Advice please urgent regarding car cutting out???

J

justmadeit

I had a replacement engine put in by a breakers yard for £250 fitted, its running just about but keeps cutting out so i put new spark plugs in and a distributor cap and sprayed the bit under the air filter with carb spray. The breakers yard aint gonna do anything so its down to me.

I reckon the problem is with the fuel getting through somewhere or a fuel issue as ive been advised by my brother in law who drove it briefly. it has a full tank of petrol and the battery is fine.

The car will run round the block but not like it should do then lose power and conk out and not start.


Has anyone else come across this and do you have any advice??


Its an m reg 1 litre, good bodywork and i rely on it to pick up my son twice a week otherwise i could get by without a car

Pretty gutted at the mo for wasting my money on an engine if it aint gonna run

Any advice how to solve this much appreciated. thanks :)
 
does idle fine ?

maybe worth checking the fuses near the car battery one of those controls the injectors and may have corroded (you need to look at the netal holder and not the fuse).

Id check all Vac lines that go to the manifold etc, to make sure youve not got an air leak...but if its cutting out, in the way it sounds like it is and you wanna focus on fuel...then maybe a blocked fuel filter or hows about a bad fuel pressure regulator?.
 
solarice said:
does idle fine ?

Id check all Vac lines that go to the manifold etc, to make sure youve not got an air leak...but if its cutting out, in the way it sounds like it is and you wanna focus on fuel...then maybe a blocked fuel filter or hows about a bad fuel pressure regulator?.[/QUOTE]

Will the fuse say injector on it etc ? not near my car at mo.

is that easy to do . the pressure regulator ?

just keeps cutting out after driving not very far then trying to start and may idle but any pressure on the accelerator cuts out the engine then when its left for a while it may drive again briefly but not as it should, get the feeling somethings not getting through fuel wise unless its something else major, uff :(

What you reckon ?
Click to expand...
 
fuel filter is easy to switch...but if it was fine before the engine swap, then i guess you can focus first on the replacement engine itself.

pressure regulator is easyish to replace aswell...its on the end of the fuel rail (right hand side), you just need to relieve the pressure in the fuel lines then undo a couple of bolts / fuel line clips and then just switch it out.

does the car hesitate when driving? as it could also be the maf sensor in the throttle body...which you say youve already tried to clean.

It depends what you got with the new engine and if any parts were used from your old one.

Do you still have your old engine? as those parts could be swapped over one by one if you do.
 
I think you can test the maf by unplugging the sensors plug and forcing the ecu to fall back on it own settings...(can anyone confirm, if this will work)

may give you an idea...if that'll work though.
 
Had a similar sounding problem on our 96 Micra.
It would drive for about 5-10 mins and then die. It wouldn't start afterwards.

After leaving it an hour or so, it would start again and then die again after 5-10 mins.
It was caused by the distributor.
 
is this likely problem do you think, the throttle body?
it did seem to drive like there was a problem with fuel getting through and then just completly conked out, when i managed to get it started again any pressure on the accelerator and it would conk out and have huge trouble restarting

i have taken into the garage for them to diagnose it, they are looking at it monday anxd wont do the work untill they tell me what it is and how much its gonna cost

if i could do it myself i would, i just dread spending tons myself on stuff and it still not working which is why i took it into the garage.

or could it be a timing problem ?



ps, the soldering thing, is it easy and what is dry soldering? is it soldering those points in the photo? never done it before

or more likely fuel ??
 
I had a similar thing happen to my K10. Turned out it was losing the spark, due to a knackered ignition generator so I don't know if this will relate to the K11. Any attempt to apply power would cause it to judder and "hold back" (kangaroo) which made climbing hills rather tricky, then it started cutting out altogether. Cost about £150 to have it fixed. The two garages I took it to previously couldn't find the fault!

As for "dry soldering", I assume they meant "dry joints". This is where a crack appears around the leg of a component (or more usually, a connector socket or anything else subject to stress). Soldering is easy if you know how, sorry I can't help a bit more on that without actually showing you ;)


BG
 
Thinking back the 3 or 4 years ago when we had this problem. The AA man said it had a very weak spark and could not start.

Check the spark when the car is able start. Check again when it won't start.
I took ours to Nissan and paid silly money for a reconditioned distributor. I would guess you could get one from a breakers for £30ish.
 
no its not the spark, im pretty sure, checked the leads for sparking and they seem ok. likely a fuel problem, might try replacing the whole throttle body and see if that makes a difference, may go back to the breakers and get my original one off my old engine
 
it does sound like fuel.

it could be a NATS problem, if they used the ECU from a car with NATS then you will need the key from that car as well or else it wont work, or take an older ECU (pre 95 i think) and fit that.

the NATS cuts the fuel pump after a few minutes. so when you turn the engine on, the fuel pump primes and the engine runs but then the fuel pump cuts out, it wont come back on if the engine has only just been running because it will assume that the system is already primed. if you leave it off for a bit then the system will start from scratch and re prime the engine.

you could check the fuel pump is running (listen for it priming when you turn the ignition on)

check the fuel pump relay (behind the kick panel on the driver's side, small green relay)

check all the fueses both in the car and in the engine bay

check the fuel filter is not clogged (in the engine bay below the wiper motor)

check the return pipe is not blocked


other than that, i am not sure what you can do...
 
