Rough idle, stalling

H

HuntingTiger

Very new to this site and Micra's! I have passed this site a few times so I thought it's definitely worth joining.

I was given a little 1994 1.0 16v Micra a while a go.
It's been a great car, I'm more used to Citroen, BMW and Honda so the Micra was a little different but surprisingly good car to run and own.

Anyway, this past week it's developed a problem, I'm 60% sure I know what it could be but would rather ask people with the right knowledge before I dive in with test meters etc.

The car was driving fine, did a 100 mile round trip with no problems but on the way home my son said he could smell burning and his actual words were "it smells like dog poo" I couldn't personally smell anything so decided it must of been outside somewhere.
The following day I started the car and it was running very lumpy, fuel economy suddenly went downhill and it stalled a couple of times as I slowed at junctions. This got me thinking of possible AMF sensor, coolant temp sensor or lambda sensor.

I went out and checked the AMF with a test meter and it was .05 volts less than recommended so I brushed it off as working. Then the car decided to start and run fine again for a day, then suddenly go back to running lumpy etc again today so that has made me come and made my first post to see if there's anything else I should check?

About a month ago I fitted new plugs, leads, cap and rotor as the car was refusing to start, turned out the cap and rotor had completely died.
 
*****UPDATE*****

I decided to change over the coolant temperature sensor as it was only £15, it made a slight improvement but not enough for me to be happy with....the car still stall and sounded a little lumpy.
I did a little more reading and decided to dive in and do the solder fix on the throttle body. First time I've ever attempted anything like it but it was surprisingly easy! The car now seems to be running a lot better, hasn't stalled yet but there's still a very slight lumpy rumble, checked all the plugs and leads, everything sparking fine as I expected seeing I had only changed ignition parts around a month ago so now I'm wondering if the lambda has had a little too much abuse from a bad air fuel mix and causing the problem. Any other advice as to what else I could check would be appreciated...for now the car is drivable, running so much better than it was but got to do another 100 mile round trip so fingers crossed it don't make any sudden changes
 
davyboy said:
Try running her without the MAF plugged in ....see if it makes a difference.
If it does..leave it off.
Click to expand...
I'll give that a go tomorrow, I know I've got a 100mile round trip with a few stop off in between so when I'm around my families area I'll give it a go, at least then if there's any problems I know I can sort them rather than be stranded on the motorway. I would of thought it would of played up if I unplugged it though....
 
HuntingTiger said:
I'll give that a go tomorrow, I know I've got a 100mile round trip with a few stop off in between so when I'm around my families area I'll give it a go, at least then if there's any problems I know I can sort them rather than be stranded on the motorway. I would of thought it would of played up if I unplugged it though....
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No buddy, I had similar to your problem, took the maf off ....she coughed a bit then settled down and drove fine for two years like it.
Very occasionally she would idle a bit low, but other than that it fixed the lumpy idle and stalling like yours.
 
davyboy said:
No buddy, I had similar to your problem, took the maf off ....she coughed a bit then settled down and drove fine for two years like it.
Very occasionally she would idle a bit low, but other than that it fixed the lumpy idle and stalling like yours.
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Ah....fingers crossed it helps! I think the stalling is fixed, the cars only had a few short runs since I worked on it so tomorrow is it's first real run, mainly motorway so no slowing down enough to panic til I get back on slower roads but if I can get rid of the lumpy sound I'd be happy, it was sounding like a Subaru so I was getting a few odd looks when I took my son to KFC and had to pass the local McDonald's with their usual car groups haha
 
HuntingTiger said:
Ah....fingers crossed it helps! I think the stalling is fixed, the cars only had a few short runs since I worked on it so tomorrow is it's first real run, mainly motorway so no slowing down enough to panic til I get back on slower roads but if I can get rid of the lumpy sound I'd be happy, it was sounding like a Subaru so I was getting a few odd looks when I took my son to KFC and had to pass the local McDonald's with their usual car groups haha
Click to expand...
They're just jealous of the mighty Micra
 
davyboy said:
They're just jealous of the mighty Micra


Perhaps the unknowing hoi polloi do not understand that they do not know what they do not know and maybe will never know;~ that is the merits of cheap as chips “Micra Bangernomics” motoring even when it is exemplified in front of them?
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps the unknowing hoi polloi do not understand that they do not know what they do not know and maybe will never know;~ that is the merits of cheap as chips “Micra Bangernomics” motoring even when it is exemplified in front of them? :rolleyes:
 
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Still yet to try the car without the maf plugged in, kinda got a bit rushed the other day so forgot to unplug it but it also has its rumble back after the round trip.

