Engine problem, YouTube vid attached, any ideas?

[ChickenG]

Hi,

First post on here, and not one I wanted to make!

Tracked my 01 172 yesterday at Llandow, which was a brilliant day, and then made a 3.5hr trip up to Chesh. Then 3 miles from my destination lost all power, however there was no initial bang, and the engine kept running, just no power at all and sounding terrible. I've only had it just over a month and was loving it!

It still starts first turn of the key but is making this noise, I obviously haven't driven it since, it struggled to reach 20mph last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQB5Ma2SPnk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Before I take it to a garage next week for a diagnosis thought I'd ask on here to see what the concensus is.

Sounds expensive to me, and very similar in sound to a video on YouTube of bottom end failure.

Thanks for any advice, the car is currently in Northwich, Cheshire, though I'm actually from Bristol.

Cheers,

George.

 

[Striver]

Sounds like some serious misfiring going on?

 

[Laine_16v]

Spark plug has popped out / stripped thread. That's my guess anyway.

 

[ChickenG]

Thanks for the ideas,

I'm at my girlfriend's so unfortunately without my tools, I can't even get the engine cover off to have a look!

Forgot to say that no dash warning lights came on, if that makes any difference.

It does smell slightly of fuel under the bonnet when running, which makes me think you could be onto something with a spark plug having popped out?

If that's what it is, once I've checked, am I likely to damage it further by limping to Northwest Performance (the nearest specialist), or should I get a tow? It's only 3 miles.

Cheers

 

[Laine_16v]

I only say that as its very loud, not really a typical noise you would hear for any other sort of mechanical failure, but could certinaly be the the noise of rushing air through a spark plug hole as the cylinder trys to compress.

Regards to driving it somewhere, persoanlly if it can lug itself on its own power (it should be able to on 3 cyls), i would drive it to the garage if it was only 3 miles away., any swarf has likely been and evacuated straight out the exhaust already. Would unplug the injector of the affected cylinder too.

I drove 70 miles from Bristol to Swanea on 2 cylinders once so im sure you will be fine

 

[gary_vvti]

deffinatly sounds like a plug has come loose or popped out.

 

[GiT]

Popped plug.

 

[Clio172T]

Plug out

 

[MonkeyKnifeFight]

This happened to me. If your lucky you might just be able to screw it back in. Worst case scenario you'll need a new plug, new ht lead an to have the hole heli coiled. Well that's not quite true, if you took it to Renault I'm sure they would say the head needs to come off and the cambelt done on refitting but only a r****d would get Renault involved with this kinda problem.

 

[Coops Mk1]

personally i'd get a spanner or two and whip the cover/top inlet off and check its defo the plug before driving it anywhere.

 

[ChickenG]

An update to this saga, and request for more advice..

Everyone who said it was a blown plug was bang on. Thanks for the quick diagnosis...

I was forced to leave the car in Cheshire for the week with a mechanic, who helicoiled it, after which it was running perfectly. The plug in question had been crossthreaded, by whoever changed the plugs last, then worked loose, and it had taken the top few threads with it when it blew out. He said the alloy of the head around the plug was slightly corroded, and though he helicoiled it as best he could, he thought it was 50/50 it'd hold long term.

To cut a long story short it blew out just past Gloucester, on my way back to Bristol, and I was towed home.

I'm now left with a car running on 3 cylinders sat on my drive, weighing up my options.

As I understand it (and correct me if I'm wrong), once you've tried a helicoil, you can't put in a bigger insert, you get one shot (or so the mechanic said). Are there any other thread-repair options with the head in-situ?

He told me that book time for a head swap is 12hours, which is obviously going to cost a fortune at garage rates, but that once the head was off a proper steel insert could be fitted, that'd make it as good as new again.

So is this a viable option? Or would I be better off sourcing a used head (any idea what these go for?), or even a used engine to drop in. Bearing in mind mine has covered 109k, is it worth throwing money at or would I be better sourcing a lower mileage replacement?

Is the 12hours quoted reasonable, or could someone experienced with these engines do it quicker? Who would you recommend I take it to in the Bristol area, bearing in mind I can't really tow it a great distance.

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers,
George.

 

[Laine_16v]

Take it to Gaz at Longwell Green service station (behind the shell garage), he will sort it alllll out for you

 

[Fred@BTM]

heliocoil it in situ, takes about an hour

 

[ChickenG]

heliocoil it in situ, takes about an hour

this is what was tried by the mechanic, but the plug and helicoil blew out on the way home...

 

[ChickenG]

Take it to Gaz at Longwell Green service station (behind the shell garage), he will sort it alllll out for you

Is that 01179322317?

I've googled Longwell Green service station, but all I can turn up is what appears to be the number of the Shell station.