Hi,
last July I bought a 55 plate 1.5 Almera, having previously owned a Tino, to be honest i think we've rescued it from a bad mechanic as since July I've had to replace the headlights, have his previous work to the gearbox rectified and I'm not even going to mention the terrible repeated bodge-it job on the back box of the exhaust.
when it was running fine we got over 500 miles from a full tank of petrol, but recently the engine has been noisy on acceleration, as if the exhaust is blowing (but it isn't) and our MPG has dropped through the floor, the oil is burning quickly but there are no leaks and now it is struggling to barely accelerate on inclines which is getting rapidly worse.
After a couple of visits to the local garage it went from being a possible MAF sensor issue (but this was dismissed with a disconnection test), to an intake sensor issue, and then the timing chain would need replaced. But we've had no warning lights other than when i disconnected the MAF sensor, and that was reset by the garage. there hasn't been any black or blue smoke, just lots, and then none, but it does smell like it is leaking exhaust fumes into the cabin, are there are no issues with starting up or idling.
If it is the timing chain I'm going to attempt to fix the timing chain myself as, what the hell, i'll only get scrap value for it as it stands, but I get the feeling i'm missing something.
please help, i don't want to scrap an otherwise good wee motor!
last July I bought a 55 plate 1.5 Almera, having previously owned a Tino, to be honest i think we've rescued it from a bad mechanic as since July I've had to replace the headlights, have his previous work to the gearbox rectified and I'm not even going to mention the terrible repeated bodge-it job on the back box of the exhaust.
when it was running fine we got over 500 miles from a full tank of petrol, but recently the engine has been noisy on acceleration, as if the exhaust is blowing (but it isn't) and our MPG has dropped through the floor, the oil is burning quickly but there are no leaks and now it is struggling to barely accelerate on inclines which is getting rapidly worse.
After a couple of visits to the local garage it went from being a possible MAF sensor issue (but this was dismissed with a disconnection test), to an intake sensor issue, and then the timing chain would need replaced. But we've had no warning lights other than when i disconnected the MAF sensor, and that was reset by the garage. there hasn't been any black or blue smoke, just lots, and then none, but it does smell like it is leaking exhaust fumes into the cabin, are there are no issues with starting up or idling.
If it is the timing chain I'm going to attempt to fix the timing chain myself as, what the hell, i'll only get scrap value for it as it stands, but I get the feeling i'm missing something.
please help, i don't want to scrap an otherwise good wee motor!