My partner has a hospital appointment today which is about a 10 mins drive so the sensor will be getting unplugged well before we leave so I can see how it runs today
 
I unplugged the sensor.....the car hated it!
Couldn't even drive off my street, the car had no power whatsoever, put the foot to the floor and basically unresponsive, the car just wanted to crawl along.
Soon as I stopped and plugged the sensor back in, it was drivable but sounding like a Subaru again, didn't stall so the stalling problem seems to be fixed but the lumpy engine is well and truly there. Even when I pulled up back home, a neighbour came running over to ask what was wrong with the car and commented on how lumpy it was sounding....starting to get suspicious of distributer breaking down?
 
frank said:
the maf trick only applies to coilpack engines, sounds like you have a missfire on 1 cylinder ?
Click to expand...
Will be checking sparks again tomorrow, they were the first thing I checked before changing anything and they were firing nicely, it had new cap, rotor, plugs and leads a little over a month ago but I know a weak spark can cause problems. Was going to check this evening but a sudden change of weather put me off
 
HuntingTiger said:
I unplugged the sensor.....the car hated it!
Couldn't even drive off my street, the car had no power whatsoever, put the foot to the floor and basically unresponsive, the car just wanted to crawl along.
Soon as I stopped and plugged the sensor back in, it was drivable but sounding like a Subaru again, didn't stall so the stalling problem seems to be fixed but the lumpy engine is well and truly there. Even when I pulled up back home, a neighbour came running over to ask what was wrong with the car and commented on how lumpy it was sounding....starting to get suspicious of distributer breaking down?
Click to expand...
I may have a dizzy hanging around here buddy, put up the part number and I'll see if it matches ....if I can find it -lol
 
Just pulled each individual lead...looks like cylinder 4 is breaking down. Each cylinder made a noticeable difference as I pulled the leads but cylinder 4 seems to be intermittent, first pulled sounded neatly the same as the other 3 cylinders so left it warming up pulled again and made no difference to the sound of the engine, next u moved the spark plugs between cylinders to make sure a plug wasn't breaking down and the problem stayed at cylinder 4 so just off to buy a new set of leads and hope that's the only problem, I was thinking of breaking the ends off the lead and remaking it as I have some spare ignition lead from a car I built not long ago but rather than risking not being able to re use the connectors, I'll just replace them ☺️ but as for the distributor, I have a few numbers on it listed as;

42537E
22100-99B01
0294

Fingers crossed it is just a lead breaking down, if it sounds steady with new leads then I'll give it a run over the next few days to make sure that no lumpy rumbles re appear.


***UPDATE***
New leads fitted, didn't make any difference at all.
Just to confirm, I pulled all leads one at a time, cylinders 1 - 3 all made a noticeable change in how the engine was running, cylinder 4 made no change at all. Moved the plugs round and stayed the same. New leads and still the same
 
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frank said:
sounds like injector or low compression then eh
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Looks like a hunt for the compression tester soon then. Plug looked like it was getting fuel but I'll still do tests on the injectors as well in between the rain. One good sign is oil and water levels haven't dropped and oil cap hasn't got any tale tell signs of head gasket problems but won't rule anything out as it's quite important I get it fixed as soon as possible to get my partner to all her chemo appointments with the minimal stress
 
HuntingTiger said:
Looks like a hunt for the compression tester soon then. Plug looked like it was getting fuel but I'll still do tests on the injectors as well in between the rain. One good sign is oil and water levels haven't dropped and oil cap hasn't got any tale tell signs of head gasket problems but won't rule anything out as it's quite important I get it fixed as soon as possible to get my partner to all her chemo appointments with the minimal stress
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Hey buddy, I'll look for that dizzy and let you know.
And the best of luck to your partner from me - chin up as best you can ;)
 
davyboy said:
Hey buddy, I'll look for that dizzy and let you know.
And the best of luck to your partner from me - chin up as best you can ;)
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Thank you for that. Also thanks for the luck for my partner....the car is keeping my mind off it all a little bit for now haha.

