Help ! 700 rpm idle, smoky exhaust, burning smell !!!

[jonolondon]

Hi folks, I'd appreciate any advice from past experience from you. I've a 2005 tuscan 2 (3.6) which I've owned for precisely 2 weeks (!) it now has 5000 miles on the clock (came with 4650). I've been checking the oil regularly and it doesn't seem to have used any in the last 500 miles. It had had a service and compression test beforehand.

However, the engine management never seemed exactly right (it felt slightly lumpy, engine would 'hunt' occasionally) and I've been very careful about warming it up, but at the same time have been giving it some beans (having said that, probably never taken it over 6800 rpm when fully warmed up).

So yesterday evening, when driving it back from getting the shocks done, I noticed that it was started to idle unevenly, sitting at around 700 rpm, instead of the usual 850rpm. At these revs it is *very* lumpy as you can imagine.

when I accelerate, it smooths out and feels fine.

Today it was doing the same thing and I noticed that the left hand exhaust is now producing black smoke and there's a smell of burning !! I drove the car straight home and will be calling the dealer tomorrow.

I'm obviously crapping it somewhat thinking 'rebuild' but I *thought* that the later (2004+) engines were built to better tolerances - anyone got any ideas ? is it eating the catalytic converter (with the rough idle) ?

Cheers,
Jonathan

[GreenV8S]

That sounds to me low a misfire rather than a mechanical failure, so it may simply be a sensor fault or ignition hardware fault. The burning smell is probably your cats overheating, hope they haven't been damaged but it's a distinct possibility if you've driven more than a couple of miles like that.

[KillerJim]

I had something similar happen when the throttles needed balance, all you can smell is burning petrol

[boardinscotland]

I have an older tuscan but from has been explained to me is that your idle over time will gradually drop. You there have to manualy set it on the the throttle rail. After this you then have to get a Syncrometer (from demon tweeks) and then set up each air trumpet manually by the allen key screw on the left hand side of each trumpet. At this point you need the software to reset the ECU.
Once you are above a certain RPM then your ECU takes over. Your idle RPM will always be lumpy but the more lumpy it is the more the air intakes have to be set.

I would really recommend that you put it in a specialist to set it up properly unless you have a mechanics background or a specialist that you can phone.

Edited by boardinscotland on Monday 12th May 00:11

[jonolondon]

Thanks guys for your feedback - I'm calling the dealer this am to try and get it sorted whilst the sun is still shining !
Jonathan.

[jonolondon]

Ok well I got the bad news this afternoon - BLOWN HEAD GASKET. This is on a 2005 Tuscan that I've owned for 2 WEEKS, with 5000 miles on the clock ... B*@lls !!!!

Has anyone NOT had a good experience with Austec ? TVR Power/Racing green can't fix it for 6 weeks or something (plus 2 weeks to repair).

Needless to say, I'm not very chuffed right now....

[BigJL]

Oh no... crapola.

Sorry to hear that mate. I hope you get it sorted, you must be gutted.

[jonolondon]

Yes thanks JL - Just a bit underwhelmed, plus I'd been offered a mechanical warranty for £1k which I turned down reasoning that as the the car only had 4500 miles on it, I *should* be ok !! Doh !

Anyway, I'll know more in the next few days, but so far not so good.. I've only just put Gaz Golds on it which have transformed the car's handling so I'm just dying to get it back !