NeX said:
it does sound like fuel.

it could be a NATS problem, if they used the ECU from a car with NATS then you will need the key from that car as well or else it wont work, or take an older ECU (pre 95 i think) and fit that.
the NATS cuts the fuel pump after a few minutes. so when you turn the engine on, the fuel pump primes and the engine runs but then the fuel pump cuts out, it wont come back on if the engine has only just been running because it will assume that the system is already primed. if you leave it off for a bit then the system will start from scratch and re prime the engine.

you could check the fuel pump is running (listen for it priming when you turn the ignition on)

check the fuel pump relay (behind the kick panel on the driver's side, small green relay)

check all the fueses both in the car and in the engine bay

check the fuel filter is not clogged (in the engine bay below the wiper motor)

check the return pipe is not blocked


other than that, i am not sure what you can do...
Click to expand...

what is nats and the ecu ?? my car knowledge could be better :)


by the way i went back to the breakers yard and they did use my original throttle body which was working ok prior to the old engine breaking so it kinda rules out that ?
 
justmadeit said:
what is nats and the ecu ?? my car knowledge could be better :)


by the way i went back to the breakers yard and they did use my original throttle body which was working ok prior to the old engine breaking so it kinda rules out that ?
Click to expand...

NATS, Nissan Anti Theift System, its a built in factory immobiliser build into the engine computer, the engine computer is under the dash behind the little space for CDs (infront of the gear stick) it controls the engine, but if the NATS kicks in then it stops it. ask them if they changed the ECU
 
NeX said:
NATS, Nissan Anti Theift System, its a built in factory immobiliser build into the engine computer, the engine computer is under the dash behind the little space for CDs (infront of the gear stick) it controls the engine, but if the NATS kicks in then it stops it. ask them if they changed the ECU
Click to expand...

is the ecu easy to replace if i get it out of the car at the breakers yard and put into mine ?

is this a likely problem you reckon ?
 
justmadeit said:
is the ecu easy to replace if i get it out of the car at the breakers yard and put into mine ?

is this a likely problem you reckon ?
Click to expand...

its a case of unbolting it, (unbolts from the front 10mm bolt) take the whole thing on the frame as well, or you will need a torx bit to take it off the frame. then there is a 10mm bolt holding the plug in. its plug and play.

the very square boxes with sharp corners are NATS, the more rectangle ones with the rounded corners are pre NATS.

it could be that if it has never run right. if it has and now doesn't then its probably not.

use a pre NATS unit, because using a NATS one means you need the wiring and transponder and key etc, too much effort
 
how do i know it its a pre nats unit? man i didnt know it could be so complicated, thought i could just swap the engine from another 1.0 litre :(
 
justmadeit said:
how do i know it its a pre nats unit? man i didnt know it could be so complicated, thought i could just swap the engine from another 1.0 litre :(
Click to expand...

like i said, its more rounded and rectangular.

just check with the breakers if they changed the ECU, they shouldn't have, and really you shouldn't have to change the ECU just the engine. it would be a simple swap unless they have put in a NATS ECU for some reason.

check your ECU too, you can see it if you get right in the footwell and look behind the dash, over the exhaust tunnel.
 
justmadeit said:
mines an m reg 94, think the car may have been similar or a year or 2 newer at most
Click to expand...

that might be it, 95 was around the time that NATS came out. if they decided to use the ECU as well then that will be your problem. has it ever run right?

all you need is to get your old ECU, plug it straight back in and all is good.
 
Update

well i took it to the garage and he wasnt sure. he took the exhaust off and said it idled fine without it so suspected a blockage or damaged cat convertor but said it would be expensive to fix. So i said i cant afford to be spending anymore.......anyhow i decided to try the orginal distributor and changed the rotor arm and its driving ok now and not cutting out, but its early days and probably could do with a good tune to run to its best and get the compression etc tested. but at least its running so im pleased for now.....until next time

ta to everyone for the advice, these forums are great for info and tips :)
 
justmadeit said:
well i took it to the garage and he wasnt sure. he took the exhaust off and said it idled fine without it so suspected a blockage or damaged cat convertor but said it would be expensive to fix. So i said i cant afford to be spending anymore.......anyhow i decided to try the orginal distributor and changed the rotor arm and its driving ok now and not cutting out, but its early days and probably could do with a good tune to run to its best and get the compression etc tested. but at least its running so im pleased for now.....until next time

ta to everyone for the advice, these forums are great for info and tips :)
Click to expand...

very strange, at least you got it going, update us if it does it again. sounds like that guy was trying to con you for a new exhaust.
 
Not a very common problem but I have seen others on here and other forums with this problem caused by the distributor.

Glad you got it sorted without a big bill.
 
Update 2

Well its running and not cutting out......but its not running right, it is still missing ever so slightly. Not functioning fully, ive checked the leads and they seem ok.

Could it be a sign the timing is out and if so is it worth me getting a guy in to tune it or test for probs etc ?? One of those autotune guys that tests for everything.

What is the likely cause, any ideas/advice ??? :)
 
justmadeit said:
Well its running and not cutting out......but its not running right, it is still missing ever so slightly. Not functioning fully, ive checked the leads and they seem ok.

Could it be a sign the timing is out and if so is it worth me getting a guy in to tune it or test for probs etc ?? One of those autotune guys that tests for everything.

What is the likely cause, any ideas/advice ??? :)
Click to expand...


you mean a diagnositic test?
 
A guy is coming out next week to test my car, it lacks power a lot, the engine that went in had done 73,000 miles and my old one had done 97,000 and it had more power than this one. whats the lack of power caused by do you think ???

Could it be the engine is knackered, its ok when it gets going at say 30 plus miles an hour but theres no power there on setting off or if i had to pull out of a junction.
 

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