Another effing mishap

[Wobba]

Ok, there's been a slight misfire, since FCS, like the car is struggling, pulling away in 1st it's as if the clutch was slipping, it was juddery. Driving home, it didn't feel happy at low revs, and it felt underpowered a little.

Driving to work I noticed the revs would just dip to zero for a split second sometimes. I cleaned out the spark plugs thinking it could be that. Drove to work, car juddered to a halt in rush hour. Yay. Car would try to crank over but get stuck, as if one cylinder was unhappy.

I've got the car apart. Hand cranked engine, seems fine hand cranking. Went to start car without plugs in to see if it cranks. The starter motor just whirs, it appears there is no contact between it and the flywheel. The pistons dont move. Could the starter have been jamming on the flywheel, or perhaps a flywheel issue? Surely it is only a mechanical thing, no sensors involved right?

The starter has been overheating more and more lately and leaving me unable to start when hot.

If it is the starter, how the fek did it cause me to stall and stop engine starting?

[Wobba]

Right, got it to crank, but it didn't fire the way I hoped. Huge flames out from the trumpets...sounded rough as fek. I am guessing cambelt skipped a bit, crank sensor or ECU...seemed to be able to hand crank easily.

[Wobba]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5yjiqaqib...2016.57.10.mp4

Hmmm...battery has taken a beating today so likely could do with a recharge, but still no joy. Small flame out the trumpet in the above link.

I've cleaned crank sensor, had a bit of a look at the loom, swapped to new spark plugs, swapped out the Megane coilpack and swapped the coolant temp. sensor.

When plugs are not in it cranks over as if it were fine, I think the timing may be out and it is trying to compress too much on a cylinder and can't, and so the flames out of cylinder two are there as it's sparking too late or early and the inlet valves are open.

Run out of energy today, will have to look later.

[northy]

Is the starter disengaging ok???

[Laine_16v]

Thats ECU/Mechanical related IMO, nothing to do with any sensors or the starter motor. You said it got progressively worse over a day or so, id check the cat pulleys havent slipped their timing

[Wobba]

Is the starter disengaging ok???

I think so. BUT not 100% sure on this. The car was going fine for a bit on the way to work, then started dropping revs in massive spikes....like huge engine braking had been forced on it or a total loss of power for an instant...then it felt like it just wanted to die for about 5s, then died and wouldn't start.

I did hand crank it. It didn't seem abnormal and it didn't get stuck (thank ****!). When there is no compression in the cylinders (with no spark plugs) it turns over on starter perfectly.

It could be a TPS or crank sensor issue, but I think this issue could be as Laine says, cambelt related. I had a quick look at the belt when hand cranking. It seems ok, but there is a possible sign on the toothed bits to say it could have skipped a beat.

Did you see vid link? I have some more but they are kinda boring. I missed the first cranking over when I had finished the comp. test, it had a massive flameout from the trumpets which panicked me a fair bit!!

[sideways danny]

if it cranks fine with no plugs in but not when it's got compression, the starter is weak. This could be down to being a cooked starter, or the battery being old and having a low output, could even be alternator not charging the battery properly so you get a weak spark and that's what you've been getting as a gradually worseing misfire.

Personally I'd be drop testing the battery to check for cranking amps after giving it a good charge.

[Wobba]

Yes, it would not help if the electrical power was weak, or the starter was still engaged or has ****ed up somehow.

However, this is the car being cranked over without sparks or injectors...sounds pretty normal:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2jo6dslot...2016.15.52.mp4

[LEIGH-ANNE]

Arent you glad you have a decent phone now?

[sideways danny]

Yes, it would not help if the electrical power was weak, or the starter was still engaged or has ****ed up somehow.

However, this is the car being cranked over without sparks or injectors...sounds pretty normal:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2jo6dslot...2016.15.52.mp4

plugs out gives no compression, so no resistance, so very low cranking amps in demand.

flames out the trumpets is called stand-off, which is unused fuel being spat back out when it ignites at an unintended time, weak spark and would do this, it's possible if the voltage is low enough that the ECU is dropping in and out under cranking too