hi and can you help?

E

erubus

Hi there, I'm a newbie here. Me and my partner have just moved into a country cottage, and part of the deal was that the other half got our landlady's almera. our landlady has been a close friend for some time now, and I have been doing any work that's been needing done. one of the jobs that i did last year was changing the stretched timing chain.

as my car is in at the bodyshop just now after someone reversed a van into it, i have been driving the almera to work and have noticed several problems with the engine. Firstly it is using loads of petrol. secondly there is no power. i haven't driven anything less than 2 litres for a while, but even then, my work van seems to have more get-up and go. thirdly it loses pwer randomly while cruising, and also in general driving. going up the motorway this morning I was getting overtaken by artics on the hills. I was travelling along at 70 when the power just went, as if i had taken my foot off the throttle, i'd lose 5-10mph, then it took ages to get back to 70 again. it kept doing this randomly for the whole journey, and hasn't improved since. when driving around the town, the revs just weren't coming up at all and i was stuck at about 5 mph in first trying to get out of a junction with a car coming towards me really fast! even when i'd dipped the clutch and floored the throttle, it was still about 10 seconds before the revs came up.

Having been checking this out, the cause would seem to be the timing chain having stretched, but as this was replaced last year, late autumn i think, and about 7-8000 miles, i can't see how it could be that. A failed/failing sensor is another possibility, but is there a way i can diagnose this without having to take it to a garage? on my cavalier, i can bridge two of the contacts on the diagnostic plug and the EML flashes the fault code on the instrument panel, is there any waythat I can do this with the almera? it's a 2000 n16 1.5e by the way. although it has vvt written on the cam cover, both the cam sprockets are plain, and the bumo in the casting for the vvt mech is just empty, so won't be any problem with that.

any help or suggestions from you would be great. it's the other half's first car and he's pretty upset that it seems to be a bit of a lemon.
 
Hi & welcome to the AOC!

Are there any rattles coming from the exhaust?

If so, it could be the matrix has broken up inside the cat & is randomly moving about & blocking the pipe (had this happen on a Rover).

If it`s not that, it`s probably the MAF needs a clean.
 
thanks for that. I'll give the cat a good shake tomorrow and see if it rattles. the car's pretty quiet, when i'm driving, and I haven't really noticed any unusual noises, but can't rule that out. Will give the MAF a good clean out as well and see if that helps. would either of these faults cause the EML to come on? forgot to mention that it was on.

it was on continuosly before I changed the timing chain, and went out afterwards, but it came on intermittently a few months after, and a wee while after that again it was on continuously again.
 
Had similar problems on the girlfriends agila tried everything and eventually turned out to be a fooked MAF, & it hadn't put the MIL light on, you could always try reading the codes to see if there anything useful
 
cheers, will give it a go. my usual method of doin this on my cav is to run it quite fast with the air filter off and spray carb cleaner up the intake. will this do for the almera?
 
hthanks scooby, how do i get the codes out? i found out how to do it on the older models a while back but could never find out how/if to do it on the n16 2000+
 
dunno about the n16, i can do it on n15. sound like theres a sensor gone somewhere. i would change all the sensors and the chain. if it comes back again i would take to nissan
 
erubus said:
I'll give the cat a good shake tomorrow and see if it rattles. the car's pretty quiet, when i'm driving, and I haven't really noticed any unusual noises, but can't rule that out.
Click to expand...

Just found the vid I made of the cat rattle.



If it`s not making that kind of noise, it`s not the cat, but it could be the backbox has broken up inside & is blocking the pipe (look up the pipe & see if you can see fur like stuff inside it).

I`m about 80% certain it`s the MAF that needs cleaning though. :)
 
cheers again. I can't actually get any sound on that vid, but it's not making any undue noises that i can hear anyway, so will give the MAF a good clean and see what happens and i'll let you know what happens.

could be that the cat matrix has come apart on my cav, as that makes a kinda tingling metallic noise, might gaive that a look as well when it comes back from the bodyshop tomorrow.

if i clean the MAF and that turns out to be th problem, is the EML likely to go off? or will i need to tkae it to a garage to have it cleared.
 
erubus said:
could be that the cat matrix has come apart on my cav, as that makes a kinda tingling metallic noise, might gaive that a look as well when it comes back from the bodyshop tomorrow.
Click to expand...

