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Hello everyone!
Sorry for the delay but I wanted to be sure that the problem was fixed.As I previously stated, I brought the car to my mechanic because he was going to try to find a distributor to test. After a long search, he did it and the problem got solved!
After that, a few more things were made to the car: the fuel pump broke so I replaced it, I adjusted the LPG in a LPG installer and I also adjusted the TPS: it was a bit off. At the moment, the car is running every day without any problems. It has passed the annual inspection!
So, I have to thank you all for your help. With your directions I managed to solve a few problems in the car with success.
Thank you very much and have a great day!
Hi!
The car went to the mechanic today: he will remove the distributor and try to search for one in a few stores that he knows.
The car has been adapted for LPG after leaving the factory. This is very common here in Portugal and only today we start seeing cars sold new with LPG option.
The spark plugs were the ones for that car, not LPG ones.
I must thank you both for your precious help. As soon as I have any more information, I will update this topic. If the car comes from the mechanic with the problem solved, I will put the solution here so that others with a similar problem can find the solution.
Thank you!
I have another update: I re-did the test of spraying water to the engine and see if I can see any sparks. I couldn’t see any (and this time I was 100% in the dark, at nightime and inside). However, the problem gets worse when I spray water: if I push the accelerator a bit (maybe 10-20%), the car chokes itself to death. Should I record a video? I think this means something is shorting out inside the engine compartment but I don’t know what…
Hey,
I don’t have a scanner able to read the codes nor live data. I’ve tried with 3 different ones: ELM327, Vgate one and Delco one. The Delco is a good scanner tool but it is not able to connect to the car. I’ve read somewhere that this car is not 100% OBD2 compliant. All the scanners simply can’t connect to the ECU.
I am not around the car right now but the sensor has this aspect: http://www.mlabo.com/image/sensor/Air_Temp_Sensor1_500.jpg
That black part is sealed. I cleaned it with an intake spray cleaner that I have and with a rag. I have one picture of the location of this sensor and another one, while it was still dirty:
Thanks once again 🙂
Hi,
The car has what I think is a new problem. I removed the sparkplugs to regap them and saw that they had a bit of carbon fouling. Note that before I increase the gap, they were looking perfect (so, 30 minutes earlier they were perfect). I am guessing this is because of the behaviour you can see in the previous video. So, I regapped themso that the 1mm feeler could fit in there. Then, I went to a test drive and the CEL was having the same behaviour it had in the video (lighting up for an instant). I think this had something to do with the fouling and that driving would clean the deposits. Other than that, the car seemed to be normal (with the problem but other than that, normal).
I return home to perform the vacuum readings and I have a new erratic behaviour: the vacuum is normal on idle: 21 inches, steady. When I try to rev up to 3000 rpms slowly the car goes up but around 2100 rpms the car “cuts” and goes down, then goes up and cuts again, etc. You can see in the video below:
Any ideas? I really don’t know what else to do :/
Hi!
I am sitting in the car at the moment.
So far, I have done the following:
I searched for MAF but I think this car hasnt got one. I found however one sensor in the intake that I believe it is a temperature sensor. It had some carbon deposit so I cleaned it and installed it again. Then I checked the whole intake to see if there was something in it. There wasn’t. The air filter seems to be almost new and I also cleaned with contact cleaner the TPS.
Then I removed all the sparkplugs and re-gapped them. They come pre-gapped (1.1mm) but I remember when installing them that they seemed to be a little bit tight to put a feeler gauge of that size. So, I managed to get all of them to fit that. After that I cleaned all the cylinder wells and re-installed everything. When I went to test it, the problem is much, much worse. When pressing to WOT, the car struggles immediately. Here’s a video showing it:
I guess I made the spark plug gaps too large. I was searching in the internet for the correct gap and the value is between 1.0mm and 1.1mm. I need to regap them again but should I do it to a smaller value than 1.0mm?
After regapping them, I will use the vacuum gauge to check all the things mentioned on the link your sent me.
A few more information: I haven’t replaced the fuel filter nor have I checked the fuel pressure (I don’t have the tool to do that). I still haven’t replaced the O2 sensor because I think if it was malfunctioning, It would trigger a CEL.
