Missfireing after running low on fuel?
Discussion
As the title says really, ran the car low on fuel at the weekend (just up from empty on the gauge) and got a couple of hicups untill i managed to find a petrol station, filled up and for the 5 mile's back to home i now seem to be blessed with a missfire, i'm guessing fuelfilter blocked or could it have dragged some water or something from the bottom of the tank, i suppose i could just stick 20 miles on it to see if it clears or do you think i should investigate now?
I had a tankful of Tesco's finest (pun not intended) that seemed to have 'gone off' although I didn't know it was that at the time (not that fuel contamination thingy that went on, this was a good while afterwards)
What I got was a really bad misfire, almost like it had lost half its cylinders, it would chuck all kinds of smokey sh*t out of the exhaust, wouldn't pull but would tick over just fine. It would come and go as suddenly as you please and lasted until I filled the tank again. Not had it return since.
What I got was a really bad misfire, almost like it had lost half its cylinders, it would chuck all kinds of smokey sh*t out of the exhaust, wouldn't pull but would tick over just fine. It would come and go as suddenly as you please and lasted until I filled the tank again. Not had it return since.
Nooooooo! the cars being used most weekends and has never ever (kiss of death) missed a beat, the fuel that went in was the same grade as allways, i could try the reset but i'll put some miles on it at the weekend before i start poking about changeing filters and stuff, it must have picked some crap up from the low fuell level witch i thinks a bit of bad luck on my part to be honest cus i've ran other cars dry before (not for a long time) and after the old petrol can fill they have been fine.
Well i've had chance to fill the tank up today and stuck 30 miles on the car since the 1st post and i now have a car thats missing like a pig on full throttle or part, ticks over fine and starts as allways 1st go, i've got to say it feel's like an electrical miss but it would be a cruel blow to happen exactly the same time as i run low on fuel and really put me off track.I guess i'm after a little info on wot to start changing and wot order to go down on the basis of running low on fuel and then go down the electrical route just to give a heads up on the car its a 99 5ltr and has never ever missed a bit nor has it shunted or missbehaved in any way, the plugs where changed 300 miles ago and it runs on all new leads and caps basically there's no maintanance outstanding on the car, any idea's welcome, i've diconected and re fitted the ecu plug by the way.
Sorry for repeating myself on this forum, but this is a very useful test:
Get a test meter out , set it to 10 or less volts DC, and plug it into the back of the lambda probe connectors between the black and white wires. (you can jam probes down the back of the lambda socket and the probes are in the manifold down tube). I would suggest you extend the test meter leads, so it can be read in the cabin by a passenger. Then start the engine. After about 30 seconds you should see a rising voltage that the starts to switch between about .3 and .7 volts at about 1/2 second intervals. Take the car for a ride, and it should carry on switching up to 3400 rpm or less than 3/4 throttle. Above this is should go to .7 volts or more and stay there. If it drops below this or becomes erratic, you are running out of fuel pressure, so replace filters, clean out pump piping etc. Its a very good place to start before you throw parts and money at it. Otherwise I would think an ECU code reader should pick up a fault code for a fault this bad.
Mark
Get a test meter out , set it to 10 or less volts DC, and plug it into the back of the lambda probe connectors between the black and white wires. (you can jam probes down the back of the lambda socket and the probes are in the manifold down tube). I would suggest you extend the test meter leads, so it can be read in the cabin by a passenger. Then start the engine. After about 30 seconds you should see a rising voltage that the starts to switch between about .3 and .7 volts at about 1/2 second intervals. Take the car for a ride, and it should carry on switching up to 3400 rpm or less than 3/4 throttle. Above this is should go to .7 volts or more and stay there. If it drops below this or becomes erratic, you are running out of fuel pressure, so replace filters, clean out pump piping etc. Its a very good place to start before you throw parts and money at it. Otherwise I would think an ECU code reader should pick up a fault code for a fault this bad.
Mark
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