Not the MAF sensor...

[Muckypup]

Hi Guys,
only been trying to sort my p*ssing engine out since last November... intermittent miss-fire / power loss / spluttering.
Changed pretty much all of the obvious, fixed pretty much every issue with the engine but still have the same damn problem.
All of the obvious have been changed (plugs, leads, dizzy cap, rotor arm, filters, coil, fit de-cat pipe, new exhaust, manifold leak welded, new 02 sensor, checked throttle position sensor, replaced MAF sensor, replaced ignition switch) I am at a bit of a loss AGAIN.
The weird thing is, everytime I changed one of the above it ran perfectly for a few miles then went back to running bad????
It cant be fuel linked as it does the same whether running on petrol or gas. Obviously on gas it miss-fires even worse than on petrol but the problem is definitely there on both fuels.

I am almost there, the car drives better than it ever has, BUT the main problem is still present. When you put your foot down it sometimes miss-fires and starts jumping like a kangaroo, or just decides to stay flat and give you no power, or sometimes goes like a rocket. Totally intermittent.

WHAT COULD BE CAUSING THIS???

I know of one other issue I have yet to sort, but I just cannot see it being the route cause of the issue. I know the thermostat is not working properly, it does not allow the engine to get up to the proper running temp (stays around 60 degrees)
Could that cause an intermittent miss-fire?


I might be starting to sound a little pathetic here, but this car is starting to make me ill! I simply cannot afford to replace it due to what I have spent on it and I am getting myself into difficulties paying for parts that make no difference, useless diagnostics and garage inspections, and of course the amount of fuel it is eating through not running right. I need the car to get to work everyday to keep paying for parts, but it honestly only just makes it there and struggles to climb the hill just before the premises.

Any advise is greatly appreciated!!!! :nenau

 

[Muckypup]

Something else I over looked mentioning, if you drive it quite hard, say on a country lane and keep plenty of revs it goes pretty much ok. Its when you drive it gently around town the problem rears its head and it becomes almost impossible to drive. You can bring the revs up but as soon as the clutch is realeased the miss-fire becomes apparent and it nearly stalls on set off. Then its chug chug chug down the road untill boom all the power comes in and your away only to go through the same again when you change gear.
It does the same on the motorway. Say your accelerating down the slip road its ok, as soon as you start feathering the accelorator to stay around 70 - kangaroo syndrome kicks in.
Hit traffic where you are changing gear regulally, stop start its almost impossible to drive

 

[clivvy]

hmm, ok, so your on a petrol/gas combo.

not sure about the petrol engine in yours, but here goes:

throttle body, is that dirty?
vaccum pipe from air filter, is it attached?
spark plugs?
HT leads?
but personally, id be looking at throttle body. My mates Mazda MX6 did this, it was a combination of things, one being a dirty and badly adjusted throttle body, gave it a clean, adjusted the idle and re attached his air filter box pipe and this fixed the issue. OH, also he had a dody HT lead-was two leads taped together, so we changed that as well.

 

[clivvy]

also, im sure i read something recently about the thermostat causing issues if you cant get up to temperature, so may be worth checking. im checking mine for a similar reason, except mine just has a hardly noticable jump in idling...!

 

[zippy656]

oh try looing at fuel filters BOTH of them

 

[clivvy]

oh try looing at fuel filters BOTH of them

he says hes already checked filters....does the 2.4 petrol have a mini filter?

 

[zippy656]

um um
um


there is a manual for the engin some place on here..


will look when i get home later if youve not found it

 

[rayf3262]

KA24:
http://www.sferamydlo.com.pl/Zbyszek/Nissan/WD21/EM.pdf

 

[Muckypup]

Just been speaking to a mechanic I know that has never seen the car until now. The guy is real knowledgable as he builds and races rally cars, and has done for 15-20 years as well as being a full time auto-engineer, so I thought it worth him looking over it.
He suspects the thermostat would not be causing the problem, in his own words "that wouldnt make it do that!"
He also noted the engine almost stalling under braking, say you are slowing for a set of traffic lights and depress the clutch, the rev counter needle drops to almost 0 and the car is ready for cutting out. Come to a stop, pull on the handbrake and release foot brake and the revs slowly build back up to about 400/500rpm. This is ever so slightly better on petrol, but that would always be the case and the issue is still present however (so I know its not the gas system)
He said that could possibly be a vacuum leak causing that, which could possibly cause the engine problems...

I WOULDNT KNOW WHERE TO START LOL!

 

[4wheel]

2.4 Petrol

Had a similar problem years ago.The vacuum pipe to the brake booster was leaking and in this particular vehicle the outlet was on the inlet manifold/carb etc.Not sure how it is set up on the T2 but worh a check as it could upset the mixture no end.That may be the reason she nearly cuts out on braking as the booster is drawing vacuum.Just a thought and good luck.

 

[JimmyJaffa]

Do we have a idle speed control valve as these get a bit dirty inside and sometimes need just a bit of cleaning, also 400/500 rpm is to slow should be about 750 mark.

 

[Darwin]

distributor ?

