Intermittent Loss Of Power

[NeilTindle]

1996 Galaxy 2.0i 195k miles. For the last couple of weeks it's been suffering from an intermittent loss of power then comes back on song and seems to go better than ever. In the last couple of days the loss of power has got worse such that it feels like it's going to cut out completely popping in the exhaust but again picks up and is ok. Recently it had a new front pipe and cat but other than that nothing has changed. I would really like to get it to 250k miles. Any ideas?

Edited September 22, 2018 by NeilTindle

[BrianH]

Sounds like it wants the ignition circuit looking at - if a coil pack has failed that will effect two cylinders, but it may be in want of a new set of plug leads or spark plugs. They are a right pain to change on the 2.0 as they are in the back of the engine, but can be swapped with a decent plug socket and couple of extension bars on a ratchet.

 

Equally if the coil pack has become unplugged partially this can cause the same problems, although that usually gets an error on the obd flagged up if so (won't bring engine light on, but will have a code logged). I would assume yours being a 96 would have the two coil packs on the end of the block, both are identical just rotated round 180 degrees if your looking for spares.

 

Given it runs better at times I wouldn't expect loss of compression to be an issue, Mine went to 235k but did chew up its piston rings on one cylinder, finishing it off (would go through a litre of oil to 500 miles as it was blowing it back up the crankcase vent and filling the air filter box up)

[NeilTindle]

Plugged in a fault code reader and got the following:

P0113 Intake Air Temperature

P1413 Secondary Air Injection System

P0132 O2 Sensor

P1405 Exhaust Gas Recirc

P1131 MAF?

P1132 MAF?

Cleared codes and went for a drive and got the following

P0113 Intake Air Temperature

P1413 Secondary Air Injection System

Would either of these cause the problem or is it and intermittent with the MAF/lambda?

Secondary Air Injection System

Read more: https://www.autocodes.com/p1413.html

[BrianH]

I ran mine without the secondary air system for 5 years as it was broken (the fan was melted and rusted to death, I removed it completely and capped the hose inlet to the pipes) without a problem, its only there to speed up the cat warming up so won't effect running, just emissions when cold. The intake air temp might cause problems, though the popping sounds more like a misfire, I'd suspect its more likely the o2 sensor in the exhaust if it was a sensor (given the popping there is the possibility thats been damaged anyway, probably what also took out your cat).

 

The intake air temp sensor is either in the MAF, or in the tube that leads between it and the manifold, can't remember which as no longer have that car. If its in the maf then unplugging it should cause it to use a default map (Though an error condition should cause the same thing to happen anyway).

 

Can you see any live data? If your using a bluetooth adaptor then Torque with an android phone will display this, I'd have a look at the o2 sesnsor reading (1x1) and see if your getting a wave output shown. If its dead (same reading all the time) then it may be that causing the problem, equally the MAF might be causing the problem, though that usually causes lean running. Coil packs tend to be more temperature sensitive and likely to throw intermittent faults when starting to fail, equally the ht leads can play up in the same fashion.

[BrianH]

Only other thing to mention - it might be worth checking the sensor for the sai system (its on the bit of plastic thats next to the expansion bottle) as the hoses can rot away to it, you'd proabbly hear if that was the case though. Same with the hose from the pump at the back that feeds towards the exhaust, front end of this is near the coil packs.

[NeilTindle]

Thanks for the advise Brian. A few thing there to look at.

[NeilTindle]

New lambda sensor seems to have fixed it. I've got a new IAT sensor coming which should fix that error message and will strip and clean the EGR sensor which should clear that one. All ready for the MOT next month.

[BrianH]

Good stuff, depending how the lambda fails depends how it reacts, though from memory when mine failed it didn't even detect it had failed, but the output was constantly .32v which was clearly wrong. It didn't run too well like that. Newer ones would be more likely to detect that sort of failure.