Another Ugandan problem

[straggler]

Hi all,

I live in Uganda and drive a 1990ish 1L Micra. It was a personal import from Japan so has power steering, air con (not working) and a catalytic converter. I took it on its first long run last weekend and was horrified to find it was only doing 34mpg. I've checked the air filter, disconnected the autochoke (average temp here is 25+C so not really needed), checked the plugs etc all to no avail.

In an earlier post I got some useful information telling me that a dashboard warning light indicated the cat was overheating. A friend suggested that the cat may be blocked, therefore getting hot and lighting up my dashboard. He suggested taking the cat off and "ramming a bloody big pipe through it" to effectively bypass it and clear the back pressure. So my question is - is this a sensible thing to do and will it work?!

By the way, I'm a fully licensed tight arse so drive economically as a matter of course. You can't really go over 50mph here anyway. Pothole/pedestrian/elephant strike is an ever-present danger. I was expecting at least 45mpg.

 

[solarice]

It may just need a service (fuel filter etc) though you have said youve checked simlar already...tbh if youre going to the trouble of "ramming a pipe through" the cat, you may aswell just use the pipe and weld on some flanges...making yourself a decat. (unless it needs to appear that the cats still there)

 

[straggler]

Cheers for that. Haven't looked at the fuel filter yet.

Is there any problem with removing the cat as far as the mixture etc goes? Not many exhaust gas analysers over here!

Another problem I have is the tickover. I've wound off the adjusting screw so far that it came out! There's supposed to be a fast idle adjusment somewhere but I can't find it.....

 

[superls]

the k10's dont need a cat in the uk because of the age of them (pre 1993) so if it were mine id take the cat out cs in my opinion they only restrice the cars power, especially on a car where it was not needed.

 

[straggler]

Any idea how I drop the fast idle? The car has some electronic gubbins that ups the tickover when the power steering is used.....

What should I be expecting mpg-wise? I was thinking 45 should be easily achievable.

Cheers