91 4age levin has a bad miss

[kyliebrat]

my levin has a bad miss an trying to figure out what it is. A few garages in town have done stuff to it like check the air flow meter, replaced the spark plugs, thermostat and fuel filter. When driving, the car struggles like its not getting gas and needs to be thrashed to kind of like blow it out. The miss is a little different and hard to explain. A garage has connected the car to a computer thing and says its not picking up some codes so they seem to think it may be the computer. Does anyone have any ideas or anything that could help as ive spent nearly a grand already trying to get the thing fixed and its my 1st project car so would like to finish it.

[kyliebrat]

It also runs very rich

[Dell'Orto]

Check for vacuum leaks? Does it idle higher than normal?

[kyliebrat]

No its nearly cutting out on me idling now. Before it used to idle high though but since the new spark plugs and thermostat it idles low as

[DocT]

I would check the injectors. Maybe dirty and producing a crap spray pattern or one of them may be internally shorted and pulsing incorrectly. That could produce a wetted plug that will drop your idle and cause a missfire and make it run rich. does it miss at idle or only under load?

[kyliebrat]

It does missfire too.
My ex bf who is a mechanic is still trying to fix it and he said last year he cleaned the injectors cos he played around with the airflow meter too. But i'll tell him that. My grandad has just suggested changing the coil too.

[kyliebrat]

the miss is when im driving and its been like it for over a year. The idle is a total new problem ... the check engine lite keeps coming on and sometimes my car needs jump starting to start.

[Lloyd]

Bridge the terminals in the diagnostics box to get the fault codes out see what shows up. Idle and fuelinng issues could be anything from air flow meter to something as simple as a water temp sensor.

Is it all the plugs that are black or just certain ones?

[kyliebrat]

I havnt seen the plugs sorry. I know that pitstop put NGK plugs in last year and then another garage took them out and replaced them with ones that start with "I" sorry i cant remember what they are called

[Dell'Orto]

If the check engine light is coming on, it ought to have a fault code.
In your engine bay, look for the little black box that says diagnostic on it. With a bit of wire, bridge the E1 and T1 terminals, then turn the key to on. The check engine light will start flashing in a sequence like flash-flash-flash pause flash-flash.
See what comes up and let us know.

[kyliebrat]

yep i know where that is. I will have to do it when i go home as my car is in town still. So i should write down the sequence in which the engine lite comes on and post it on this? Do you think it has anything to do with the computer?

[l1ttle_d3vil]

did nathan not get this sorted?? get a new mechanic!! haha.

we've tried putting it in diagnostics mode but when E1 and T1 are shorted out and the ignition turned on, the check light just stays on and doesnt flash. can't seem to get fault codes out of it at all. the new plugs which were put in would've been platinum or iridium.

i was having a read through this thread yesterday and some of the problems sound similar. viewtopic.php?t=46052
it doesn't mention anything about a bad idle though, but it was idling fine here yesterday? its a long thread, but the main points in there are:

* clean the throttle bodys
* fit a oil catch can
* replace the o2 sensor
* other stuff which I can't remember

whats everyone else think, problem is related to the things in the above thread or something completely different?

[kyliebrat]

oh hey you
Nup didnt get it fixed. Kane from hi way tyres has been fixing it for the past year and a half (ex bf) and knows all the history so im just writing all this stuff down and he can do it lol.
Yeah i was reading that other one before and its quite similar and seems like a lot of blacktops get that but mines silvertop which is a bit different. the spark plugs are iridium i couldnt remember what they were called.

[Mr Revhead]

do the fault code test. double check you are shorting the correct terminals.
try starting then car and see what happens with the codes.

the ecus and AFMs are known to fail on these.

[l1ttle_d3vil]

do the fault code test. double check you are shorting the correct terminals.
try starting then car and see what happens with the codes.

yep definitely were the correct terminals, also tried jiggling the wire around to make sure it was making a connection but it made no difference. tried starting it and switching it off but still nothing, the check light just stays on constantly.

[Dell'Orto]

Use proper plugs, it works heaps better. Often the waterproofing grease in there will stop plain old wires from working.

[kyliebrat]

proper plugs for what?

[Dell'Orto]

Just to plug into the diag. box, not just bare wire

[l1ttle_d3vil]

where do you get the proper plugs from? spade terminals are too big to fit in...

kylie - if you want, tell nathan to bring it round again and we can have another go at getting fault codes out of it...

[matt dunn]

we've tried putting it in diagnostics mode but when E1 and T1 are shorted out and the ignition turned on, the check light just stays on and doesnt flash.

If you bridged the correct terminals and dont get the light flashing

a, You did it wrong.
b, the bulb is blown,
c, the ECU is stuffed.

That is the only 3 options.