Engine Misfiring?
Author
Discussion

Loque

Original Poster:

458 posts

201 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
quotequote all
Hi all,

Yet another thing has gone wrong with my car. Honestly I reckon I have been fed a real bummer with it. Anyway, onwards.

I was driving my car to work last night, and when I went under 10 MPH, then coolant light came on. I ignored it as the temp was fine, and I was only 5 mins away from work. So, I got to work, the car was fine, locked her up and did my 10 hour shift.

When I got back in the car, the engine idled at 1400RPM as opposed to 8-900 which it normally does, and was really really 'jerky' it almost felt like I had a two stroke under the hood.

Anything below 3000 revs forced the car to jerk, which in traffic isn't nice. I pretty much had to throttle up to 3000 revs and slip the clutch, due to the fact it was pouring with rain, the slip soon became a dump, which aint exactly safe. The coolant light remained permanently on.

I've left the car at home at the moment, just so as I don't want to toast it anymore.

I have checked the coolant, and disconnected/reconnected the battery - I believe this car has a 'self learning' ECU, so I thought maybe a reset would do it some good. Nope. frown

Anyone got any ideas what it could be?

bertelli_1

2,380 posts

232 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
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You have a coolant light and a gauge? What car is it?

Loque

Original Poster:

458 posts

201 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
quotequote all
I'm sorry. It's a T Reg Vauxhall Corsa B, it's got the 1 Litre 3 Cyclinder engine

GreenV8S

30,997 posts

306 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
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See if the manual tells you what the coolant light means. If it's telling you the coolant is too hot, and you know the engine isn't overheating, it could be the temp sender (or wiring to it) has failed. If the ECU thought the engine was very cold it would add lots of excess fuel, which on a hot engine could lead to a misfire and poor running. Temp senders are usually cheap and easy to replace but you do need to find it to test/replace it.

Loque

Original Poster:

458 posts

201 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
quotequote all
You might be onto something there. I'm thinking possibly it is the spark plugs. Unfortunately, they are round the other side of the engine, so I am going to take a good look at them tomorrow.

However a rich mixture would probably lead to them being caked in rubbish...

Zad

12,934 posts

258 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
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A faulty sensor would probably send the engine into "Limited Operation Strategy" mode too, resulting in crap performance.

Loque

Original Poster:

458 posts

201 months

Saturday 27th June 2009
quotequote all
heh, it's a 1 litre corsa. It gets crap performance anyway....