KA Misfire...

Author
Discussion

tvradict

Original Poster:

3,829 posts

281 months

Sunday 13th February 2005
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I think my mates Ka is misfiring, badly on idle, then smoothing out as the revs rise, but its still lumpy.

On idle its making the car shake. I was at it for a couple of hours tonight in the dark, couldn't really see too much. It sounds like its no 3 that isn't firing right.

I've said I'll go over tomorrow and have another look at it for her in the daylight. I'm gonna do the usual Plugs out and clean, check leads. however, I couldn't see it so don't know what type of Coil is on it. Anyone any ideas?

Anything else I should be looking at? She said it started this afternoon after a pretty spirited drive. I've said if it comes to it she may need new plugs and possibly new leads, in the dark the leads looked a bit worn. I did notice that the lead for No1 seemed to be bent round a bit and was touching the exhaust heat shield.

Any help/advice greatly appreciated
Stuart.

tvradict

Original Poster:

3,829 posts

281 months

Sunday 13th February 2005
quotequote all
anyone at all??

thong

414 posts

239 months

Sunday 13th February 2005
quotequote all
Ka's have a single coil pack(wasted spark)dont pull connectors off here and there with the ingnition on,
ford have stopped the platinum long life plug sarga especially in the ka as the plugs rot in and break off,im only gona guess whats up without seeing/hearing said car,well your going to check/change the plugs id change them and copper grease the threads and torque them correctly,the plug leads have been known to short out and coil pack can give problems,i dont work on these anymore the best bet is to get it code reader in it that may give a better picture,hope that helps

Dale.

thesilverfox

119 posts

239 months

Wednesday 2nd March 2005
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on some of the later Ford engine you have to use a special gell up inside the plug caps to stop missfiring between the plug caps and the metal base of the spark plugs. that is if you have a spark there in the first place

cortinaman

3,230 posts

260 months

Thursday 3rd March 2005
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if the plug/lead check doesnt come up with anything it'd probably be worth doing a compression test.

i know my car is a fair few years older than the ka but after a bit of heavy right footing in my cortina the car decided to start playing up on idle (running lumpy,stalling as i pulled up to a stop,loss of power) and the problem seeming to clear as the revs came up (over 2k) but getting progressively worse over a few days to the point where the car was being a right bugger to even start in the morning.

after checking the plugs/timing a compression test was done which showed that no's 2 and 4 were running low.
after whipping the rocker cover off,checking the cam lobes and checking the tappet clearences (all o.k) we know that the only thing that can be causing this is a couple of knackered valves.....i know some people will say "well,the valves on a ka shouldnt go" i can say that ive seen mundaino's less than a year old with burned-out valves before and lets be honest,the way ka's are thrashed around (as it seems to be the only way to get anywhere from the way they are driven) its not impossible,especially if it has a few miles on the clock.

ph'er(zzr1200)

913 posts

258 months

Friday 4th March 2005
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if the leads look worn and have been touching the heat shield then this is the likely cause, try changing the whole set.

Paul