Running on 3 cylinders and blowing exhaust - linked?

[KitsonRis]

Having issues with the car running on three cyclinders, also idles like a pig.
Started with a constant EML Saturday morning, which the OBD reader said "Random/Multiple Cylinder Misfire Detected" (I was expecting a crank sensor issue as it hasn't been starting). Car ran fine on all 4 cylinders. Checked all plugs etc which were fine. Put car back together and cleared the code to see if it was a freak thing or something is wrong. Left it idling for about 20mins and it was fine, no EML. Then I drove it up the road and then when I pulled off from a set of lights (less than a mile from setting off) it bogged down and it turned into a three cylinder. The EML alternates between constant and flashing. I got annoyed so left the car on my brother's drive and went to the pub! I haven't attached the OBD reader to it since, it may tell me what cylinder this time it is missing on. I was going to blindly change the coil pack and HT leads ad see if this is the problem.
But I was doing a bit of research and came across this thread:
http://www.cliosport.net/threads/172-cup-misfire-and-blowing-exhaust.720254/
I also have a blowing exhaust, I know I need to get it sorted, I wanted to get the car running before I look at this. The blowing noise appears to come from the front of the car, possibly before the cat. I had a quick look when I noticed this the other week and the exhaust clamp that holds the cat to the rear section of the exhaust isn't doing anything (tried to do it up but its like the nuts have corroded and I was in a rush and didn't have time to properly fiddle). But there is not play/movement in the cat or the back section, appear to be stuck together.
The argument seems plausable that the lambda sensor not working properly so it is causing the wrong fueling to create a misfire.
Do people agree this could be the cause? Or is it trash and I should just replace the coil pack and HT leads anyway? The car was fine the other week when I drove it about 500miles fround trip to North Wales, bar a few not starting occasions (TDC sensor I think needs chagning). I think the exhaust was blowing during this trip, I didn't notice it until I got home, this may have cuased some damaged to the lambda??

 

[Alex P1]

Try leads an coilpack off a car local to you if possible? Also maybe worth checking injectors.

 

[KitsonRis]

Try leads an coilpack off a car local to you if possible? Also maybe worth checking injectors.

Presume the coil pack off my 1.4 daily Clio wont work 😂
From what I can find, there is no evidence of the coil pack being replaced in the huge stack of receipts I have. Car is on 167k miles, so it may be time to change them anyway! Just from past experience and what I have been told and found it is most likely to be coil pack, but I came across that thread about the blowing exhaust too.

 

[bloke]

flashing eml is an injector. blow pre cat will also cause running problems.

 

[Alex P1]

Yeah mate, chances are its the coilpack or leads, if you were local you could try mine see if that solved it. Injector's can get clogged up or just give up aswell which is what happened in my case. 167k i think she's earned a treat anyway wont do no harm replacing them :smiley:

 

[KitsonRis]

flashing eml is an injector. blow pre cat will also cause running problems.

Time to start swapping the injectors around to find the bad one?Or I did read somehwere to unplug each injector inturn while running, if it makes no difference then that is the bad one. But I don't really fancy pulling out injector plugs while the car is running! Or I just need to man up
I did notice that the bit of plastic that attaches the connection plug to the injector body was a little wobbly. The others don't move. But will a dodgey coil pack cause an injector fault - no spark and fuel together block the injector or stop it from working?

Yeah mate, chances are its the coilpack or leads, if you were local you could try mine see if that solved it. Injector's can get clogged up or just give up aswell which is what happened in my case. 167k i think she's earned a treat anyway wont do no harm replacing them :smiley:

I am saving up for a new engine - professional rebuild job with throttle bodies and cams etc - so this will be its treat, it just needs to wait!!

 

[bloke]

coilpack can't cause an injector fault. snapped connector on the injector will give problems.

 

[KitsonRis]

snapped connector on the injector will give problems.

it's not snapped, it just wiggles.

