor driving (amazing what gets thrown up when you stall the car!);

removed the injector rail and cleaned the injectors;

checked timing;


and even traced through the wiring loom ...........



...... it was 2 broken wires in the "throttle potentiometer". Apparently it's a rheostat that measures the position of the throttle for the computer thingy that controls the fuel injection.

They had never come across it before, so they must have one hell of a good Technician to work it out!

They soldered the wires in and now it's fine.

One week off the road, all unneccesary parts removed and a bill of £92.53 incl.

A full diagnostic, fuel system clean out, electrics and ignition checked thoroughly for less than the price of a regular service. Excellent VFM, I reckon.

20/10 for Grays!


One happy customer!

 

[wolfracepunto]

I was just about to guess that aswell.........lol

 

[polecat]

Its always nice to hear about a garage that seems to care. Not many garages would have picked that up, and at less than £100.