Help please! Rover 214i, lack of torque

Did this occur suddenly or has it come over a period of time, and how long a time? Loss of power (or torque - which is different) can occur for a variety of reasons. If it's more or less sudden I wouldn't expect it to be for any of the above reasons. Does it fire evenly when it's on load and when it's off load? Does the number of revs make any difference? Does it tick over nicely but fail to rev up cleanly when you open the throttle? I assume that it's not only sluggish going up hills but also doesn't accelerate as well as it used to.

The shaking after a sharp turn tends to indicate that something is causing it to misfire at this point.

Please give us more info as above.

Rob Graham

Dear Rob

Thank you for your help. Please find below the information you asked for.

It did come in gradually over the last 6 months, the shaking happened more often recently.

It still fired evenly off load and misfired uphill if I pressed the accelerator too much.

At high rev on motorway, it was cruising smoothly.

The engine is idling nicely and rev up cleanly when the car is not moving.

Yes, it is sluggish going uphill and doesn't accelerate as it used to be. The engine misfired when I press the accelerator too much going uphill. This happened more in the morning when I drove the car from cold.

My first thoughts are that you may have a problem with the condenser in the ignition. Pressing the throttle and getting a misfire is a symptom of this. It'll probably idle beautifully but won't like any throttle. Once you get it up to speed on the motorway you'll take your foot off the throttle mostly and this would make it OK then.

The other thing you might try is new plug leads, but before you change them check that all the HT leads are apart from one another in case insulation is breaking down and they are shorting. A swing to the right or left might cause a movement by centrifugal force that makes one wire touch another. Sometimes watching the engine idle in the dark can show up a short, particularly if you move the leads about with a stick.

The above two things are the cheapest options to try first (condenser first. Don't do everything at once or you'll never know what the actual problem was if it becomes OK). If these don't work, the ECU may be faulty, or there could be a whole host of other causes which others may suggest to you.

I can't really see why a sharp turn should be a problem. Is there any wire which gets touched by any moving part of the steering and causes a short? I can't imagine that there would be but I'm clutching at straws.

Rob

P.S. I assume it *has* a condenser. It might not have!

Rob

Dear Rob

Many thanks for your advices. I will checked the possible causes you mentioned.

What are the chances of faulty knock sensor, fuel pressure regulating sensor or fuel pump? I have just seen reports about engine knocking caused by the above items. My friend's Rover 216 had starting problem because of dirty fuel filter.

Even though the engines has done 120,000 miles (a lot of them on motorway), the valves and cylinders should be reasonable good. I have just got the MOT done and the emissions are O.K. I do not see white smoke nor black smoke from the exhaust.

Best regards

Richard

I think its a design feature ;-)

I.

Well, any of the above things might cause this. It's really a question of looking at all possibilities and trying to eliminate them, from the cheapest first.

I really wouldn't expect these items to be the cause. Unless the engine's been ill-treated in some way - dirty oil, for example - it's most unlikely to have wear that's leading to these symptoms. Apart from a possible ECU I wouldn't have thought a cure should be expensive, if you can just find out what it is.

Rob

If I had 50p for every car with a blocked exhaust......

Tim..

It could be something as simple as failing plugs, or HT leads. If they haven't been checked or replaced lately, they would be the first things I would look at. These can cause all the symptons you describe. I,e, misfiring when under load. Mike.

Try the rotor arm - it has a tendency to leak to earth and causes loss of power under acceleration BB