 

[bloke]

will probably still give problems. it's ok do unplug while it's running but that won't always show up bad injector.

 

[KitsonRis]

how do you check for a bad injector? Swap them over and see if the misfire changes?

 

[bloke]

decent diagnostic will identify specific injector or you can measure resistance.

 

[KitsonRis]

Job for next weekend then when I get back home! The OBD reader I have has picked up a previous injector issue and said which one it was a few years back. It seems to work well on the Clio compared to the other cars it has been used on. All these problems have to happen when the car is back on the road and ready for use :weary:

 

[Duk]

You have probably spotted this thread linked below but I had similar problems with the flashing orange dash light / solid dash light and a p300 random misfire. This progressed to a cylinder one misfire which I have now fixed by replacing the injectors (plugs were done first with no effect). Have a read and see if it sounds familiar, I didn't have a blowing exhaust though. Hope you get it running.

http://www.cliosport.net/threads/oh-god-please-not-the-injectors.789276/

 

[Mash.]

Unplug each injector one by one when engine is running, to diagnose the faulty injector - theres nothing wrong with that and you wont mess anything up by doing that.t

I have literally just come back in from replacing cylinder 1 and 2 injector on my ph1 engined 182 - diagnosed by doing the the process above.

I would say they're both unrelated (the blowing exhaust causing the misfire) I don't run a lamda sensor on mine and it idles and drives fine. On top of that previously the car ran fine when i left the lambda 'hole' open until my blank arrived off eBay.. so the exhaust was blowing and engine was running fine.

 

[KitsonRis]

You have probably spotted this thread linked below but I had similar problems with the flashing orange dash light / solid dash light and a p300 random misfire. This progressed to a cylinder one misfire which I have now fixed by replacing the injectors (plugs were done first with no effect). Have a read and see if it sounds familiar, I didn't have a blowing exhaust though. Hope you get it running.

http://www.cliosport.net/threads/oh-god-please-not-the-injectors.789276/

I have seen this thread, I probably should have paid a little more attention to it. I don't have the car with me atm so I can't do anything to it to check (unless my brother is tinkering with it). I am tempted to change the coil pack and HT leads as well as a precaution anyway. Did you replace all four injectors? Or just the broken one?

Unplug each injector one by one when engine is running, to diagnose the faulty injector - theres nothing wrong with that and you wont mess anything up by doing that.t

I have literally just come back in from replacing cylinder 1 and 2 injector on my ph1 engined 182 - diagnosed by doing the the process above.

Good, will do this the weekend. I have Friday off (9 day working fortnight woooo!) so I can do stuff with it then.

I am just glad this happened while I was at home and not visiting the girlfriend in North Wales!

 

[KitsonRis]

Have had a P0201 error back in August - car was sat unused for a week in the pouring rain. Misfire, three cyclinders and before I could pull over it was fine. It has been faultless ever since, although the car hasn't been used much since as it was taken off the road a few weeks after. The EML did flash the other week before driving to Wales on starting but it stopped after a few flashes and it didn't throw any error codes, so I sort of ignored it until it did it again. Presume it was on the way out when it flashed up and then last week it gave up the ghost.

 

[KitsonRis]

Just been told that it has a P0201 error code, so cylinder 1 isn't working. My brother said he removed the injector plug from it and it made no difference. Did the same to injector 4 (the only one he said he could get to without removing the rail guard) and it got worse. Injector 1 in the one with the wobbly connector. Or it could be fubar. Need to check the wiring on it as I am told the wires go across a sharp edge and liable to cut through, although when I had the car apart last weekend I couldn't see where this would be.
I am just worried that my brother has fixed it as he threatened to fix and go for a blast in it shred my new front tyres!!!

 

[KitsonRis]

Sorted. Injector 1 was swapped over and now it runs like it should. I knew I should have done all 4, but funds have been tight this month, any other month I would!
Thanks to @Duk for your link and the guide you found to do an injector change.