 

[Muckypup]

RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally got somewhere

Like I said i've only been trying since November...

As I had a holiday booked for a week this coming Saturday, and this coming weekend I am at a show with my business I thought I had better get stuck into solving this bloody issue! So Friday I set off to my mates in St Helens and we proceeded to check EVERYTHING!
After a long time going over the jobs I had done we found everything was fine. Good compression, no gasses in coolent, even checked the gaps on the spark plug and they were spot on. So that was the engine running ok.
Next check fuel...
Petrol spot on, new filter fit again just in case. Check gas system, lap-top says everything is fine, good fuel pressure all settings a-ok.
Hmmmm, car still not running right though.
So we go a little deeper, checked throttle position sensor several times AGAIN allsorts but still not solved.
So now we hit the road with the lap top still plugged in, everything was fine till I hit the motorway and thats when things started showing on the lap-top :naughty
Back to the garage, fit four new gas injection solonoid thingys and straight away you can hear a different tone on tick over. Back on the lap-top and a full re-tune of the gas ECU and a tune up for the petrol system and BINGO the car appears to be sorted!
The really strange thing is that there was an electrical fault with the gas system, yet it was affecting the way the engine ran on petrol??? How does that work?
But regardless, I am happy now and I have a truck that pulls! No more intermittent power loss and a whole lot more power to start with! In fact I might say the 2.4I is quite quick for a big 4x4! Very spritely especially in 1st & 2nd, the gearing suits the extra power well :clap

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HAS OFFERED THEIR ADVISE IN THE MONTHS I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIX THIS BLOODY MOTOR :thumb2 :thumb2 :thumb2

All I have to do now is figure out how to remove the rusty nut from the top of my rear pass side shocker, its so rotten it flaked to bits

 

[solarman216]

All I have to do now is figure out how to remove the rusty nut from the top of my rear pass side shocker, its so rotten it flaked to bits [/QUOTE]

Nut splitter, available for a few £ from most motor factors, hydraulic are best but dearer, all they are is a small hand held tool with a long bolt in the end that pushes a chisel point into a circle of steel in to which you fit your rusty nut, both types look almost the same but hydraulic uses a larger diameter chisel with a grease capsule behind it so giving greater force wen scewing the bolt in, Rick

 

[paulp]

probs

I did not realise that your truck had a LPG conversion

point 1 - a dodgy thermostat causes all kinds of problems as the gas has to be of a certain tempeture to work properly.

point 2 - the lpg system and the ECU with the petrol system must "talk" otherwise it will run shite.

I got rid of a 3.9 disco, which i paid a certified company (2K) put a multipoint LPG system on new but it never worked properly, either worked around town and not on a motorway or vica versa.

best way to to sort LPG is to buy a diesel

paulp

 

[Muckypup]

Rick - the nut splitter is the way forward then! Thanks :thumb2

Paulp - I would have never thought that the gas system would have upset the engine when running on petrol! Main thing is it appears to be sorted now, plenty of power on both fuels and it pulls like a steam train what ever the load. Still need to do the rad and stat though as I know they wont be helping things, but as mentioned it is running a1 at the moment!
I've had a few diesel 4x4s and a few petrol ones and I cant make my mind up which I prefer. I dont get great economy from a diesel 4x4 due to the area I live in. Burnley is slapped in the middle of the pennines and every road is a slope. Due to this if the diesel is n/a then they are just powerless because of the hills, if its turbo then you eat fuel due to the turbo working hard. Drive gently to compensate and you might as well own a tractor.
I wanted a gas motor as petrol engines rev better on the hills and are quite a bit nippier around town. I currently get around 60 miles to £10 of gas, or 30 miles to £10 of petrol. My last diesel 4x4 was a 1996 Daihatsu 2.8 and I achieved around 40 miles to £10 of diesel.
Clearly the gas is the out-right winner for economy, but only when running right! I am lucky though, I have a very good friend who is a gas fitter and I bought the kit second hand for £200. (lucky find as its multi point!) Had I paid the going rate for the conversion it would not be as economical

 

[paulp]

problems

hi muckypup glad all is ok.

the gas ecu had some how upset the petrol ecu buggering up the fuel air mixture.

any way academic now all is ok - pleased for you mate

paulp

 

[Muckypup]

Cheers Paul! :thumb2

Got the shocker sorted today too, I finally gave up chewing at the rusty nut lol!
Went to a decent traditional garage I know and the guy swapped the shocker for me and included a shiney new nut for just 1 hour labour charge @ £30. Wasnt worth messing with for that!!!! :doh


Down to my very last issue, the slightly blowy manifold.
I paid the guys at Budget £40 to try and sort it for me. They did... for a short while but now I have a slight blow agaion and its enough to make just a slight difference to the power when you floor it. (my mav works hard so this cannot be!) So its back to Budget with it to let them attack the last blowy bit and hopefully she's a minter!! :clap

 

[Muckypup]

Well I say last issue.... just remembered the timing chain :doh

But thats gonna wait for a little while, get my holiday out of the way first!!! (I was cutting it fine with the repairs as planned to take the Mav as i'm fishing in Cornwall)