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Bad fuel/black smoke/engine knocking


Cal

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Ok, posted in the 'should I feed my Z high octane thread' and also searched a fair bit...

 

Last Friday had to put £10 regular 'Murco' gas in the Zed as I was stuck. Drove home fine, no problems.

 

Topped up with V-Power and BP Ultimate, over Sat/Sun.

 

Hour drive home on Sunday, not far from home noticed a stammer in acceleration, just the odd one... thought nothing of it. Got closer to home it started doing it loads, wanting to cut out in idle and loads of black smoke/occasional spark.

 

Left it overnight, tried the same in morning, could not hold idle/black smoke.

 

Day after poured in some injector cleaner and headed to the garage to fill it with V-Power... after a decent drive it felt good as new.

 

Was fine for a day...

 

Late today after being fine, noticed a knocking noise coming from the engine, got gradually worse throughout the evening where I had to just get the car home and leave it.

 

Noise sounds bottom end, but could be up the top :/ depressing clutch just makes it easier to hear.

 

Any ideas/thoughts/opinions very much appreciated, can do a video tomorrow...

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Surely cheap fuel couldn't cause that! :scare:

 

Check your oil... Knocking will happen bacuse of low / oil leak - I had a Focus engine blow because of a massive oil leak that emptied the engine out very quickly, didn't notice and a 15 minute drive killed it! :/

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On your previous thread Mark from Abbey said:

 

"knocking noise , detonation maybe? was you running low on fuel when you added the injector cleaner?

 

Do a ECU reset and make sure the ca rid fille dup with Super before running it again.

 

But reading the problem I suspect a Air flow meter problem , Zmanalex can supply these as a good price at the moment"

 

Is this the answer??

 

As you say, its black smoke so hopefully it is not the engine bottom end. I suggest you get a decent mechanic to take a look - send a pm to ChrisS who is in your part of the world - he knows a good one ;)

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CalZed, worst case senario I have a UK Spec 45,000 mile engine here still running in the car which you could buy off me if needed :thumbs:

If it's a loud knock and getting worse chances are it's bottom end.

 

I would check all levels on the car, drain tank and fill with fresh fuel before running. Fingers crossed for you that its not as major as I have suggested. As said above get someone who knows what they are looking at to diagnose first.

 

Best of luck :thumbs:

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Big thank you for everyones reponses/help... getting it looked at tomorrow.

 

ZMAN;

Cheers, will do.

 

Bounty78;

I hope so too :( Lee has contacted me about an engine, thanks for the garages link :)

 

djrm;

Oil will be first port of call, mechanic friend is looking at it tomorrow in his garage not too far from me.

 

Ebized/Mark Abbey;

Thanks for that, didn't spot the reply sorry...

 

Think it was fairly low on fuel, but didn't put a huge amount of injector cleaner in...

 

It was only black smoking pre the injector cleaner/v-power top up, it worked fine for a day. Then I noticed slight lack of power/the knocking noise when parked up. The exhaust makes small popping sounds in idle.

 

Hopefully just a air flow/oil problem... fingers crossed :( hopefully know tomorrow.

 

R35LEE;

Cheers mate, I shall be in touch if it's bad... only problem is you're mile away!

 

Chris 'I;

Shall have to drive it 5 miles to my mates garage tomorrow... will check the oil before hand.

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:scare: sounds horrible!

 

So it's not just missfiring due to plugs/coils? Dont fecking drive or even start it dude!

 

Might be a great time to have someone rip it to shreds and go for a stroker kit? :D If it's worth it (wouldn't know if it's cheaper to just repalce the whole thing)

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Dblock; I shall get another opinion... just to be sure.

 

andlid; I know... :(

 

I wouldn't know mate, it doesn't appear to misfire... I thought it was fixed after running good fuel/injector cleaner through it, until the knocking became more apparent.

 

Been advised it would be cheaper to replace the whole thing... not driving it at all, drove it to the garage and that's where it still is currently.

 

Driving it very sensibly with the odd blast, can only just afford to run the thing lol so rarely give it serious stick, it's also limited being jdm. Skinted myself buying it just so I could have my dream car... really, really don't need this right now :(

 

The car has always seemed a little noisy but I thought it was all normal due to Fidanza fly/box/ chatter.

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past two weeks ive been using regular 95 fuel = no problem atho i have been driving very slow and rarely using the loud pedel due to the weather, dont think it would be the fuel as it varies all over the world and ours is mid range in quality mine is a jdm as well so would expect it to react worse if wrong fuel is used. think its likely to be mechanical black smoke usually means oil or engine parts :headhurt:

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Dblock; I shall get another opinion... just to be sure.

