Micra Hesitation

Jan 27, 2005 3 Replies

I recently bought a K11 1.3LX. Lovely car to drive - can't believe how quick it is, for something so understated.



Anyway... it's had a few problems lately, mainly that if you floored it, it would cut out etc.



I've recently changed the throttle body, and it now runs quite happily... most of the time.



I have noticed that when it is warmed up, sometimes if you give it a foot full, you can feel it slightly hesitate - doesn't judder or anything like that, but it's noticeable.



And then last night, I hadn't gone far, gave it some throttle coming out of a roundabout, and it started to violently 'Kangaroo', and whilst it would still tickover, I had to sit still for a couple of minutes with it ticking over, before it would rev normally... oh, and I could really smell the 'rotten eggs' smell associated with a cat warming up.



I've driven the car this morning, and the problem has mainly only showed up when I've floored it, or I've been travelling at speed down a dual carriageway - once it shows up, even if you slow down, it doesn't go away until you've stopped, and let the car idle for a while.



If pull away at a sensible pace and cruise along at 65ish, it doesn't show at all.



So... is it possible it's yet another throttle body fault (given these appear to be a bit of an achelles heel on the Micra), or would the above be explained by a dodgy temperature sensor (which is another known Micra issue), or is it likely to be something else?



A semi collapsed cat springs to mind, due to the fault only generally showing up when the car has been under load for some time.



TIA


This sounds very similar to a problem I had with a Peugeot 405 and it turns out it was the fuel filter of all things. Any idea when yours was last done? It's worth a go as it's fairly cheap.

I agree fuel filter is possible, but do first check the multi plug to the throttle body, these fail, in the past I cable tied one together to cure the exact fault you describe. with the engine idling waggle the plug, if the engine goes all unnecessary you have found the problem. A cat overloaded with fuel or oil smells of eggs.

mrcheerful

Already tried that, unfortunately!

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