1.0l losing power randomly.

D

dee33223

Hey all i'm a newb scum go easy.


My girlfriend has a k11, 1.0, 93k on it now, t reg 99. It's having a few probs and im looking for ideas.

It is losing power at random times, more so now. Has been happening for last month or so. In 5th gear going about 50-70 ish. She says it will just drop in power driving on flat road. She changes down to 4th and it will be ok. But now she is changing down and it is still losing power she goes to 3rd to keep it going. The faults used to happen after driving 30+ mins or so, but now its happening much quicker.
After it has problems she says she smells a "burning tyre" type of smell at times once its stopped and engine off.

I have driven it myself(though not lately) and i noticed no probs like this.
Though the gearbox to me feels bloody awful 3rd is hell to get it into. The whole gear box feels like moving the stick through sand. Its really hard to get it into the right gear.

I'm thinking maybe the gear box is dying and this is the cause?, MAF sensor?, Lambda sensor perhaps?.
Any ideas or experiences with this type of thing would really help. It's a solid wee car and she loves it. It would be top brownie points if i can fix it fwn

Thanks, Dee
 
To be honest the 1.0 is a bit gutless lol could be problems with the brakes binding or sparkplugs im not totally sure
 
Cheers fellas, Brakes seem cool as well as plugs, checked them lately. Clutch is a fair point. It seems to pull on hills as good as it can and no sign of slippage. Any tests i can do to rule it out?

Same with maf. Is there any way to test if it's that?. I have an Impreza turbo classic, Im used to ####ing about with them groan.
 
dee, the clutch would slip on hills only, surely ?
haynes quotes .5v between terminals 2 and 3 (engine stopped, ignition on), and 2v between terminals 2 and 3 (engine idling) for the maf
 
Ya, your right. If i think my clutch is funny i test it on a steep hill. If i roll back into some dudes car it's duffed. Ill do a few tests with it to make sure.
Ill test the maf with what you told me voltage wise, cheers for that. I reckon ill haul it out and clean it with alchohol or carb/brake cleaner and see if that helps.
I did this with the scoobs one once then dropped it and killed it completely, job done.
Im with her at the weekend. So ill try it then.
To reset the ecu, i take it unplugging the battery for a bit will be ok. Or removing the ecu fuse?
 
Ok tried to get the maf out the car to clean it and found i could not seperate it from the TB.

I dismantled all i could and cleaned it(maf) with carb cleaner best i could. Id like to replace it but it looks like it's a whole unit with the TB.
Is there any way to do this?. Or do i have to replace the whole TB, which i really don't fancy as it may not be that.

Car runs fine but cleaning the maf made no difference. I did drive it myself this time and noticed the drop in power. It will barely crawl above 65. With foot down the car just wasn't moving like it should. I know it's a 1.0 but it should go better than that.

I cleaned out some breather pipes and found bad things on one.... The breather going from the head to bottom of engine(the connector is sticking out the side of the manifold), had butter like gunge in it mostly at the top. The pipe was pretty clogged, so i cleaned it all out, which did not help.
Im worried the gunge is water mixed with oil meaning blown head gasket.. i think??. I take it this is bad anyway.
Any ideas?
 
whats the oil like on the stick ? and inside the cam cover is that the same ? and you say your plugs are ok are they at the correct gap ?is the fuel filter ok? a leak at the tb?
 
Hey Andy,

The oil under the cam cover looks fine and clean. There was a little bit of whiteish goop under the oil cap right in the middle. Oil on the stick looks clean and fine.

Plugs I changed about 7 months ago, I didn't change gap at all. Just stuck em in out the packet. Fuel filter i have no idea when that was last changed and i dont know if the TB is leaking, how would i test this?.

Sorry for all the questions this is a big pain and i dont wan to see the little car go bye bye unless its really dead.
 
Yeah i did mention that in a previous post. It was a little Bit. But like i said earlier there was a good load of it in the breather pipe i mentioned. It was perhaps yellow/whiteish in colour kind of like melted margarine(yuck).

What you think? would this explain the lack of shove the wee beast has got.

Head gasket change is beyond me im afraid. Is it even worth taking somewhere on a 95k t reg micra. Boo hoo.
 
Well, I don't exactly know that much about engines and their faults, but what I've picked up is white goo usually means the head gasket has blown.

As for that being the reason your micra has lack of power, I dunno if it's the definitive cause, but I'd say that it's a major one:

If the gasket fails, a variety of problems can occur, from compression loss (leading to power reduction, or a rough engine), to exhaust gases being forced into the cooling system, leading to the engine overheating and increased engine wear due to the motor oil being mixed with antifreeze
Click to expand...

Anyone more certified wanna comment?
 
you usually get coolant problems when the headgasket goes, and cars used on short runs can get mayonnaise under the cap.
dee, is it still only a random power loss ?
 
check if the bolts are all tight and secure on t/b housing to the inlet manifold, but then again if this was the case it would backfire and you aint mentioned that so dout it be that but worth checking,we may all be barking up the wrong tree, and it may as well be gearbox/clutch related
 
To Frank re coolant :

I will ask her to check coolant levels today (she lives 60 miles away i only stay with her mid week one night and weekends). See if it's gone down.

The car is pretty much used for very short runs at the moment 3-4 miles at a time and that's it.

The random power loss is now worse id say and its mostly all the time. When i drove it at the weekend it just seemed to be bottoming off at 60 miles and hour and it was foot down to slowly push it to 70 and it only just made it. She has said it will die off quickly and she drops gear to find power. But now she drops and it still is dying off. I didn't see it doing that myself.

Andy :
I did have a wee check of the TB bolts just to test if i could get it off if i needed to, they were indeed very tight. No back fireing has happened.

The gearbox as i said does feel very bad. Its mega stiff and hard to get it into 3rd but all gears are awful, like moving it through sand. Clutch does seem ok as much as i can test it.

I hate sucky problems like this, i really do appreciate all your help.
 
dee, if the bite is in the correct position, it,s probably just dry/tight joints on the gearchange.
there,s certainly a fault somewhere, you need a mechanic to diagnose the problem really (test drive, compression test etc) else your just stabbing in the dark :)
 
Yeah spot on mate. Ill end up sticking lots of bits on it for nout. I will swap cars with her this weekend and see if i can get someone local to do a proper diagnostic on the little blob.
Ta for all your help on this.
 
It will be the throttlebody/MAF problem, I guarantee it. My mate's car had exactly the same problem - the car seeemed to rev but didn't go anywhere. Swapped the body, problem solved.

Craig
 

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