Sierra - injector cleaner made it worse!!!

In the process of trying to fix my Sierra 2.0i DOHC which recently failed its MOT on high emissions I stuck some injector cleaner in a tank full of petrol and drove from Bradford to Sunderland. I gave it a good thrashing and went and watched a sh*te football match. Got in the car to go home and the damn thing was misfiring at low-medium revs, idling speed had become low and sometime cutting out. Things improved when it warmed up and especially at higher revs.

The next day the car was embarrasing to get moving as it was in full kangaroo mode until warm when the symptoms (mostly but not completely) disappeared.

What would cause an engine to get worse after treating it with injector cleaner and giving it a thrashing?

tia

Antony

Reply to
Antony
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The 2 may not be related - just things getting worse

have you checked plugs/plug leads/ air filter/ mixture etc. ?

I always advise Shell Optimax and an "Italian" service i.e a couple of hundred miles foot to the floor IF all the bits you can replace are OK

Reply to
tommy

not enough air/fuel when it's cold so it's basically cleaned everything out to such a good extent the engine is now struggling to get enough air in to match the extra fuel it's receiving on the warm up cycle

this is also caused by a broken throttle position sensor and/or idle control valve (you can clean the later)

Reply to
nooneyouveeverheardof

In-Tank injector cleaner is good if used regularly during a car's life , but can cause problems on an old car with a fuel system which is contaminated. The solvents and detergents in the fuel system cleaner can cause any sludge and deposits which have been lying harmlessly in the bottom of the tank to be mixed with the fuel and possible partially block the fuel filter. Try fitted a new fuel filter first. Mike

Reply to
Mike

Post-script: After half a tank of running with the injector cleaner running thru it the fuel system seems to have shaken out the kangaroo juice that plagued it (well, apart from the odd cough, that it). I've got it on a tuning machine tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.

Antony

Reply to
Antony

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