Sorry about the vid :O but if it sounds like a bag of marbles rattling about, it`ll probably be the cat matrix. :)
 
dunno when it was last serviced to be honest, other than by myself. i would think that the last dealer service woul dhave been when it was still free, it hasn't really been looked after by the previous owner. it certainly doesn't sound like a bag of marbles so can probably rule out the cat.
 
This is the method I used on my old 1.5e to flash the fault codes on the engine warning light but my engine warning light was on at the time so I knew there was a fault stored. It may flash two codes - one current and one stored. Will try to dig out the full details after work.

1) Turn Ignition switch to the 'on' position (do not start engine) - the warning light should stay on.
2) Find the data link connector just below the left hand side of the cubby-hole under the steering wheel
3) CAREFULLY use a bit of wire or small, unfolded paperclip to connect the two outside-bottom pin holes on the connector.
4) warning light goes off
5) Wait for at least two seconds.
6) Remove the wire/paperclip
7) The warning light should now repeatedly flash out the four-digit fault code. There is a longer pause between the fourth and first digits as it repeats.

Only continue if you want to clear fault codes, otherwise jump to step 10 ..

8) Reinsert Paperclip
9) Wait 2 seconds and remove.

10) Turn ignition off - do NOT reinsert the wire/paperclip.
 
excellent cheers, managed to get codes out. Now, what i got was 10 slow flashes, a break three quick flashes, small pause, four flashes, pause then ten flashes. I took this to mean 3410 as the code. it then flashes ten times slowly again then 1 flash, pause, 7 flashes pause then 1 flash again, which doesn't seem to be a four digit code. Can i assume that the two sets of ten slow flashes are a marker? ie: on my cavalier, you get code 12 at the start of the list of codes (it's always a list of codes on the ecowreck engine, never just one!) I cleared the codes and the EML went off, and is still off, but the car is running just as bad as before. huge flat spots in the acceleration and loss of power when at a steady speed. I had a look at the back box and there is a small hole in the bottom of it, about an inch round, so i think it i possible that the baffles may have come apart inside, although I can't see any of the deadening material. I might cut the top off nd see what it lookls like inside and weld it back together and repair the hole if there doesn't asppear to be anything amiss inside. would the hole on it's own be enough to cause the running problems?
 
oh forgot to mention, I gave the MAF a damn good clean with carb cleaner, but that didn't seem to make any difference
 
I'll have to dig out the service docs and hunt down the manual code info to work out what that's about. 10 flashes would be 0 but not sure what them being slow means.

I'll dig out the info as soon as I can.
 
just a thought but maybe the chain you changed IS NOT the new type but the old type? maybe a fuck up with supplier or summit, sounds odd tho, good luck
 
cheers guys, you've all been very helpful. I couldn't tell you what type the chain was, or even if it was genuine nissan or pattern replacement I'm afraid. I took the cam cover off and looked at the tensioner. it was sticking out about 10mm or so, which from what i've read on this site is possibly around the limit of what it should be, i took a pic, but i'll have to try and find my phone lead before i can upload it.

I did a search on fault codes here and found that 0171 was a general injection system fault, and to check for exhaust system leak (i'm assuming the wee hole in the back box wouldn't count and it's talking about EGR, manifold and CAT. there was lamda sensor temp too high or something, air leak and faulty MAF. there might have been a couple of others as well, but i'd have to check again.

Gonna have a good look at the back box tomorrow and try and see if it's blocked, and when i get the chance i will check the scrappy and see if i can find a MAF. would the MAF be common to a few nissan models and engines? I haven't actually found an n16 in any scrappy yet. this one must just be a very poor example!

cheers again
 
OK, 10 flashes is zero so that's
0340 - Camshaft Position Sensor (phs)
then
0171 - Fuel Sys Lean/BK1

That's all the help I can really give you here - I'm a mechanical gynecologist - only good at looking up things. :)

PM me your e-mail address and I'll see if I can sort you out with more info, though. Don't post it openly or the spam-spiders will get hold of it.
 
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