Loss of power, juddering under acceleration

[NEMR89]

So I have a 02 plate clio grande with 106k miles on the clock

Last night I was driving home from work and had stopped at some lights, when I pulled away I went into second, and when i put my foot down i noticed there was very little power, into third and foot down again and the car starts quite violently juddering until i back off the accelerator. I was on a 70mph A road at this point so i was trying to keep up a decent speed, put it in fourth and tried to get up to 40mph at least when the engine management light came on flashing orange. I managed to get it to a layby and got out to see what was wrong (it felt like a tyre had gone or something the juddering was that bad, it was shaking the steering wheel)

The car was idling rough, it was almost rocking back and forth at idle, and the revs were jumping around. I also noticed a slight humming sound from the exhaust but apart from that it doesn't sound any different to every other day iv'e had it :S :S

Any help would be much appreciated as I have no clue what could be wrong with it

argghhhh

 

[Zeitgeist0190]

Pencil coilpacks shagged by the sounds of it, common item to die out.

Euro Car Parts for a replacement, usually not more than a screw and a clip to replace.

Star the car and unplug a coilpack, if the engine stalls or runs rougher, that coil is fine.
If nothing changes - that coil is dead, unscrew it, pull it out, repalce, rescrew, clip back in.


Cost of replacements are something like 30-40 quid each i think, you can get a new set of genuine Valeo ones on ebay for £55 if you can wait though.


edit:
Here's what they look like on my 1.4L engine. The wire that goes into them unclips, and the little bit that stick out is where the screw goes on mine.

 

[NEMR89]

Thanks for replying mate, I have just replaced the spark plugs with some brand new NGK's and it seems to have sorted the problem. Took it up to 70 on the dual carriageway with no problems.

 

[Zeitgeist0190]

Happy days! Yeah sparks can be the cause too, generally good to replace the lot, unless the sparks are known to be good. Must have just died and you'd lsot a cylinder!
If you have a little light on the dash - it took about 30 miles or so i think of driving before the light went out - ECU will recalibrate itself i believe.

 

[NEMR89]

Haha yeah, was frightening though, I'm glad it didn't die whilst I was doing 80 in the outside lane though! :hail:

The sparks were knackered to be fair probably should have changed them when i bought the car really, doh! Anyway lesson learned and thanks for the help mate

 

[Zeitgeist0190]

no worries, mine was a real shaker when sitting idle. If i'd had a gf at the time, she'd have bloomin' loved it.

 

[NEMR89]

Right, I have to ressurect this thread as the problems have returned >_<

So, After changing the spark plugs the car was fine for about a month and now it has started misfiring again!
It only seems to happen after driving for a few minutes, first startup is fine, idles at around 1000rpm no problems, pulling away again, power is smooth and instant... However, after driving for a while and getting the engine warmed up when I go down the gears and put gas on it starts misfiring again, same as before, juddering, little power.. The problem goes away when you get over around 40-50 MPH. The exhaust is also making a sputtering sound at idle and backfiring.

If you try and power through the misfire the engine warning light will flash on and off until you back off.

I have changed the coil pack, spark plugs and also given the throttle body a good clean with carb cleaner, none of which has made a difference. Also checked the compression on each cylinder and it came back as 14 bar, 12 bar, 11 bar, 13 bar so thats fine.

I've read faulty lambda sensor could be the issue.. but I'm at an absolute loss as to what to do now.

Any help would be much appreciated once again lads n lasses

 

[olliewebbuk]

Pencil coilpacks shagged by the sounds of it

Nope. 1.2 doesn't use those. This is a coil from a 1.2:

Right, I have to ressurect this thread as the problems have returned >_<

So, After changing the spark plugs the car was fine for about a month and now it has started misfiring again!
It only seems to happen after driving for a few minutes, first startup is fine, idles at around 1000rpm no problems, pulling away again, power is smooth and instant... However, after driving for a while and getting the engine warmed up when I go down the gears and put gas on it starts misfiring again, same as before, juddering, little power.. The problem goes away when you get over around 40-50 MPH. The exhaust is also making a sputtering sound at idle and backfiring.

If you try and power through the misfire the engine warning light will flash on and off until you back off.

I have changed the coil pack, spark plugs and also given the throttle body a good clean with carb cleaner, none of which has made a difference. Also checked the compression on each cylinder and it came back as 14 bar, 12 bar, 11 bar, 13 bar so thats fine.

I've read faulty lambda sensor could be the issue.. but I'm at an absolute loss as to what to do now.

Any help would be much appreciated once again lads n lasses

You need to get it plugged into diagnostics I'm afraid.

 

[NEMR89]

Hmmm, I've just taken the plugs out again and given them a clean (there was some grease on the top of one of them) Took it for a drive and the problem seems to have disappeared...

Could it have been the HT Leads were creating a decent spark because of the grease causing the misfire?

 

[dano17439]

Sounds like a dodgy injector. Get a diagnostic check down and it'll tell you exactly what the problem is

 

[NEMR89]

ahhh well it didn't fix it for long... on the way back from work it started again.

Only seems to happen when the engine gets hot. Also I noticed when the bonnet is up and I give it some revs you can hear air escaping from somewhere in the engine bay... Strange