Virtual Mechanic

Ryu
Waikerie, South Australia

Type of Vehicle Ford
Model EA Falcon
Month/Year 6/1989
Kms 235,000
Problem Hard starts when cold, when starts idles nicely and drive well until warm. Even when warm it idles well. When warm and driving it starts to misfire and loose power, ultimately becomes unresponsive to accelerator pedal. Mechanic suggested changing of timing chain, but surely if it was the timing chain it would not idle well when stationary? help

Ryu

This sounds like a potential manifold issue, now I will paraphrase it back to you.
When running at normal operating temperature it starts to misfire
Can you perform something for me please
With the car parked in neutral running at Normal operating temperature can you wait for the misfire then raise the idle speed and tell me if this goes away
 
Let me know

Friday, March 05, 2010 3:15 PM
Darren

Hi Darren,

Wish you answered last week!

Since I posted the question the car died. I took it in for a tune and it got worse, thats when I posted the query. I took it back and they said that the timing guide was cracked, which was strange as it wasnt running so bad when I initially took it in. The mechanic told me i could drive on it but it would be noisey. I decided it was too noisy to drive and when driving it in to get fixed it threw the chain, missed a cog and died, when they opened her up they discovered she and dropped a cylinder, …not worth fixing. Now I am without a car and have I have lost alot of trust in mechanics! Think I will stick with Honda! Thanks anyway mate.

Gutted

Ryu

Ryu,
 
I’m really sorry to hear of your experience but was not aware of a noisy timing chain with your first e-mail.
Hope you get back on the horse soon….
 
Darren