Help required ! Poorly car !

[denhonda]

Well over here we have an annual goverment test called the MOT which is what my 2g has just had done. It failed on 1 washer jet inoperative (forgot to fix!), 2 tyres had bulges & emmision readings too high.

First of, they flooded the engine when they started the car (not easy to do on my car btw) & they put it through the emmisions test firing on 2 or 3 cylinders - hardly my fault. They said new spark plugs were required but they were renewed 700 miles ago. I went up to the garage & got it firing on all 4 cylinders within 3 minutes.

They put it through the emmisions again & it failed, though not so badly.

The MOT man tells me he spent some time adjusting the carb settings & it passed the test.

I've just collected the car just before the garage shut for the night & its running like crap! I'm deeply pissed off ! The idle is erratic, running mainly between 600 rpm & 1000 rpm & almost cutting out at times, even with throttle (when driving) its running unevenly.

Beforehand the engine was running very well (except for an occasional slight misfire at idle? Suspect HT leads), fuel economy was good & idle speed constant at about 800 rpm.

I will have to take the car back but I'm less than confident that they'll have the car running correctly so I'm thinking maybe I'd rather fix it myself?

What could they have done to it to make it run so badly, why did it fail the lenient emmisions test when it was running so well with good economy, will adjustment of the carb to get the car running correctly result in high emmisions again?

[denhonda]

*** update ***

Took car out to the supermarket & it ran like shit as expected. On return home it cut out at idle a few times as expected aswell.

When it was put away for the night the erratic idling now doesn't seem so bad. When opening the throttle a little it seems to be running sort of evenly but all in all its shit but not as bad as it was.

I noticed in the dark that there were a few slight sparks shooting from the ignition leads, they have deteriorated with age as you would expect.

With the car running so well beforehand, could it be that it was set up to run as well as possible without regards to the emmisions (perhaps last year the figures were falsified to make it pass?) & now with the emmisions set up correctly(?) it has shown up other problems?

Help pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaassssssssse !!!

[2ndGenGuy]

It sounds like they might have leaned out the mixture. I don't know what your carb looks like, but I imagine that there is a mixture screw on there somewhere. Just turn it and see if the idle smooths out of gets rougher. It's probably not the big screw on the back of the carb towards the firewall, that's typically the Idle screw. You should be able to find it in your manual.

[88LXi68]

next time throw a bottle or 2 of Dry Gas in the gas tank and see if that helps.

I have one of those "hi performance" cats on my 94 Integra and it is basically a straight through design. I put 2 bottles dry gas in and it passed with flying colors

[denhonda]

It sounds like they might have leaned out the mixture. I don't know what your carb looks like, but I imagine that there is a mixture screw on there somewhere. Just turn it and see if the idle smooths out of gets rougher. It's probably not the big screw on the back of the carb towards the firewall, that's typically the Idle screw. You should be able to find it in your manual.

With a little choke (manual operation on cars here) it certainly smooths things out & puts the revs way higher than it would normally. When I collected the car from the garage the engine was cold & choke on full running the engine at 3000rpm. Never been as high as that before.

Based on you're thoughts, if I enrich the fuel mix, I'm guessing I'll have to drop the idle speed & everything should even out. I tried turning the idle up before but it made little difference.

I normally give my cars a good run immediately before the MOT but couldn't this time as the MOT was 2 weeks out so would've been illegal to drive.

[2ndGenGuy]

Well, adjust the mixture until it runs smooth first, then set the idle. Make sure the car is warmed up first. You shouldn't adjust anything until the car is at normal running temperature. Maybe you also wanna check your timing.

[denhonda]

To update on this...

Sent car back to the garage & got it back with it running smoother though idle was far too high when fully warm (1500rpm !), suffice to say I won't be using that garage again.

Adjusted the idle down to 800rpm but gonna look further into getting it running right as theres a flat spot that is far more pronounced than it was. Might also be using more fuel but not sure yet. Needs a new cambelt so gonna get the timing retarded & will see to the service items in the next few weeks.

The car doesn't really get used in the winter cos of the salt on the roads so will give me time to get it sorted.

[Cheeseburger]

sweet! good to hear that u got it some what fixed!

[Ichiban]

You should not see any sparks from your plug wires.

[MessyHonda]

You should not see any sparks from your plug wires.

time to get some NGK wires.