Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

Engines, Transmissions & Final Drive questions and answers

Moderators: timk, Stu, zombie, Andrew, The American, Lokiel, -alex, miata, StanTheMan, greenMachine, ManiacLachy, Daffy

User avatar
mattah
Driver
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:09 pm
Vehicle: NA6

Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

Postby mattah » Wed Sep 15, 2010 9:40 pm

1992 NA

Car has been driving great lately, but just on Friday one hill from home the car started coughing and spluttering. The engine sounds like it's strangled and breaking down under load, and it seems to have gotten worse since it first happened. I can barely get it above 30km/hr going uphill for a test drive. Pulled the plugs and they were all white, so I figured it might be a fuel issue.

So so far I have changed the fuel filter, checked the pump and fuel pressure and it all seems fine. I then got the idea into my head that maybe the cat had collapsed and was strangling exhaust flow. So I took that off, but it also seems fine.

Any ideas? I haven't done anything to the car lately, and I did a cursory check of the timing (just checked to see if the CAS had moved), intake leaks etc and that all seems ok. Oil pressure is good and the car didn't overheat at the time. The plugs are only 6k old, although one of them already looks a bit burnt. Maybe it's time to change the plug leads as well.

Cheers,

93_Clubman
Speed Racer
Posts: 11857
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2005 11:35 pm
Vehicle: Clubman
Location: Melbourne

Re: Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

Postby 93_Clubman » Thu Sep 16, 2010 2:24 am

breaking down under load, i.e. on a hill or trying to accelerate from from low revs when you're a gear to high - reckon it's plug leads if you've not changed them fairly recently.

User avatar
JBT
Speed Racer
Posts: 7946
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 11:00 am
Vehicle: NC
Location: Brisbane

Re: Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

Postby JBT » Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:51 am

+ 1 for plug leads.
Image

User avatar
mattah
Driver
Posts: 74
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 6:09 pm
Vehicle: NA6

Re: Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

Postby mattah » Fri Sep 17, 2010 2:24 am

Yep, it was plug leads.

User avatar
Okibi
Speed Racer
Posts: 10901
Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:00 am
Vehicle: NB SE
Location: Perth, Western Australia
Contact:

Re: Help: car is running rough all of a sudden

Postby Okibi » Tue Sep 21, 2010 9:38 pm

Glad it was an easy fix, sorry I didn't see this thread until later, could have swapped over a set of leads and helped you diagnose the problem.
If you had access to a car like this, would you take it back right away? Neither would I.


Return to “MX5 Engines, Transmission & Final Drive”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 110 guests