172 / 182 help needed in the Edinburgh area

[Big P Dog]

Hi all,

Long shot but I'll ask. We're getting the car ready for this season's racing and I've got an unknown electrical issue. It started tonight and I reckon it's one of the following:

Coil pack
HT leads
Plugs
MAP sensor
Lambda sensor

I've plugged a fault reader in but no codes are showing. If there's anyone local that's up for it, I'd like to try swapping some parts around from a working car to diagnose the fault. If anyone is up for meeting up and letting me test various parts in an afternoon, I will make it up to them with a crate of beer!

I'm at West Linton, 20 miles south of Edinburgh but I can put the car on a trailer and come to you if you're reasonably close by.

Cheers,

Peter

 

[MicKPM]

Pete,

You put a post up asking for help with an "unknown electrical issue" then proceed to put up a list of just about every ignition related item under the bonnet stating it may be one of these but you don't actually post a description of the symptoms which you've encountered.

I'm good but I'm not mystic Mick - What is actually happening when the issue is current?

 

[Chi]

Mystic Mick! I think that will catch on. .

 

[MicKPM]

It's better than "Ginger tosser" which is what I get at the minute (So hurtful)

 

[Big P Dog]

Hi Ginger tosser,

Sorry couldn't resist! It's a misfire under load problem. Car has been sitting with the engine out since September, it went in the other day. Ran perfectly. Once I was happy that everything was running as it should, rev'd it a bit higher and the car misfired then cut out. After a few mins the car started again though now misfires under any load. Tried it this morning and the car is struggling to start.

After a few searches on here, I've found alot of people having similar issues, and a lot of people solving it after replacing different parts of the ignition system. I'm hoping to avoid buying each new part till it's sorted. I tried unplugging the map sensor connection this morning (leaving the sensor still in the plenum) and no joy.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers

 

[JezzaMac]

Surely it's worth taking the car to a Renault specialist with CLIP and get them to plug it in and see if it brings up any fault codes to try and narrow it down a bit?

 

[MicKPM]

Based on the description it could be any of the above items and unless there's an obvious issue (such as fluids in the spark plug wells) Jezza is right in his suggestion - it really needs a diagnostic session to see if you can narrow it down.

Trial and error with parts may be cheaper but it will take longer

 

[Big P Dog]

I'm going to try my nearest specialist (rentec) in the morning and see if they can take a look. There was a dribble of oil in spark plug 1's hole (counting from the gearbox end). Probably a dogdy cam cover gasket, not enough that I'd expect any issues though.

 

[JezzaMac]

I'm going to try my nearest specialist (rentec) in the morning and see if they can take a look. There was a dribble of oil in spark plug 1's hole (counting from the gearbox end). Probably a dogdy cam cover gasket, not enough that I'd expect any issues though.

What did Rentec say?

 

[Big P Dog]

It's in there today. Will let you know how it goes.

 

[Big P Dog]

Suspected short circuit between map sensor and ECU. Not yet confirmed.

 

[JezzaMac]

I hate electrical faults! Hopefully they can sort it for you!

 

[Big P Dog]

Got the car back today. Electrical fault was the short circuit between map sensor and ECU. Very happy with the work done.

Sadly the car now has a regular misfire. Took it home to have more of a look. One spark plug is black which I'm putting down to a faulty injector. I'm happy with the work done because I asked for diagnostics to be run and that's exactly what I got. The injectors don't always throw out fault codes so to diagnose this would have meant extra time and expense.

I also compression tested each cylinder both wet and dry. My readings on all cylinders was 75psi which leaves me with one conclusion - my £10 ebay compression tester is a piece of shite!

 

[skinz]

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