Intermittent fuel starvation problem

rev_henry

harveybobbles wrote: »

It could be the float arm inside the tank that has bent and is giving a wrong reading on the guage on the dash. We had this with an Omega years ago! IT ran lumpy when it got under a 1/4 of a tank. Took hundreds of miles to find this fault out!

I'm almost 100% sure its not this because I measure my mpg quite closely by resetting the trip meter after every fill up, and I know how many miles I usually get to a tank...

Tucker

Gloomendoom wrote: »

If the fuel filter was clogged one of the most obvious symptoms is hesitation and/or lack of power when pushing the engine hard. Overtaking or steep hills etc.

I'd also check that there are no loose or perished hoses that are letting fuel out or air in.

It could also be a faulty ignition component. They have a tendency to work when cool but degrade as they get hot.

Just out of interest, would you include a map sensor or IAT sensor in degrading when hot?

rev_henry

Well the mechanic has diagnosed head gasket failure. I guess that's that then.

Hammyman

Not necessarily. Get a quote. If its a few hundred quid, get it done because you'll not get anything worth a toss for that money and better the devil you know.

skiddlydiddly

Had a similar problem but it was caused by having less than a 1/4 of a tank and the fuel sloshing about and away form the pickup in the tank, causing the car act like I had stood on the brakes going around bends.Rectified by filling it back up and not letting it run low.

Rebob

Suggest you try seeing if the fuel cap is difficult to remove. This would mean the breather pipe may be blocked.

The other reason one of our cars did this was when the crank shaft sensor went. The car broke down on me 9 times that day, including twice on the motorway. Each time the car restarted as it cooled down but the running time kept getting shorter.

rev_henry

Well the car had to be towed 100 miles home today. It got much worse, actually stalling and refusing to idle - before it was just doing it when I gave it some gas. However the recovery man said he didn't think it was HGF. I see what he means - no creaming of oil and water, temp gauge not shooting up and no smoke or steam...hmmm...

The garage who diagnosed HGF would have no reason to lie though - they're good friends of my OHs family and they told me not to bother fixing it...

atrixblue.-MFR-.

i would recomend putting a non return valve into your fuel line, should help £10-£15.

rev_henry

The car is still sat on the drive whilst I wonder what to do with it. Another mechanic has looked at it and said it could be an electrical or a fuel issue but was reluctant to look any further. Further supports my suspicions that its not HGF though. I've got a new car now so I just want rid of it really. My father thought it might be something cheap and easy to fix, in which case I could do it and then sell it working properly, but now not so sure. How much is it worth scrap? Seems too good to scrap though really...

System

harveybobbles wrote: »

It could be the float arm inside the tank that has bent and is giving a wrong reading on the guage on the dash. We had this with an Omega years ago! IT ran lumpy when it got under a 1/4 of a tank. Took hundreds of miles to find this fault out!

we had a similar issue with a c3 ,the sender unit had broken and was telling us there was fuel when it was almost bone dry !