Anyway, couple of quick questions as I haven't looked at them myself yet, are the injectors easy to remove? The last time I messed with injectors was on a saxo vts, they were held in by a clip round the injector and the fuel rail bolt down over the top to stop them popping out under pressure.
Also, I keep reading about shorting the diagnostic plug and counting the flashes. Mine, being an old 1994 doesn't have any engine management light so was wondering, could this still be done and have a different way of reading faults or is it a job for a diagnostic scanner?

Soon as the rain stops, I'm going to have a look at the injectors, get a screwdriver and test meter on them or if it's easy enough I'll just remove them and check for spray.


***UPDATE***
Checked all 4 injectors for 12v to make sure they're getting power...all 4 gave good reading.
Next I checked all 4 for resistance, cylinders 1-3 are all showing around 11.3 ohms, cylinder 4 is zero....looks like a trip to a scrappy and hope they got some Micra's in with the same injectors, going armed with the test meter to make sure I get one or a set with good resistance and keeping my fingers crossed
 
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No good asking me all that stuff bud - I just put mine in a garage to sort ...lol
I found the dizzy and the numbers are different, I don't think that matters, but see what you can sort out next.
best of luck from me.
 
davyboy said:
No good asking me all that stuff bud - I just put mine in a garage to sort ...lol
I found the dizzy and the numbers are different, I don't think that matters, but see what you can sort out next.
best of luck from me.
Click to expand...
I completely forgot to update yesterday.
I went down the local scrap yard and found the only Micra in there that matched mine, all the others had the newer engine with completely different injectors etc. Opened the bonnet and luckily there were 2 injectors left, put the test meter on them and they both read 11.3 ohms, I couldn't get the tiny little screws out though so I took the while fuel rail with injectors for £20. Got it home, spray of wd40 and some cobalt drill bits and the injectors were out. Fitted in the car and it now sounds so much better!

It's only had a short run but it's responsive and no rumbles that I could hear. Got a few drives over the next few days so hopefully it's all settled now, only thing that did make me panic as I never had it happen before on any car, it was a pain to start after changing the injector, even after turning the key a few times to pressure the rail, it didn't want to start, when it did it kicked out a cloud from the exhaust and ran fine after...
 
HuntingTiger said:
I completely forgot to update yesterday.
I went down the local scrap yard and found the only Micra in there that matched mine, all the others had the newer engine with completely different injectors etc. Opened the bonnet and luckily there were 2 injectors left, put the test meter on them and they both read 11.3 ohms, I couldn't get the tiny little screws out though so I took the while fuel rail with injectors for £20. Got it home, spray of wd40 and some cobalt drill bits and the injectors were out. Fitted in the car and it now sounds so much better!

It's only had a short run but it's responsive and no rumbles that I could hear. Got a few drives over the next few days so hopefully it's all settled now, only thing that did make me panic as I never had it happen before on any car, it was a pain to start after changing the injector, even after turning the key a few times to pressure the rail, it didn't want to start, when it did it kicked out a cloud from the exhaust and ran fine after...
Click to expand...
Well done buddy :D:D
 
davyboy said:
Well done buddy :D:D
Click to expand...
It's more thanks to everyone that helped me get to the right areas for testing and replacing. Would of never have thought injectors seeing as it was intermittent at one stage.

Hopefully I can enjoy driving it again now though, still some silly little jobs that need doing but nothing that effects the way it drives and all should be easy fixes
 

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