 

andlid; I know... :(

 

I wouldn't know mate, it doesn't appear to misfire... I thought it was fixed after running good fuel/injector cleaner through it, until the knocking became more apparent.

 

Been advised it would be cheaper to replace the whole thing... not driving it at all, drove it to the garage and that's where it still is currently.

 

Driving it very sensibly with the odd blast, can only just afford to run the thing lol so rarely give it serious stick, it's also limited being jdm. Skinted myself buying it just so I could have my dream car... really, really don't need this right now :(

 

The car has always seemed a little noisy but I thought it was all normal due to Fidanza fly/box/ chatter.

hmm if you've not been driving the sh*t out of it it shouldn't be crapped out like that... get it to a Z mech mate or at least a second opinion one. limited or not you can still easily kill an engine under 180km/h... (Abbey can delimit them nicely with a flash upgrade, not that I think you're looking into that just now) feel for you mate if you're only managed to afford one and get hit with a high bill like that :(

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Had it like a month... maybe slightly more, loved every minute. Really havn't thrashed it at all, loved it too much to abuse it.

 

Z mech's have been in touch over PM but are miles away from North Wales, going on quotes received I cannot afford an engine/fitting.

 

I shall get another opinion first but for now Iam completely stuffed for what to do.

 

Thanks to everyone for their input and help,

Cal

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Had it like a month... maybe slightly more, loved every minute. Really havn't thrashed it at all, loved it too much to abuse it.

 

Z mech's have been in touch over PM but are miles away from North Wales, going on quotes received I cannot afford an engine/fitting.

 

I shall get another opinion first but for now Iam completely stuffed for what to do.

 

Thanks to everyone for their input and help,

Cal

 

If its a JDM it might be worth getting abbey to do it, if they are close by and can do a decent price. Alot of people know nothing about JDM's. Also it might not be that but it might be. Abbey might look at it and could be something completly different.

 

I know you are down about it but once its fixed you can be relaxed thats its nearly new. Unless insurance job? ;)

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R35LEE at Falcon Performance is probably your closest Z specific mech. Probably worth paying for the hire of a trailor to get it to him, he will be able to point you in the right direction for that.

 

Hate to say it, but if something serious has gone, its likely to have been oil starvation from the previous owner. Its quite a common problem I'm lead to beleive, lots of owners manage to let the oil get low which the Zed really doesnt like :surrender:

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sorry to hear this; if it helps with the costs you might be able to sell your engine off second hand for parts and spares. if your needing a new engine only 2 places i'd send it in england and thats R35LEE or Abbey; both know their stuff and both will make sure the car is back to normal.

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R35LEE at Falcon Performance is probably your closest Z specific mech. Probably worth paying for the hire of a trailor to get it to him, he will be able to point you in the right direction for that.

 

Hate to say it, but if something serious has gone, its likely to have been oil starvation from the previous owner. Its quite a common problem I'm lead to beleive, lots of owners manage to let the oil get low which the Zed really doesnt like :surrender:

 

This was dene's old car.....I nearly bought it! :scare: he was a pretty active forum member and enthusiast so I cant see him neglecting it......nothing in his posts to suggest a previous problem either. :shrug:

 

Cal I really feel for you mate.....you must be gutted.

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Thanks all for advice/sympathy etc. I'm shell shocked and devastated.

 

Dene was a nice lad... car seemed fine when I picked it up. Still waiting on the spare keys though Dene ;)

 

Zman has provided me with a quote for supplying/fitting engine, Lee is in Boro and Abbey are in Surrey... waiting to hear back from Lee re quotes/costs for engine supply/fit. Guess Falcon/Abbey are arguably similar distance from me (miles!) don't want an engine shipped here and a non Zed experienced mech putting it in. Should I be able to find this money I want it sorted properly.

 

I really can't afford this right now, but... while I'm here. I'm a graphic/marketing designer by trade, so if anybody needs anything doing at all please get in touch as I need all the cash I can get right now :thumbdown:

 

Would post a few pics of my work for members on here and recent work for BlackBerry but not sure if this breaks the rules.

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Gutted for u mate instead of a loan why not get a credit card with interest free ,lots are doing 9+ months now on purchases and when the 9 months is over swap it obviously pay as much as u can in the interest free period ,it's a very cheap way of having a loan . Iv done it a few times :thumbs:

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