Possible missfire?

[weebob]

Rightio,

This one is going to be difficult to explain chaps (and lady's)

A week ago after filling up at a petrol station my 197 struggled starting, could hear the starter turning over but the engine didn't fire for a good 5-7 seconds, it did this a couple of times over two days and then hasn't done it since. Had a similar issue on a Megane 2, turned out it was a coil pack.

Anyway, no idea if this is related but onto today...

After driving for about five mins, I was sat at a junction, went to pull out and the car spluttered and what I think is a missfire, I gave it more revs (mainly due to the in coming car) and it just didn't rev at all, the rev counter climbed really slowly, sounded really rough like it was on three cylinders and there was loads of vibration. I dipped the clutch and the car struggled to idle, pulsing from about 400rpm to about 700rpm.

Further on I had the car in third gear @30mph, planted my foot and got nothing but vibration and car sounds really rough.

No engine warning lights and after about thirty seconds or so this problem seems to pass and the car is ok engine, although doesn't seem as eager to rev (this could be in my head).

I have a mate with a ODBII reader so Ill get that on it tomorrow just in case.

I will try to get a video of it up.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Foxspeed]

difficult.....

me - i would check the tdc sensor

if it was a bad mis-fire you would/should be getting the "check engine" light on...

might also be a faulty fuel pump!

check for any loose connections on the engine - is the fuel level low?
have you filled up from a different garage?

try to think if theres anything changed since it did it?

 

[Andreas187]

Sounds like a coil pack. I had one go on my TT and it sounded and felt terrible

 

[weebob]

difficult.....

me - i would check the tdc sensor

if it was a bad mis-fire you would/should be getting the "check engine" light on...

might also be a faulty fuel pump!

check for any loose connections on the engine - is the fuel level low?
have you filled up from a different garage?

try to think if theres anything changed since it did it?

Cheers for the reply

How would I check the tdc sensor?

Have about 1/4 of a tank in at the time.

When I filled up the car was on fumes, never used the garage before, was a BP.

Nothing else has changed, except a bloody bulb going again.

 

[weebob]

Sounds like a coil pack. I had one go on my TT and it sounded and felt terrible

Cheers for the reply, is there anyway to check the packs, other than swapping them out?

 

[weebob]

Used the mighty search function for the tdc sensor, unsure I can change that with my sausage fingers and lack of man skills.

 

[Andreas187]

you can pull out the coil packs one by one. if you pull a good one it will be on 2 cylinders and obviously feel worse. if you pull a faulty one it will remain on 3 cylinders and lumpy

 

[Mentalpen]

hook the OBD up to dashcommand on a mobile or its desktop version scanXL and see what it says.

 

[weebob]

you can pull out the coil packs one by one. if you pull a good one it will be on 2 cylinders and obviously feel worse. if you pull a faulty one it will remain on 3 cylinders and lumpy

The thing is its not on three all the time, kind of wish it was. I left it idling before and was fine for twenty mins. Went for a drive and couple of mins again, put my foot on the accelerator, spultter and massive vibration, struggling idling

 

[Fernandez]

Check the pencil coils, I have a couple spare if one of them is duff

 

[Deaks]

Had this exact problem along with esp lights, turned out to be coil packs.

 

[weebob]

Complete n00b at this but can I just remove the connector at the top of the coil to see which one is buggered?

Definatley down to three cylinders this morning, no engine warning lights though...

 

[Paddy_R]

Yep. If you disconnect them one at a time you should notice the difference when you disconnect the ones that are working.

 

[weebob]

Balls.

ran though a ODB scanner, no faults found.

disconnected each coil made it run much worse, soooo it must be still firing on all cylinders, just dog rough.

Plan now is to check the spark plugs, maybe.

 

[matt_brown_92]

I had this exact same thing on a 1.2 clio i was running for a few weeks. It was intermittent, but at it's worst the car would stall when I stopped, warning light was intermittent too. Asked the mechanics where I work to look at it.. it was a misfire on 2 cylinders and the coils needed replacing. I know very little about this kinda thing, but to me it sounds like the same thing which must mean coils. The vibrations to me would suggest it isn't running on 4?

 

[Mentalpen]

what scanning program are you using? i can give you ScanXL professional.

cough, cough i mean PAY for it unless you already have and i can help you remember your registration details in that case.

Evening Officer

 

[weebob]

Used torque on android. Expect a pm

 

[ryan197]

If youve unplugged the coils and its run worse then i would say it wouldnt be the spark plugs either, my next thing to check would be injectors then fuel pump.

 

[weebob]

Given up. Dropped it off at Renault now.

Was sat doing 40, car seemed fine then it was like I turned the car off, engine turned off, 'please remove card', interior light came on, stereo turned off. Bit of a bum twitchy moment. No indication this was going to happen.

Luckily I wasn't that far from Arnold Clark blackpool, popped in to see if there was anything obvious and they have taken the doomed Clio in and given me a courtesy car.

 

[ryan197]

I would say fuel pump was on the way out, and now has totally gone.