Timing chain or something else ?

[Rattledbytherush]

Our k12 2004 micra has around 86,000 miles on the clock.

The engine runs quietly and the oil has been changed every year that we’ve owned it (6).

Around two months ago, the amber engine warming light came on, but the car remained fine to drive. No noises or rumblings - everything normal.

After around three weeks, the car starting having issues. While driving at low ish revs, the engine would sometimes cut out. Not ideal. This happened inconsistently and is clearly pretty dangerous.

We then took the car to an electrical place. They ran a code reader on the engine and it came back 1.p0340 (cmp sen/circ b1) and 2.p0011 (int/v tim b1 cont b1). They didn’t look at the engine or check anything - simply ran a code reader.

The guy in the garage then told us that these codes are bad news and that the timing chain is f******.

Fast forward a few weeks, and a relative came to visit. He opened the bonnet and cleaned so terminals/connectors. Restarted the engine and engine warning light is now off. I left the car running for 20 mins, drove to the gym and back, and still no warning light.

So, my question is…. Does anybody know what is going on here?

 

[Mach1]

The older a car gets the chance of electrical terminal oxidation often throws up gremlines in the system, the other year I went through all the connectors on my Micra and cleaned and sprayed all with electrical contact cleaner.
There was some problems on early K12 petrol models suffering from chain stretch, but these batches should have been sorted by now. Keep an eye on your dashboard. look up the signs of a stretched chain on google and it includes poor starting misfires etc. cutting out can be due to poor quality fuel sold as E10 in the UK and can throw up lamda sensor failure, I would recommend a benzine additive or E5 super unleaded is what they call it in UK. Run it for a while and see.

 

[Rattledbytherush]

Thanks for the feedback