NelsonUK

o.k

I am on the verge of giving up on the car as I have tried loadsa things to no avail. Some months ago I had a problem with my O2 sensor wiring. I had an ECU code and repaired the wiring problem and hey presto. At the time of me getting the cel I was getting major (wot can only be described as) kangooring - cue the reason for me checking the ecu. The O2 sensor was reqired and I replced the plugs and coil packs at the same time. However not long after this I started to notice that the car would lose power at certain times. Originally it wasn't the often but every now and then I could watch the boost gauge and it would fire around but no punch etc. Now I have replaced all 4 coil packs (turned out the originals were past their sell by date) I have replaced plugs and regapped them to 0.7. I have relaced the MAF, O2, coolant sensor, throttle position sensor, refitted oem air box having taken off piperx induction but the problem still persists. The real worry is the problem is getting worse and is this loss of power is becoming very frequent. The car is running with a unichip (originally correctly mapped) and a mechanical boost controller. The problem can happen when cold but generally feels like hesitation - however it deffo happens when the car is warm. The problem generally occurs under load (2 up WOT on a hill) and it feels like the cars throttle sticks. U can feel stuttering under boost and whilst the boost gauge shoots around the scale (to about 15 psi) the car just doesnt accelerate. This also happens when the car is on the flat and lets say you are in 4th and put your foot down. You can feel a fair bit of vibration in the pedal and whilst the gauge shows lots of psi - the engine growls but there is a complete lack of boost and even engine acceleration ? Had this happen tonight and when I stopped at the first junction (having come off the motorway) on came the rad fans. Touch the throttle and the fan cuts leave it and it starts again. Got the car home and left it running for a couple of minutes but the fan continued blowing. Felt the top rad hose - hot - felt the bottom rad - cold !!??and the fans were blowing cold air around an engine that didn't really feel to hot ?? Turned the engine off and immediately back on and this time no rad fans at all. Waited but nothing the fan stayed off????? Can ECU and or Chips - fail ? On the basis I have replaced all the sensors I can think of and given the fact that interpro in bristol cant get the car in until March - I would be very grateful for anybodys ideas and or input cos I am tempted to just trade her out and buy a Vauxhall or something

NelsonUK

Oh yea and I forgot to mention that the car is using excessive amounts of fuel at the moment and when the massive lack of power problem comes on - you can almost watch the fuel tank drain??

cheers

wally

MY tought you should try to run without a Unichip, just for checking. The Unichip misleads the Ecu's info so it's maybe a wrong map or a shortvut inside, even Unichips can fail...

Bob Rawle

Yup, take off the Unichip and see if it is still doing the same, if so then ask your Unichip source to sort it out for you as either the Unichip has "failed" or maybe there is/was some sort of dry solder joint in the loom when it was fitted causing the good map to feed false info to the ecu.

cheers

bob

scoobyboy

could be the temp sensor that can make the fans run all the time as it goes in to limp home mode it can't tell the temp of the engine so it runs them all the time just in case would also explain the heavy usage of fuel.
but on the down side i've had problems with headgaskets causing the bottom hose to be cold whilst also making the fans run all the time. does the temp gauge move at allcoz if the gaskets have gone it usally shows up after a good run then leave it idling the fans cut in and the temp goes right up.