Rover 200 '99 misfire

Hi,

On returning from holiday my wife's car would not start - wouldn't even catch (as though there was no spark [which there was]). Wiggled a few wires which made no odds.

Finally managed to make it catch but was running rough. It started to get better after a few miles and will at least now start on first turn of the key ... but, we still have a misfire - not all the time, sometimes under load/heavy acceleration, sometimes just driving normally.

I have no idea what is causing it ... but assume some sensor to the ECU is changing wildly. For this, I could only assume CTS?

As the car's done 70K, I changed the plugs and leads and have new distributor cap and rotor to swap in. The plugs and leads seem to have made some improvement.

Anyone any ideas on what else it could be?

Oh, and she did mention that driving along one day she lost all power

- engine cut out and wipers stopped mid-cycle. Apparantly everything righted itself after a second or so :S

Cheers, Mark

PS ... coolant level is fine! :D

could be crank sensor

Rotor arms breaking down on these is very common. I've even had faulty new ones..

Tim. .

Thanks ... I'd read about the crank sensor and will have to have a look into this.

Great - then I shall swap this & cap tonight ... assuming that the Gloucestershire floods haven't taken the car away :)

:

Hmm ... OK - I'll check this as well. I read in another post (somewhere) about another box near the ECU with relays which can also have poor Earth. I think that I'll give em all a good clean.

Cheers, Mark

Thanks all.

I replaced the rotor and dizzy cap last night and cleaned the earths and it runs sweet as a nut now. I'll have a look towards the crank sensor if it happens again.

Cheers, Mark

Your symptoms match mine: occasional misfire, mainly under acceleration; disappears above 2,500rpm.

Mr Cheerful suggested I change the rotor arm. I'm going to replace arm and dizzy cap, although they were new last year. Just waiting for a break in the rain. lol.

It's so frustrating when it drives smoothly on one journey, yet misfires on another.

I've also had crank sensor problems in the past.

John

I had the distributor cap and rotary arm replaced on mine.

2 weeks later it died in sainsburies car park. The AA turn up and the rotary arm is the offender.

he told me that they are standard kit for all AA vans since its such a common fault.

LOL ... so buying mine from halfrauds (being the only place open by the time that I get home) was probably not the best move that I ever made :)

I think that I'll head out to get a reputable make over the weekend to keep in the boot.

Cheers, Mark

Why? The AA only use local factors for common parts. The chances are, the Halfords one and the one in the AA van were made in the same factory.

For such a cheap item, if the failure rate is as high as has been indicated by others, why not just replace it at each annual service?

Chris

Because the new ones fail rate is worse over the 1st 6 months than a 1 year old one is to 18 months?

agreed, if you get one that works leave it in there

[...]

Right. It's pretty obvious why Rover no longer exists really...

Chris

Actually, the Halfords parts feel very weak and cheap compared to the Bosch ones which came off. More of a bakelite feel - so it will be interesting to see how well they do last.

Well, I finally got around to changing the rotor arm. I had to get the back garden in some sort of order while the sun's been out. lol. It seems to have solved the problem. I shall know more tomorrow.

Thanks, John

Car failed again last night. The wife called the recovery service who, just as I arrived, diagnosed duff rotor arm. I had them put the old dodgy one on (that I kept in the boot) as they didn't have a spare and it at least got her home with regular misfire above 3k rpm.

So, what's that ... 6 weeks on a new part? :(

Went back to Halfords as it's the only place open late and the guy who served me was very good. Spent a while chasing down their last Rover

200 rotor and dizzy cap (as I wanted a spare). He also gave me a trade card which took the cost from around =A316 to =A35 ish. Well happy (as long as I can use the card again!).

New part looks more like the original even though the same part number as the one bought last time. Fingers crossed!

Cheers, Mark