Flat spot???

livinginhope

Evening everyone,just a little advice needed here please,my car has developed a 'flat spot' pulling away is getting a bit of a hit or miss,just as you pull off,all power goes,then suddenly comes back,does anyone know the cause of this and more importantly,how much should it cost? BTW it's a Vauxhall Frontera '97.
Thanks in advance for all replies
LIH

avantra

Assuming this is a petrol car, the 1st thing I would do is to replace the HT leads (the long cables from the spark plugs) as it is usually the source for flat spots and it's much cheaper than a visit to the garage. A set should be cheap on ebay or from a motor factor. (£20 from an ebay trader, see item 190088482708 ).

If you do replace the leads make sure you do them one by one or colour code them, so each lead will connect to where the old lead was.

If you still have no joy try to put new spark plugs and if that didn't help check the air mass meter or just go to the garage.

scatz

Could also be that your clutch is starting to slip and needs replacing, which would be quite pricey, arround £300+ depending on where you are in the country and what aspiration your Frontera is.

I would, however, go alone with avantra's post first as it may not be as drastic as a new clutch.

peterbaker

Diesel or Petrol?

If petrol, might your fuel sensor widget thingey be gummed up with silicone courtesy of Tesco/Morrisons transgressions a month or so ago? (How quickly we forget!)

If diesel it could easily be something similar called the Mass Air flow Meter (MAF Meter or MAM I think I have seen them called on eBay where I bought mine) which is a full thumb sized object dangling into the airflow in the big pipe between the air-cleaner and the turbocharger

A dealer will charge you perhaps £200 to replace it.

I got mine for £40 on eBay and fitted it myself to my 1999 Audi in 5 minutes.

Very common problem.

livinginhope

Thanks for the replies guys,just going back to the HT leads,we replaced them a few weeks back with the spark plugs and also the idle throttle valve,just wondering if there is a connection between replacing these things and this problem occuring?
Funny you mention the clutch slipping scatz,I told DH I thought it was slipping the other day,but,no offence,being a typical male,he thinks nothing is wrong until it actually breaks down!! as we have no hills around here,a slipping clutch wouldn't be really obvious until it is very bad.
I will put all your ideas to DH and give a gentle nudge for him to try and sort it,I am getting a little fed up of trying to pull off and not knowing if the car will actually move off in time.
LIH