What's wrong with my car - Listed problems.

3rd November 2014, 17:32

-It requires revving of the engine (pressing accelerator when starting) to get it to start without stalling.

-It revs below 1k RPM.

-It continuously wants to stall/will stall when going into neutral and revs decreasing. Until it's stalled several times, then it seems to be ok and rev normally.

-It's started over-heating recently. I filled the water up the other week, but I checked it today and it was practically empty.

-Do I go and get a service done, or instead list these problems to a garage to fix.

I'm not mechanically minded.

3rd November 2014, 17:47

i had this a few days ago. With my saxo though it only seemed to do it for a couple of days before it rectified itself. Could be your ICV playing up though.

3rd November 2014, 17:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by sexysaxo_dan

i had this a few days ago. With my saxo though it only seemed to do it for a couple of days before it rectified itself. Could be your ICV playing up though.

Which problem, the stalling bit? It's been happening for like nearly a month now :/ I try to avoid garages at all costs.

3rd November 2014, 17:49

Idle control valve and throttle body could do with a good clean.
Head gasket could be on it's way out.
Try bleeding the coolant properly.
Does the thermostat open?

3rd November 2014, 17:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel

-It requires revving of the engine (pressing accelerator when starting) to get it to start without stalling.

-It revs below 1k RPM.

-It continuously wants to stall/will stall when going into neutral and revs decreasing. Until it's stalled several times, then it seems to be ok and rev normally.

-It's started over-heating recently. I filled the water up the other week, but I checked it today and it was practically empty.

-Do I go and get a service done, or instead list these problems to a garage to fix.

I'm not mechanically minded.

Okay, the first bit I've highlighted, will be a sticking Idle Control Valve. Remove it and clean it with diesel and clean the housing it sits in too. use a rag.

It's held on (most TU engines) by two t10? torx screws. I think they're T10.

You haven't told us what engine you have either. I would assume it's a 1.1 8v?

As for the overheating, it's probably got air lock. you should top up with coolant, NOT plain water. Otherwise, the water will boil away. If you don't know how to drain and refill your cooling system with 50:50 mix water and antifreeze, get the garage to do it. 0.5 hours plus materials. No garage should take longer than that or they're pullin ya leg.

3rd November 2014, 18:02

You haven't told us what engine you have either. I would assume it's a 1.1 8v?

As for the overheating, it's probably got air lock. you should top up with coolant, NOT plain water. Otherwise, the water will boil away. If you don't know how to drain and refill your cooling system with 50:50 mix water and antifreeze, get the garage to do it. 0.5 hours plus materials. No garage should take longer than that or they're pullin ya leg.[/QUOTE]

It's a 1.6 16v Vts mate. Thanks for all the advise, I'll have a chat with some mates to see if they could help me do some of that. I topped the water up again today, but, I only used normal tap water. Garages generally always pull my leg, especially for MOT's lol. Thanks again

3rd November 2014, 18:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by lewismonteith

Idle control valve and throttle body could do with a good clean.
Head gasket could be on it's way out.
Try bleeding the coolant properly.
Does the thermostat open?

My friend said about head gasket. Praying it's not that... And wouldn't know mate. Not even sure where thermostat is. Like I said I'm not mechanical at all ha, just wanted to hear some diagnostics here try get a few mates to help me with the suggestions. If all else fails I'll take to garage~

3rd November 2014, 18:21

If you've got mate who's handy with tools you could at least get the idle sorted, not a difficult job at all. Its worth properly bleeding the company system before looking any further into the over heating issue

3rd November 2014, 20:19

My mate took a look, turned out to be head gasket (

) and the water, gasket is sucking in water or smthng, affecting spark plugs? Goes above my head

3rd November 2014, 22:51

Should do a compression test to confirm it really.

If there was water getting into the cylinders, it would hydro-lock if left sitting or you'd have a horrendous misfire.

That or water in oil/oil in coolant and or cooling system pressurising - which would cause coolant to piss out the reservoir if you topped it up to max and give it a rev.

Gasket failures in 16v engines aren't that common. but if it's had an air lock then localised hot spots could have caused that. Make sure the head gets check for warp (no more than 0.005") and skimmed if need be.

4th November 2014, 00:51

do a compression/cylinder leakage test. Cylinder leakage tests are da bomb because you can easily tell if something up with yours interals. EG if you hear a gas leak through your dip stick then its one of the pistons rings(if i remember correctly). although with this problem its probably best to do a compression test just to confirm that its the head gasket!

4th November 2014, 12:42

Just opened up and looked at sparks in gasket , they're covered in oil lol