Hi all...

After filling up fuel last night, i got about 10-15kms down the road when the car started behaving badly, and still is today. The car has no go whatsoever, it takes me about a good 20-25 seconds to get up to 100km/h with foot flat to the floor revving the guts out of it.
When i'm idling in gear (D), the car wants to basically stall. The revs drop down to the point where the oil pressure light illuminates. But idling in N or P seems perfectly normal.. it sits around 750-800rpm.

Also when i started it up this morning, it was hesitant to do so and rattled very loud and strangely and carried on for about 10-15 secs. It seems to have a strange droning exhaust sound (and the usual quiet whine from the transmission (?) is louder too), almost like an exhaust leak under certain RPMs. But i bloked the tailpipe for a min and couldnt hear any exhaust leaks anywhere else. :confused:

Has anybody else had a similar experience to this at all? Would a bad batch of fuel exhibit any or all of these symptoms at all? My initial thoughts were my transmission was going ratty, but it seems to be changing gears normally.. could it still be at fault. I dont know alot about autos myself..

Cheers, Phil.

Presuming the car was behaving perfectly (or near enough to it) prior to juicing it up, it sounds a *lot* like dodgy fuel. I very recently had a car throw a very similar set of symptoms (idled fine, rev'ed fine, not enough guts to pull it off the road and into the driveway in a single attempt). When I subsequently removed the carb, the inlet manifold had an inch or so of water sitting in it ;-)

I would not start the engine again until you can unequivocally disprove anything's wrong with the fuel. If there is, and it damages / destroys the engine, the only recourse you'll have is to go after the servo for damages...

Cheers,
Mattt.

You didn't buy fuel from a Service Staion in Chester Hill, Sydney earlier this week!

10 cars that had filled up with petrol, all stopped running without leaving the service station. Apparently a tanker delivered fuel with a mix of more water then petrol. Investigations showed that the water did not contaminated the fuel via the fuel tanks in the ground. The station owner had to be escorted from the premises.

You didn't buy fuel from a Service Staion in Chester Hill, Sydney earlier this week!

10 cars that had filled up with petrol, all stopped running without leaving the service station. Apparently a tanker delivered fuel with a mix of more water then petrol. Investigations showed that the water did not contaminated the fuel via the fuel tanks in the ground. The station owner had to be escorted from the premises.

Oh dear.... no i'm in Ballarat, Vic. Something leads me to think that its not a fuel related problem. The car runs great when out of gear... if it was fuel related it would run like **** whether in or out of gear, one would think.

Well rattling massively for 10-15 secs is much longer than it should be, as at most it should be about 5 secs at startup. The car isn't able to idle low enough to drop the oil pressure enough to make the pressure indicator light to go on. At the point that happens the engine will have already stalled. I personally would be checking oil level and filters, and if those are fine, it would be a good idea to check the sump pickup and make sure it isn't blocked. If the problem is still there, there may be an issue with the oil pump (although very rare).

Could still be a fuel problem as has been suggested by others, although that wouldn't explain the low oil pressure or rattle on startup.

Well rattling massively for 10-15 secs is much longer than it should be, as at most it should be about 5 secs at startup. The car isn't able to idle low enough to drop the oil pressure enough to make the pressure indicator light to go on. At the point that happens the engine will have already stalled. I personally would be checking oil level and filters, and if those are fine, it would be a good idea to check the sump pickup and make sure it isn't blocked. If the problem is still there, there may be an issue with the oil pump (although very rare).

Could still be a fuel problem as has been suggested by others, although that wouldn't explain the low oil pressure or rattle on startup.

Yehh it is longer than normal... but its not the usual timing chain rattle, it sounds like the whole top end rattles heaps. As for the low idle, yes it is able to go that low, and it does.. it fluctuates between 500 and 150ish rpm with the oil light flickering on and off when it drops low. Other than that oil pressure seems fine throughout the rev range and during normal operation. Oil & filters were changed about 2000kms ago, and the engine internals dont have excessive sludge buildup.. certainly not as bad as to give the indication that the pickup would be blocked.

Something really makes me think its my transmission reaching death... although it shifts fine and the fluid isnt burnt or discoloured at all. :confused:

To be quite honest its not the rattle that worries me.. its more the poor idle in gear and HUGE reduction in performance.

Might be a stuffed airflow meter or an oxygen sensor ? My mums car was kind of doing the same thing and it was the air flow meter.

Might be a stuffed airflow meter or an oxygen sensor ? My mums car was kind of doing the same thing and it was the air flow meter.

Oxygen sensor was replaced about 15000km's ago with the extractors. As for the air flow meter, i've given it a clean with some contact cleaner this morning but left it at that. I'll try source one from the wreckers next week if i come to no other conclusions.

Cheers for the info though Gemini.

what second gen doesnt have a
Strange Running Problem :gtfo:

what second gen doesnt have a
Strange Running Problem :gtfo:
Tell me about it *cough* why does my cam seal keep popping out *cough* 3rd time now *cough*

']Tell me about it *cough* why does my cam seal keep popping out *cough* 3rd time now *cough*

Read the lower section of this page:

http://www.allpar.com/fix/3liter-timing-belts.html

About a Mitsu 3L that kept blowing cam seals etc and how the bloke ended up repairing it.

Read the lower section of this page:

http://www.allpar.com/fix/3liter-timing-belts.html

About a Mitsu 3L that kept blowing cam seals etc and how the bloke ended up repairing it.

Ahh...Looks like fun.
Thanks for that...where DO you find this stuff lol

']Ahh...Looks like fun.
Thanks for that...where DO you find this stuff lol

No idea actually, I stumbled across it yesterday looking for something else, read the article then moved on.

Didnt think twice about it until I saw ur comment then, then had to go looking
thru my IE history from yesterday until I found it.