Strange problems with K11

[CMF_adam_d]

Hi guys, I'm posting this on behalf of a friend who runs a 1998 1.0 Micra GX.
Recently while driving in town, his car cut out, and wouldn't restart. He tried for about 10 minutes then went home and left it overnight. I went with him the morning after to get it home, and 1st try, nothing, 2nd, it started right up, but had a high/erratic idle and hesitation on the throttle. Anyway, it drove home, and seemed to be fine, other than those two problems, for a couple of days until he took it to a garage, who said it was over fuelling, and that it had become flooded. He said that it was the Throttle position sensor, and that he should get it changed. First though, we decided to go for the throttle body resoldering trick. After we'd done that, the idle seems to have corrected itself, and all was well until this morning.
He came out, the car was just turning and turning, not firing at all. The check engine light was also flashing. I bridged pin 6 and 7, but did it too quick and accidentally cleared the code. It came back next time we tried the car, and we read it as code 141, which I have been told is a NATS issue?
Anyway, we removed the 10A injector fuse as not to flood it too much, and then it farted, just for a second. Put it back in, and it just turned and turned again. Then, after 3 or 4 goes, suddenly started. Sounded fine, but the check engine light was flashing randomly at idle, as soon as the revs went up it went out, as it came back to idle, it went mental again. This time though, no code was stored. We turned the ignition off, and it restarted up, no lights and running fine.

With the problem being intermittent like this, it's hard to diagnose it, but we're thinking it still may be the throttle body, or an immobiliser issue. What would you guys suggest? When the car runs, it runs perfectly, and sounds almost like brand new. Any ideas?

Thanks

Edit: Something else that caught me was that the immobiliser seems strange. It definitely has one, but the key he has has no chip, it is just a recut, as the original was slightly bent. Could a dodgy bypass at some time in the cars life cause this intermittent problem?

 

[CMF_frank2]

hi adam, the 141, 142 and 143 codes have come up before, and were injector fuse related iirc, (try a search on the ilexa forum)
and more likely someone has taped the chip to the reciever ring (around the ignition barrel) or maybe fitted a pre-nats, or early nats ecu

frank

 

[CMF_adam_d]

Hi frank, had a search over at the ilexa forum and the code does come up in a couple of injector fuse problems. Had a good look at it and the fuse itself looks good, and all the contacts around it are clean, and there are no signs of corrosion.
Also, the receiver ring around the ignition is clear. Would it be worth taking the ECU out to look at properly?

Thanks

 

[CMF_frank2]

it might be worth checking the ecu pins/plug adam (mine played up once) as rainwater can ingress via the heater duct and onto the ecu, iirc
and it would be handy to know how they bypassed the nats (my misses has only 1 key for hers, and you have to change the loom with the no-nats ecu, i think)

frank

 

[CMF_adam_d]

Alright, we had the ecu out to have a look at, and everything seemed fine. Connectors looked clean, almost brand new, no loose looking wires, and no boxes plugged in line that we could see.

Anyway, when we put the ecu back, it seemed to be fine, and ran fine for a couple of days until yesterday morning, when it wouldn't start up again. This time, it just turns over, and we get codes 141, 143 and 146. If we bridge the terminals again to reset it, the car will start right up, but you don't know when it will cut out again. We unplugged the MAF sensor, and then tried to start the car, this made it run badly and cut out as expected, but when we tried to restart, it wouldn't fire again, and this time gave us code 12, which we expected, and 146, no 141 or 143. We plugged the sensor back in, and this gave us 141, 143 and 146 again and the car wouldn't start. As soon as we reset the code, the car fired right up and runs great. Any ideas as to what this could be at all? We've checked all the fuses and they all look perfect.