I haven’t done a test to confirm exhaust blockage because when I went to weld the new cat in place, the whole pipe had to be replaced because it wasn’t any good. Also, I have already done a test where I remove the O2 sensor to see if there was any blockage (if there was, the air would leave through the opening) and the problem remained the same.Thank you very much! 🙂
EDIT: I have just watched the video and saw the CEL that appeared for a brief instant. I am guessing this is because of the regapping I did because that was not happening before.
Hi!
This is getting annoying. The cables arrived today and I installed them. They are just a little bit longer but just a few centimeters. I measured the resistance of the old cables versus the new ones and the new ones have a much lower resistance value.
After installing I cable-tied them and used tubing to protect the outside of the new cables. So far, so good. The problem is that when testing, the problem persists (I would say, exactly the same).
I removed the two sparkplugs from the area that I thing the problem was (cylinders 2 and 3) to see if they were cracked. They were not.
Also, my engine is not leaking oil (from the valve cover). I just wanted to clean evertthing as best as I could but upon further inspection, its clean enough and it doesn’t seem to have oil residue in the wells.
Also, I insulated the cables that enter the distributor with electrical tape (just to be sure).
So, what could I do at this point? This is getting crazy. The spark plugs are new, distributor cap is new, spark plug cables are new…
Thank you very much!
Hey!
I bit the bullet and bought a set a little bit cheaper from JapanParts. I know NGK were higher quality but at the moment all I want is to be 100% sure the problem is solved without spending too much money. Although the cables have problems, for some reason I suspect some other part in the ignition system might have problems too. I tried making a simple test: insulating the existing cables with insulating tape and see if the car had any problems on LPG. It still has but they don’t manifest as much. I don’t think the cables are proper insulated and I hoping that I get better results with the newer ones (they arrive tomorrow, I think).
I will also need to make “cable ties” to hold the cables in place because the existing holder is broken and the cables swing around a bit.
Is there any way I can clean the outside part of the spark plug well? I think it has some oil residue and I was wondering if that can be adding somehow to the problem.
Thanks!
Hey,
Yes, the coil is built in. I’ll put a photo as soon as I get home.
I haven’t ohmed the coil yet. I’ve found a manual that lists every dizzy available on lancers of this age and year with guide of how to measure but I wasn’t able to identify the correct one. I’ll look into that.
Thank you!
I might be wrong but I don’t think that my dizzy has that connection. How can I verify? Either way the 5 wire set will be compatible even if I only use 4, right?
Hey!
Thank you for your great help. I will buy the set. Just a few questions:
I’ve seen ones from Magneti Marelli for around 9€ + shipping with 5 wires. I have also seen a few others with only 4 wires. However, I think that my car only uses 4 wires (one for each cylinder). Where does the fifth go?
The bottom of the spark plug boot is very cracked on the cables in the middle (where the problem is).
I just need to make sure that I will buy the correct version (4 wires vs 5 wires) and what brand I can buy. I saw the following cables that seem to be compatible:
Ones from Magneti Marelli, 5 wires for around 9€
Ones from JapanParts with 4 wires for ~19€
Ones from NGK with 4 wires for ~25€
Ones from NGK with 5 wires for ~30€. All prices need shipping that is 10€.I’ll be honest: at the moment, I’d prefer going with the cheap part (as long as it would solve my problem) and maybe in one year or next revision, replace them with NGK ones. Would this be a viable solution?
Thank you!
I repeated the test again and the results remained the same. Then I swaped 2 wires (the one from cyl4 > cyl 3 and vice-versa). Ofcourse I changed their position on the distributor. The results seemed to remain more or less the same.
Is there anything I can do to be 100% sure or close that this will solve my problem? Is it possible that the whole problem with the dizzy are in fact the cables? I am asking because they are quite expensive…
Hi!
I have to thank you both because I think we might be onto something here.
I’ll answer everything and explain:
I had to put the car in the garage this morning. The weather is dry and mildly warm. I tested accelerating fast and slowly and the car wouldn’t choke. All it did was that thing around 5000rpm that I showed on the video.
