I have had a problem for some time that I haven't worried about until now as our kids are picking up the car in Greece and driving through Italy. while accelerating the car starts to pulse jitter back and forth like its a fuel/ignition problem, Im not sure if its an auto transmission (pure drive) issue or something else. my mechanic said it could be the coils however im not convinced of that as I can make it disappear by lifting pulsing the accelerator once or pressing the sports button on the shifter and it only seems to do it between 2-3 gear. Any thought what may be the problem or dignostic technics I could use. odb2 shows nothing wrong.
K13 jitter pulsing when accelerating
- Thread starter hatzo
- Start date
I replaced all the coils and still same problem. So haven’t found a resolve yet
CVTs in some cars are notorious for their infamous "rubber-band effect" and the Micra K13 is no exception.
Although it was an ongoing annoyance with my Micra K13, the most recent incident left me anxious and nearly stranded at night - as I was driving the car, there was more jerking / rubber-band effect than usual during acceleration / quick deceleration and it had done the same the previous day to that.
Suddenly the car struggled to go past 50 Kmph speed on an even road even with the floored accelerator peddle. The engine made noticeably more noise and was shaking and vibrating drastically in its place along with the entire car as if the engine was dying on me.
Service centre (SC) visit was inevitable and I had the car towed there. The diagnosis was out in 30 mins - Injector coil number 3 had failed; the car was running on two cylinders only! What was strange is that there were three other Micra (different models) that had the same problem that day at the SC. Apparently water easily enters the injector coils causing their premature failure esp. when people get the engine compartment water washed.
I learned that day that the computerized diagnosis at the service centre cannot identify a failing injector coil but only after it fails.
Sorry about the lengthy comment.
Although it was an ongoing annoyance with my Micra K13, the most recent incident left me anxious and nearly stranded at night - as I was driving the car, there was more jerking / rubber-band effect than usual during acceleration / quick deceleration and it had done the same the previous day to that.
Suddenly the car struggled to go past 50 Kmph speed on an even road even with the floored accelerator peddle. The engine made noticeably more noise and was shaking and vibrating drastically in its place along with the entire car as if the engine was dying on me.
Service centre (SC) visit was inevitable and I had the car towed there. The diagnosis was out in 30 mins - Injector coil number 3 had failed; the car was running on two cylinders only! What was strange is that there were three other Micra (different models) that had the same problem that day at the SC. Apparently water easily enters the injector coils causing their premature failure esp. when people get the engine compartment water washed.
I learned that day that the computerized diagnosis at the service centre cannot identify a failing injector coil but only after it fails.
Sorry about the lengthy comment.
I replace all three coils as a precaution. however that did not do anything for me. I'v recently realised its worse when the weather is warm and almost non existent when its cold. running my obd tool I noticed that the intake temp is always around 50c. which is strange when it 7 outside. I have ordered a MAF sensor as I believe its a temp/MAF sensor on these cars and will see if this makes any changes to the situation. the latest issue was a rough idea in the cold which is whats leading me to the MAF. will post finding as it may help the next person.
Yes, please do update us about your findings once you change the MAF sensor.
As for the air intake system on Micra, it is nothing but disappointment being fed right in to the combustion chamber on every drive. It literally sucks in hot air which the engine generates and there is alternator right underneath the intake hose, which also generates heat.
This ought to be causing more than one performance problem but the only thing we can be sure of is that whoever designed the air intake plumbing route does not seem to be good at it.
Personally, I do not have the sufficient expertise on vehicle plumbing for cold air intake to prove otherwise and hence, I have decided to ask the fellow members for help on the same.
Micra could definitely use better air intake re-routing, incl. relocation of the air filter box.
The MAF does not read (or report on...) the intake temp. There is a separate sensor near the throttle body.
AS for 50c intake temps, its plausible due to the location of the sensor being after the supercharger, it could be reading charge temps.... however after siting over night on cold start up, it should read roughly around ambient as it won't have had time to heat soak, nor will the charger be compressing at idle.
Edit - I had assumed the original post was about a DIG-S engine - I could be wrong on my post above if you have an N/A lump
AS for 50c intake temps, its plausible due to the location of the sensor being after the supercharger, it could be reading charge temps.... however after siting over night on cold start up, it should read roughly around ambient as it won't have had time to heat soak, nor will the charger be compressing at idle.
Edit - I had assumed the original post was about a DIG-S engine - I could be wrong on my post above if you have an N/A lump
It's been two weeks now that I have replaced the MAF and the car has been running perfectly. The true test will be when the weather warms up again in summer however for now it's idling as it should and I haven't been able to get it to reproduce the elastic band effect. hoping all is good. OBD also shows a much more realistic temperature reading than it was before I replaced the sensor.
Thank you for this update; it is helpful as now I know another reason why the rubber-band effect happens on Micra!
I had this problem and solved it with a new air filter.
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