Technical mk2 1.2 16v sporting acceleration problem + Questions

[deadboltz]

Hello, I've had my 1.2 sporting for around six months now, I've had a few things done on it such as the cambelt, and the ht leads after it started misfiring although as of recently it was running fine. Problem is since a day or two ago I've noticed a strange problem, I like use the higher rev ranges of my gears sometimes and I know this car will accelerate all the way to the limiter if you really want it to. Now what's happening is and I'm not sure that it really happens in the first or second gears but in the third gear, at around 4000 rpm, the rev counter actually dropped as I'm the accelerator and then began to increase again (I know my car and this just has never occurred before) . After testing it on a faster road it actually stopped increasing at at 4000 rpm and was like not giving anymore power.

Problem is, it isn't always like this, I can still drive the car and doing another test, rev's did drop but then it went beyond 4000 rpm, so its frustrating to have to explain a problem that is intermittent.

I wanted to ask a few questions that are slightly off this topic but still related, before this problem happened I did drive the car with like an 1/8 of the tank and is it a possibility the dirt and crud in the tank has got into the fuel pump and that is the cause of this lack of lack/loss acceleration at certain times?

Just another question, I haven't checked the oil levels since I serviced it around 4000 miles ago. The strange thing is that this car never seems to show the oil that is in it, I went on a flat surface as I live on a hill and you can't see any oil but there is definitely oil in. Would I need to leave the car to settle for a good half an hour before using the dipstick?

Thanks for taking the time to read, any help will be fully appreciated.

 

[flisko]

after 4k miles oil color will be nice and black for you to see clearly on dipstick, so if you cant see anything, oil has fallen below min level, its still not low enough to turn on oil light tho

2.8l of oil goes in to sporting, dont know how much oil is still in there where its not seen anymore on dipstick

 

[Ziggy122]

Try cleaning the throttle body - ensure the flap can moves freely and easily all the way through its motion

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4k should have turned it from a light invisible brown to a golden brown which should be visible, a wiped dry and clean stick should have a shine difference to where the oil actually is
Run your finger over if you dont thinkoils on it
it'll be clear


Ziggy

 

[flisko]

Try cleaning the throttle body - ensure the flap can moves freely and easily all the way through its motion

---

4k should have turned it from a light invisible brown to a golden brown which should be visible, a wiped dry and clean stick should have a shine difference to where the oil actually is
Run your finger over if you dont thinkoils on it
it'll be clear


Ziggy

i think his engine is kaput

 

[Lightning]

[...]
Problem is since a day or two ago I've noticed a strange problem, I like use the higher rev ranges of my gears sometimes and I know this car will accelerate all the way to the limiter if you really want it to. Now what's happening is and I'm not sure that it really happens in the first or second gears but in the third gear, at around 4000 rpm, the rev counter actually dropped as I'm the accelerator and then began to increase again (I know my car and this just has never occurred before) . After testing it on a faster road it actually stopped increasing at at 4000 rpm and was like not giving anymore power.
[...]
before this problem happened I did drive the car with like an 1/8 of the tank and is it a possibility the dirt and crud in the tank has got into the fuel pump and that is the cause of this lack of lack/loss acceleration at certain times?

What you could do (it's what I did with my 2002 Sporting) : half-fill the tank with E85 (if E85 is available in GB), the other half with normal petrol (called SP95-E10 here in France). The ethanol will clean the petrol circuit from tank to injectors.
The only (little) trouble is that the first starting of the day may be more difficult than usual but the engine runs fine.
Another thing : E85 is less power efficient, so your MPG will be around 20% less than with normal petrol (mine was from 43 MPG to 35 MPG). Here in France, the price of a litre of E85 is almost half the price of S95-E10 (0,7 euro/litre againt 1,2 euro/litre), so we don't care.

Just another question, I haven't checked the oil levels since I serviced it around 4000 miles ago.

You shall NOT...
It is recommended to check oil level every 500 miles.

The strange thing is that this car never seems to show the oil that is in it, I went on a flat surface as I live on a hill and you can't see any oil but there is definitely oil in. Would I need to leave the car to settle for a good half an hour before using the dipstick?

Thanks for taking the time to read, any help will be fully appreciated.

You definitely shall NOT run your car if you are not sure there is enough oil.
This engine has only 2.8 litres of oil when dipstick shows MAX. If your dipstick shows no oil, it means it lacks more than one litre, so you have less than 1.8 litres then this oil runs at higher temperature and gets used very much faster.
If you don't check oil level more seriously, you may run into trouble (break your engine)

 

[deadboltz]

Hello, thanks for all the replies. You were right. My dad happened to have the AA out for his car and I asked him for his advice and he said there definitely wasn't enough oil in. Was missing about 0.7 of a litre.

The problem I had before has sorted itself out now so maybe it was just from running the tank a little too low. Everything is fine now.

Thanks again for the responses though.

 

[Lightning]

after 4k miles oil color will be nice and black for you to see clearly on dipstick, so if you cant see anything, oil has fallen below min level, its still not low enough to turn on oil light tho

The oil light is a "TOO LATE" warning and is not related to oil level but to oil pressure.

2.8l of oil goes in to sporting, dont know how much oil is still in there where its not seen anymore on dipstick

At least less than 1.8 L.