Test driving a car for power on an empty tank?

AdrianC

If the timing chain really has stretched sufficiently to jump a tooth, then it's only pure luck that's stopping it from jumping more teeth and going expensively/terminally bang.

Mercdriver

Jlawson118 wrote: »

I'm sure some of you will recall my threads regarding a lack of power in my car and a dealership refusing to help me out, although I don't want this one to be merged with the other, this is a different matter to me.

Anyway, so for those who haven't seen my previous threads, I'm suffering lack of power with my car and I've had it diagnosed by an independent mechanic that my timing chain is stretched and is in need of a replacement. I have a year's warranty with the main dealers but they're refusing to accept the timing chain fault.

But they invited me in yesterday where the service manager test drove my car, going at a speed where he didn't have to lift the clutch up all that fast on gear changes so he didn't witness the jerky motion I do when changing when I have to set off at quite fast speeds and over-rev. But then after that, he got a 'like for like' car for me to test drive that they had for sale, same engine spec, similar mileage but two years younger than mine. At first the car seemed smooth, but the fuel light was flashing and the needle on the fuel gauge was actually on 0, right at the bottom.
I don't know how that car was moving whatsoever. We called in at a petrol station and he put a fiver in it, and the journey back was up hill, the car was struggling quite a lot, made my car and it's problems feel like driving a sports car.

I don't know much about how cars run, but I can assume giving the car £5 was like giving somebody who's dehydrated a teaspoon full of water and then expect them to go straight away. I can imagine the car was running solely on the dirt at the bottom of the tank.

Is this really a biased review? He claimed the lack of power is how they all are, but I feel like that one would have run quite nicely with even just a quarter of fuel in the tank, half, or even full. But the needle was on 0!

For God's sake, why is there yet another thread on the same issue? Do you have issues? Why can't you keep one issue to one thread and just add to that one thread, or are you just narcissistic?

facade

If the timing is that far out, I'd expect the eml to be on due to the miss-match between the crank and cam sensors.

The Corsa-C I had from new wore the timing chain enough to rattle like the engine was falling out every time it started up in 30,000 miles.
I was quite impressed really with the way that Vauxhall could get a chain running in near perfect conditions to wear so fast.

That was particularly gutless, something to do with a teenie weenie engine and an enormous body. I remember thinking that it was broken one rainy day when I couldn't get it above 50 on the motorway, it just couldn't cope with the effort of pushing the water from under the tyres and going up a very slight incline.

It was also the first car I drove with an electronic throttle body, it had a half second delay between stamping on the pedal and making any forwards effort at all, which made for some scary times at islands until I learned to mash the pedal well before the gap appeared to give it a chance to get the general idea.

It also took some getting used to the engine revving like mad in between gear changes, wheras the Proper Cars I had before the engine used to slow down when I lifted up the pedal as I pushed the clutch down.

Jlawson118

facade wrote: »

If the timing is that far out, I'd expect the eml to be on due to the miss-match between the crank and cam sensors.

The Corsa-C I had from new wore the timing chain enough to rattle like the engine was falling out every time it started up in 30,000 miles.
I was quite impressed really with the way that Vauxhall could get a chain running in near perfect conditions to wear so fast.

That was particularly gutless, something to do with a teenie weenie engine and an enormous body. I remember thinking that it was broken one rainy day when I couldn't get it above 50 on the motorway, it just couldn't cope with the effort of pushing the water from under the tyres and going up a very slight incline.

It was also the first car I drove with an electronic throttle body, it had a half second delay between stamping on the pedal and making any forwards effort at all, which made for some scary times at islands until I learned to mash the pedal well before the gap appeared to give it a chance to get the general idea.

It also took some getting used to the engine revving like mad in between gear changes, wheras the Proper Cars I had before the engine used to slow down when I lifted up the pedal as I pushed the clutch down.

If it happened in your Corsa-C then it's a shame they haven't fixed the issue in the Corsa-D! Mines at 33,000 miles too yet what confuses me is that it has good days and bad days, but I guess with the heavy body then there is going to be that pull on the chain.

I say this all the time that I know Corsas aren't exactly the most powerful cars in the world, but I know it should be running better than this

Jlawson118

Mercdriver wrote: »

For God's sake, why is there yet another thread on the same issue? Do you have issues? Why can't you keep one issue to one thread and just add to that one thread, or are you just narcissistic?

Do I have issues? Yes. In respect of my car that I'd like to get sorted. The thread this time is regarding the lack of fuel in another car..

Plus I just love winding you up that's the sole reason I do it. At least you'd think that. And you call me narcissistic

Mercdriver

Jlawson118 wrote: »

Do I have issues? Yes. In respect of my car that I'd like to get sorted. The thread this time is regarding the lack of fuel in another car..

Plus I just love winding you up that's the sole reason I do it. At least you'd think that. And you call me narcissistic

It's still related to the same issue so you should be updating that one to get the best responses, not attempting to fill up the front page with several different threads.

I don't care whether you are doing to wind me up. You seriously aren't that important. The point is that it makes other people's posts less visible as your threads take up too much space when they should all be in one thread not several.

TheBanker

All these experts who've given opinions - have any of them been out for a drive with you (in your normal conditions) or driven the car themselves in the conditions you describe?

From what you wrote here, I think your driving style may be causing the problems and I think your expectations from this car are too high.

Norman_Castle

Jlawson118 wrote: »

what confuses me is that it has good days and bad days, but I guess with the heavy body then there is going to be that pull on the chain.

Loss of power due to a worn timing chain wouldn't be intermittent.

Weight of the car makes no difference to the load on the timing chain.

Jlawson118

TheBanker wrote: »

All these experts who've given opinions - have any of them been out for a drive with you (in your normal conditions) or driven the car themselves in the conditions you describe?

From what you wrote here, I think your driving style may be causing the problems and I think your expectations from this car are too high.

The original mechanic I took it to took it for a test drive as did another mechanic of the place, followed me me driving it with him in the passenger seat too and both of them said that the car is running sluggish and isn't running how it should.
They ran a service on it which improved things slightly but after opening everything up they stated I needed a new timing chain

facade

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Loss of power due to a worn timing chain wouldn't be intermittent.

Weight of the car makes no difference to the load on the timing chain.

You would think so, but didn't VW manage to design a timing chain that jumped off the sprockets when you lift your foot off at speed?