LCR feeling slow

[metroarmadillo]

Hi,
When I first bought my LCR about 6 months ago every day it used to drive really well (apart from the few off days that every body has) and whenever I wanted the power no matter what gear I was in it just used to fly, but about 6 weeks ago I was on the way home from somewhere and I had an ignition coil go. I drove it home about 30 odd miles and didn't drive it until the next day after I had replaced all the coils with genuine ones. I took it for a nice decent test drive and it felt fine, but a few days later it just felt sluggish in most gears but was still felt reasonably fast but when I accelerate it doesn't feel quite as smooth and such a kick like it used to and when I listen very carefully to the engine whilst flooring it, it sort of sounds like its still very very slightly miss firing and struggles a bit to get up to higher revs.
Also lately my ESP seems to be kicking in way too much for no reason and the light doesn't always come on , something just seems to be cutting the turbo off and I've taken it to the dealer and had it diagnosed and they said they couldn't find anything.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced a similar problem and any help would be much appreciated.

Cam

 

[Luke_buk]

it could your MAF sensor has gone.
it happened to mine a few weeks ago. my car felt sluggish and would not boost correctly.

it doesnt always show up on you dash with the engine management light. mine didnt but the fault was the maf sensor. i changed it and my car is now totally different.

if you disconect the maf sensor and run the car and its running ok then its preety certain to be that.

it was really easy to change and if you take your old one into GSF you even get your £25 off the price of a new one.

do not go for the cheap version you are throwing your money away . make sure its the bosch part.

 

[Dani_b19]

£25 for a MAF's very cheap, is it a genuine bosch one, also did you get a hole new housing or just the sensor?

 

[metroarmadillo]

Yea I unplugged it today and it did feel a bit better but about half an hour later my engine management light came on and car just drove extremely **** until I plugged it back in.
So yea I will get a new MAF sensor next I think and I'll just have to keep trying different things like that to finally get it sorted its just so annoying

 

[jase750]

Yea I unplugged it today and it did feel a bit better but about half an hour later my engine management light came on and car just drove extremely **** until I plugged it back in.
So yea I will get a new MAF sensor next I think and I'll just have to keep trying different things like that to finally get it sorted its just so annoying

whip it out and give it a gentle spray with brake cleaner then put it back in ,
worked a treat on my LCR

 

[metroarmadillo]

Really? I'll give that a try first then seeing as its a much cheaper and easier fix thanks

 

[b1nuzz]

You shouldnt drive that far with your MAF unplugged. a short trip around the block is really your limit before you cause more damage from having it unplugged.

 

[Luke_buk]

£25 for a MAF's very cheap, is it a genuine bosch one, also did you get a hole new housing or just the sensor?

its 25 off the price. its £58 + vat +£25 surcharge
but if you take your old one in then is only £58 +vat and yes its genuine bosch from GSF

 

[andycupra]

i cant say the symptoms you have described are consistent with a maf issue.
'missfire' is more likely to be a coil, plug or connection between the two issue.
ESP cutting in.. you mean traction control? or are you simply missinterpreting a misfire as ESP or traction control.... ?
it may be that a coil is struggling under heavy load.

seeing that you have replaced the coils recently, the first thing id be doing is checking they are fitted correctly, or have not 'raised' up of the plugs.

 

[Luke_buk]

i cant say the symptoms you have described are consistent with a maf issue.
'missfire' is more likely to be a coil, plug or connection between the two issue.
ESP cutting in.. you mean traction control? or are you simply missinterpreting a misfire as ESP or traction control.... ?
it may be that a coil is struggling under heavy load.

seeing that you have replaced the coils recently, the first thing id be doing is checking they are fitted correctly, or have not 'raised' up of the plugs.

my MAF sensor went about 2 weeks ago and i had a stutter/misfire and also black smoke from the exhaust. my just would not boost correctly or accelerate at any pace its just kept misfiring. but on the other hand without trying all posibilitys then you cant say.

if you do unplug your maf then the TCS lite will come on and the engine managment light too.

 

[turbin]

whip it out and give it a gentle spray with brake cleaner then put it back in ,
worked a treat on my LCR

no no no... don't use brake cleaner. That leaves a residue. There's MAF sprays on the market !

 

[jase750]

There's MAF sprays on the market !

lol not when I had mine they didn't i suppose contact cleaner would work then

 

[andycupra]

if the problem is there most of the time, then disconnect the maf and give it a run to help make your mind up if its a mad issue or not.
(yes you will get traction control light on dash, and some get the ecu/engine light too). It will go once you reconnect. But take time not to damage the wiring when dissconnecting / reconnecting.

You can run like this for a while, it will run slightly richer, but you can run for a fair time and it wont cause any issues. Certianly longer than 'round the block' and certainly for longer than needed to diagnose if disconnecting the maf has solved the issue or not.

 

[turbin]

lol not when I had mine they didn't i suppose contact cleaner would work then

no, contact cleaner also leaves residue. If you wanna use a spray you really need to use the correct MAF cleaner spray. The major brands that makes stuff for cars have this spray.

 

[Stu_pot]

IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) is a good, common substance used to clean MAF elements, and is as pure alchohol as you're going to find that is widely available for under a tenner.

However, in my experience, it does improve the performance of the MAF for a short time but doesn't seem to achieve 100% functionality like a new/replacement MAF will do. I believe that once a MAF starts to deteriorate, it's a one way street...

You can acquire 1L tins from www.cpc.co.uk, not the cheapest but like I said, readily available.

Oh, and new Bosch MAF's from G&S are £43.30 plus VAT, exchange.

 

[Pabs]

However, in my experience, it does improve the performance of the MAF for a short time but doesn't seem to achieve 100% functionality like a new/replacement MAF will do. I believe that once a MAF starts to deteriorate, it's a one way street...

Interesting thought here - but if a MAF degrades over time, I've always wondered why so many places offer the exchange feature. This can only be because they can refurb/fix the old one you give them.... or reuse parts of it.

What I'd need to know is what they do to fix the MAF - if they just replace the sensor itself, why can't we do the same thing, to save the cost of an entire new unit?

 

[andycupra]

i always thought it was that they replaced the sensor.


some time ago, (im talking 2 years+) there was a thread were we discussed a seller that sold just the sensors... although this was on a popular auction type website.

 

[Stu_pot]

Interesting thought here - but if a MAF degrades over time, I've always wondered why so many places offer the exchange feature. This can only be because they can refurb/fix the old one you give them.... or reuse parts of it.

What I'd need to know is what they do to fix the MAF - if they just replace the sensor itself, why can't we do the same thing, to save the cost of an entire new unit?

Yes, they just replace the sensor, I guess you could say it's only the housing that is exchange.

 

[Pabs]

so why can't we source it ourselves? - surely it'd save us money?

 

[metroarmadillo]

i cant say the symptoms you have described are consistent with a maf issue.
'missfire' is more likely to be a coil, plug or connection between the two issue.
ESP cutting in.. you mean traction control? or are you simply missinterpreting a misfire as ESP or traction control.... ?
it may be that a coil is struggling under heavy load.

seeing that you have replaced the coils recently, the first thing id be doing is checking they are fitted correctly, or have not 'raised' up of the plugs.

Yea they're all connected properly and not raised up at all and yea it does feel like one coil is struggling slightly, how would I check for a wiring fault as that seems the only other thing it could be?
Yes its definately traction control because when I'm accelerating out of a corner my car starts to go but then the traction control stops it for a second then lets me boost up and off I go.