Stalling, poor tickover and warning light. Help!

W

Wulbert

Hello there,
I've just bought a 2001, 1.0 litre Micra S (I think this makes it a K11?)
It has just developed a fault on my first day of using it. It does not tickover very smoothly and the idle speed seems eratic sometimes increase and sometimes just dies. When approaching junctions the engine often dies between gear changes. Pulling away is tricky since the engine stalls very easily. It seems to die just as it comes off idle and you feed in the load on the clutch. This means I have to rev it like a learner when I pull away.
It did not have this fault when I test drove it ( for 20mins) which is weird. The fault may have appeared after I removed the air filter cover to look at the air filter. (Although I can't see this causing any fault). This morning on the way to work the "engine" warning light on the instrument panel came on (orange light shaped like an engine block icon) and has stayed on.
I relaced the plugs tonight and the old ones were very sooty all over. Put new ones in and they were the same after a quick spin (3mins, maybe not enough to really get hot?) They were totally black all over.
I had a quick look at a Haynes manual in Halfords today. It said that there is no way to get error codes on a post-2000 model and only a Nissan garage can do this. Bummer! Is this true?
My car has some kind of coil pack on each cylinder, above the plugs.
I am really gutted and worried I have bought a lemon and I have no money to spend in a Nissan dealer. I'm planning to disconnect the battery tomorrow to see if I can make the warning light go away but that still leaves the poor tickover and sooty plugs.
Any suggestions as to where to start looking for faults would be welcome?
(Sorry, I know this topic has been raised before but some of the advice seems contradictory or may be for different engines to mine?)
 
wulbert

it does sound like it,s running rich eh, possibly one of the lambda sensor,s or coolant temp sensor ?.
i would have thought you could get the faultcode from yours, try the ilexa forum on how to
 
THanks for your help Frank. It looks like your posting has a bit missing.
Where is the "elixa" forum? Can you give me a link?
I did wonder about lambda sensors although it has just passed its MOT with flying colours according to the vendor, that is.
I had a look at the Haynes manual when I was in Halfrauds, trying to see if it covered how to test the lambda sensors but could not find the relevant info and hence ( being Scottish) decided not to fork out the £19 for such a useless book.(Haynes manuals seemed to get rubbish some time in the early 90's for some reason)
Any one know how to test the lambdas? Are there two? sheesh!, Where's the other yin?
Any help appreciated since my wife cannot use this car at the moment, not being used to a lifetime of old bangers like me. Seems a fine wee car otherwise, reminds me of a good mini only much more refined.
 
Thanks for the link Frank.
I'd rather test the car myself than go to a garage since I have no money left after buying the car. I have a test meter so I should be able to check the lambda sensors myself if I get the right info.
Does any one know where the second lambda probe is located? Is it underneath the floor pan?
 
Frank, the lambda probe (on the exhaust manifold) has four wires, so I'm not sure what you mean by the "middle wire".
Are you referring to the 2nd lambda? If so where is it located?
Another question; does the "soldering trick" on the throttle body only apply to pre-2000 year models? Or can I try it on my 2001 model?

I'm beginning to wish I had not bought this car.
 
wul

ahh, mine,s only got 3 (2 heater wires + 1 signal wire).
the coilpack jobbies have 2 lambda sensors iirc (1 beyond the sump maybe ?)
and i think your t/b is factory sealed (non repairable)
 
Hi, I had exactly the same problem and took the throttle body off to check and clean ren ok but would only idle too fast. Took it off again and fond the reason for the fast running when I put it back the thing would not start at all. No spark and no fuel. I have checked all the fuses, links and removed the imobilser but still cant get any life, its like the system has shut down. Any one had the same problem ?
 
Cracked it !( It's the air mass meter)

Ok,
I now know what the problem is. After looking around it seems that a replacement throttle body is £200- £260. This was my main suspect.
However I've found a company that gave me some good info.
Apparently the most common failure is the air mass meter inside the throttle body. Various sources say that you have to replace the whole throttle body if this part fails. However, I found a company advertising on ebay who actually manufacture replacement air mass meters for £70. ( a big saving!)
The guy gave me good advice on how to check if this part has failed.
Just unplug the top most sensor on the throttle body. This is the air mass meter. It has 5 or 6 wires and sits just under the air filter housing. There is no need to remome any other part. Just reach in and unplug it, by squeezing the connerctor clip.
If the engine now revs more freely and the black/blue smoke from the exhaust goes away then that's you found the problem.
Mine showed an instant improvement with this part disconnected, it now runs almost normally and is much more drivable. A recent check showed 52mpg so it must be fuelling pretty well. So much so that I am considering just running it like this, albeit with a warning light on the dash now.
I'm surprised this test is not more well known as it is so simple.
Thanks for all the help folks.
 
wulbert

i think the coilpack engine type t/b,s have a removable maf sensor (you need an anti-theft key tho iirc)
 

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