I put it there and removed the O2 sensor (I haven’t replaced it because they are a bit expensive and the car doesn’t show any check engine light – I think that if it was broken, it would show but I’m not sure). Started the car again, accelerated fast, slow and the behavior remained the same (no chocking, 5000rpm “limit”, etc). Then I was going to try and drive the car without the O2 sensor in the exhaust but I remembered to perform the test that bonnieman suggested: the spray bottle test.
I haven’t managed to see any spark but the car now almost dies when I accelerate even if it’s only a little bit. I think that something might be shorting out somewhere around the engine! At the moment I have the car on the sun drying everything so that I can repeat the test in a bit and see if I have the same behavior. I will also snap some pictures to show you the engine compartment to see if is there anything that I might be not seeing.
So, I don’t believe that the exhaust has any clogging: when I went to the exhaust shop to repair (I don’t think that I told you this yet), they had to replace most of the pipping and checked everything for leaks, etc. In fact, I had to put a new “muffler”: it’s not the one on the back of the car but one on the middle of the car.
As for OBD2 scanners: the car hasn’t been lighting up any CEL. Also, I managed to get my hands on two different reasonable scanners: one VGate VS600 and a Delco one from the mechanic friend and neither have been able to pull any codes or get any useful data. I had read on the internet that this car doesn’t have a good relationship with OBD2 scanners…
Also, I removed the distributor cap to show you the rotor. I cleaned it a while ago and the problem remains. It also seems to be ok: http://imgur.com/a/BEwHG
Finally, I haven’t performed the fuel pressure test because I don’t have the appropriate tools and money is short to keep investing at the moment.
So, I will wait for the engine compartment to be fully dry. I will also put the O2 sensor on back again. After that, I will repeat the test again: if the problem persists, Ill cover parts of the engine and repeat once again to try to find at least a specific area for the problem. Is this a good method or is there a better one?
Thanks!
UPDATE:
So I put the O2 sensor back in and tried going by areas when moisting. Again, I did not see any spark. However, the problem seems to come from the spark plug wells area. I think it one of the two middle ones (cyl 2 and 3). Any suggestion so that I can pin-nail the exact cause?
Good afternoon and thank you for all your answers.
In the night of saturday I had to drive the car at night: it was colder and maybe slightly more air humidity. The car had hiccups if I was around 1200-1800 rpm and even if I only slightly pressed the pedal a bit. They would disappear fast after accelerating but when I put the foot a bit on the gas, they were there. I don’t know if this is any good information.
I tried looking for a port to test the fuel pressure but haven’t managed to find one that I would be sure it would work.
Im not sure if the dizzy has vacuum advance but I think it doesn’t have because there no other thing connected to it other than electrical wires for the sparkplugs and another connector for several other wires.
I will check the exhaust for a leak and post the results here. After that I’ll buy a new rotor for the dizzy. In the meanwhile I am trying to get my hands on a working distributor at a low price so that I can test it first and if it solves the problem, replace the whole thing.
Thank you once again for your great insight 🙂
EDIT: Yes, I already installed the new catalytic converter. Sorry if I hadn’t answered that yet 🙂
Good afternoon,
Well, it must be because I said I was going to record a video, part of the problem disappeared: now, when jumping from idle to WOT (thanks for the name), the car doesn’t choke. It does however something that I think it can lead us to the problem: it stops revving up +/- at 5000 rpm. If I accelerate gradually, it goes higher than that without a problem.
Here’s the video showing that:
Also, I haven’t done a fuel system cleaner nor checked my fuel pressure. Ill do the later now (I have a fuel pump tester (the vacuum gauge), I guess thats the tool needed, right?
I think there is still a problem because when I put the car on LPG it makes explosions on the exhaust even when accelerating slowly. I won’t tune the LPG (I need to go to a specialized house for that) but what has been told me so far is that since LPG is more “sensible” than gas, it shows problems earlier and this means that the car has a ignition problem. I’ll try to contact one of those houses now to confirm this.
Thank you 🙂
EDIT:
I called the LPG workshop and it confirms that the explosions on the exhaust are not normal and that it means an ignition problem (usually).
