Is my shed dying? Place your bets....
Discussion
So a full 2 weeks (one of which I spent on holiday) after getting hold of dads '96 C class merc (2.0 petrol) I jumped in today to find not everything's well 
Cranked over & started but immediately died.
Try again with a bit of gas & it starts up but is running on 2 or 3 cylinders. It'll just hold on idle with no gas but tries to stall.
Put her in drive & it'll splutter to a halt as the torque converter grabs. I can rev it up in neutral then put it in drive & go but it doesn't want to go.
Thought it might have been out of fuel as the guage doesn't work but it isn't that.
Feels like ignition but no sign of sparks under the bonnet.
The car has been with us since new, every year we think it won't make it's mot but somehow it always scrapes through.
97k miles genuine one careful owner.
So what do we think?
Is it the big scrap heap in the sky? Have a guess at the cause & let's see what the garage says when we recover it tomorrow!
Believe me if it's expensive it's going to the scrappy.
(I feel a bit sad typing that)
Cranked over & started but immediately died.
Try again with a bit of gas & it starts up but is running on 2 or 3 cylinders. It'll just hold on idle with no gas but tries to stall.
Put her in drive & it'll splutter to a halt as the torque converter grabs. I can rev it up in neutral then put it in drive & go but it doesn't want to go.
Thought it might have been out of fuel as the guage doesn't work but it isn't that.
Feels like ignition but no sign of sparks under the bonnet.
The car has been with us since new, every year we think it won't make it's mot but somehow it always scrapes through.
97k miles genuine one careful owner.
So what do we think?
Is it the big scrap heap in the sky? Have a guess at the cause & let's see what the garage says when we recover it tomorrow!
Believe me if it's expensive it's going to the scrappy.
(I feel a bit sad typing that)
Liquid Tuna said:
. As long as it's not rusting away
oh believe me it is.But it has been looked after. As said my first thought is ignition but when you're only running on a couple of cylinders you start to think compression don't you?
Not bad smoke or heavy oil use though so at least that's a good sign
LaurasOtherHalf said:
Now listen, this is a dear family member we're talking about. I'd like to hear talk of a dodgy spark plug or something before we have terminal engine failure suggested!
But yes it does feel like that
But yes it does feel like that
I've done it as a matter of course on a few cars, just to get peace of mind and a bit of knowledge on what the engine's like. It doesnt always have to be at or after a failure point to do one
Apart from the 2/3 cyl thing, sounds remarkably like a Primera my mate bought, advertised as a non runner, similar symptoms as yours, would run and rev a bit in neutral, but only to about 2000 rpm, stalled once in drive (auto). He bought it, drove it round the corner, bought some carb cleaner, squirted the maf and it was running fine again.
m44kts said:
Apart from the 2/3 cyl thing, sounds remarkably like a Primera my mate bought, advertised as a non runner, similar symptoms as yours, would run and rev a bit in neutral, but only to about 2000 rpm, stalled once in drive (auto). He bought it, drove it round the corner, bought some carb cleaner, squirted the maf and it was running fine again.
Stories like this give me a little hopegeeks said:
Coil pack! Mate used to have an S class that would do this about once every year, a quick swap resolved it every time!
Sounds like a good place to begin, the symptoms are exactly as discribed for a coilpack fault. Easy test too. Simply start the car with each disconnected. With only 2 working packs my Megane will barely start, with 3 it starts and runs badly. When you disconnect one and the engine behaves exactly as it does with all 4 connected, you have your culprit.CampDavid said:
geeks said:
Coil pack! Mate used to have an S class that would do this about once every year, a quick swap resolved it every time!
Sounds like a good place to begin, the symptoms are exactly as discribed for a coilpack fault. Easy test too. Simply start the car with each disconnected. With only 2 working packs my Megane will barely start, with 3 it starts and runs badly. When you disconnect one and the engine behaves exactly as it does with all 4 connected, you have your culprit.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff