Disaster

I'm moving up to Aberdeen for a job next Thursday and I agreed to sell my car to a girl I know. She took it to the garage to get it checked out and they said that the fourth cylinder is misfiring. It causes the car to be slightly lumpy on idle but it runs fine.

I raised this issue (lumpy idle) last year with my Mazda dealer who services my car and they also said it was misfiring. They said that the car is fine when it revs and that the induction kit was causing the problem. I don't believe that was causing a problem though it's just easy to point the finger at the induction kit without analysing what's going on. Anyway that was a year ago and the problem is back to haunt me now.

The garage where it got checked out the other day said it could be
- sparks
- leads
- valve problem

I've had new spark plugs so thats not the cause. I'm nervous it could be serious.

What engine do you have?

Mark

The funny thing is that the garage where the girl took the car to get checked out serviced my car before....

A week after the service I had a grinding noise in the front wheel - the brake pad was completely worn away. If you don't check the brakes during a service what the hell do you do?

The irony is that when the girl took the car to get it checked out they came up with a detailed list of faults one of which was that the rear windscreen heater was constantly on. As it turned out he thought the light on the buttons to change the air vents was to demist the rear windscreen - thick f@/£er!!!!!!

Same as you I think Rich... 1.5 GLX

Sorry Mark wrong name!

I have the 1.8

Anyway, I'd have a look through for the biography of Rich's engine and brace your self for the worst

Hope it doesn't come to that though! Do you have the original airbox - just to rule that out?



Mark

Oh dear!

Ya well I suppose I can warn them about the scraper rings - hopefully my engine won't have to come apart 4 times then like Rich's!!!

It's a right pain in the balls now to sort out tho

I have the airbox alright. I put it back in not so long ago there and it didn't cure the problem.

I suppose she'll have to go to the doctor

Number four ain't earthing off the lead any where? The splits in the LT cables to the plugs don't have to be big or completley through the lead casing to cause an earth problem. Found this out on an older (new back in the day)'D' reg Seat Ibiza. Would run fine but terrible idle problem. One lead earthing to the block. Changed lead no problems.

Thats interesting about the lead. Thats one of the things the mechanic is going to check tomorrow so fingers crossed its that simple!

A compression test reveals that the first 3 cylinders are running at 10.5 bar while the 4th cyloinder is at 7.5 bar. The mechanic reckons there's a problem with a valve.

He thinks the job will cost between €500 - 800 euro.

He said that they might have to do some other stuff as well like skim the block to get a better seal when they are putting the head gasket back on. He also told me that I'd need a new timing belt as you can't re-tension them. I'm not sure if he's filling me with crap so i'll talk to another garage to make sure......

you dont need to skim the head they jus need to remove the gasket properly and fit the new one properly and of course u can re tension the belt u tension it wen u adjust the alternator so he's fillin u wiv some crap my freind check the leads as stated before coz it could well b them and check that number 4 piston isnt too coked up which could also cause a problem.

I'd go with the Valve theory intitally, get them to check the clearances before removing the head that could tell you one way or the other straight away. If the valves are buring out then the clearance for those valves will be smaller they may have closed up completely.

Turns out those stupid buggers at my Mazda garage fitted the wrong timing belt whch buggered up 8 of the valves

Turns out those stupid buggers at my Mazda garage fitted the wrong timing belt whch buggered up 8 of the valves

hope they r bloody well payin for it damn idiots how can u fit one which is too small or too big must of been the service departments fault as they supply the mechanic wiv the belt surely there was a part number on the belt and wot a stupid mechanic thats the first thing i check on a belt i know im on trucks but its the same principles our parts service is crap so we hav to check all the numbers before fittin. Hope it all goes well.