1.0 12v 3 cyl 1998 corsa with issues.....

[GavTheMighty]

Right bought this little car off ebay and it has issues........never believe what people tell you about a car on Ebay is all I can say. This guy said changed filters and oil last month in his ad you will read below why that wasn't true.

When I got home thought I'd take a closer look under the bonnet........No oil I mean none bone dry how the car made it back 30+miles with no oil I will never know and god knows what damage it has done.......Also no water..........People really amaze me at times. Filled her up with oil and some water as the car was rattling and shaking like crazy after a day it has calmed down and seems to be running ok-ish.

Anyway on to the issues........

1: You can only start the car by putting your foor on the accelerator once it starts it revs up drops to a normal rev and seems fine and dandy but I find this rather odd to have to start a car in such a way? (Idle control valve?)

2: I took out the spark plugs to take a look. Was not a good find, Two seems ok the last was black as sin including the chamber leading to the spark plug and the end has vanished..........Now at this point I'm sitting there thinking surely that must have screwed up the piston etc but it doesnt seem to be misfiring or having an issue accelerating etc so untill I can do a compression test I guess I won't really know the truth. I changed the spark plugs but no noticeable difference which I found surprising as one surely couldnt have been working??? Unless I am running on 2 cyl?

Wanted to ask as I have never had a 3 cyl car are the engines normally so shakey and tappety? (Only at idle that is)

Other than that the car seems to be ok everything else seems to work except he cigerette lighter and the outside temp reading Oh and one wing mirror passenger side which is half hanging off I will replace that and see if I can hook up the lighter later but right now want to make sure the engine is running ok.

Anyway thanks in advance for any advice given as I'd like to hear your opinions....

Cheers Gav.

[mikey s]

Hi, regarding the shaky engines I believe this is common as ours shakes, rattles and noisy.

As to your starting issue. Could this be maybe related to fuel i.e fuel filter may need a change out. Maybe change the coil pack.

Couple things to look out on these cars: ecu screwed to side of engine seems to go wrong sending error after error codes. Crankshaft sensors.

Good luck
Mike

[GavTheMighty]

I will be doing a full service on it as soon as I can, only thing is if the coil pack or fuel filter were screwed so to speak surely it would miss a little or stumble on acceleration which it doesn't?

There is no engine light by the way it does go out after the car starts and I believe the Crankshaft was changed recently on the car unless of course the dodgey mechanic didn't reset the ecu after installing it? But then I was told the engine light was on untill this was changed so if it's now out the issue at the time must have been sorted?

Possible coil pack but would a faulty one be able to do so much damage to one of spark plugs I dunno?

One thing I noticed today as I took bits off to check here and there is that when I took the airflow meter off and started the car there was a difference more shakey etc so was kinda hoping that means it's working in someway?

Next thing I noticed if you turn the key in the ignition to start the car but don't actually crank it or start it I could hear a constant ticking noise from the Throttle body? I opened it up and cleaned the butterfly a little but the ticking noise was coming from either the Idle control or Throttle switch prehaps? If these cars have a Throttle switch. Anyone know anything about that? Should it be ticking.........Possibly faulty Idle control sending some information to the Ecu and the ticking is the throttle switch messing around? (totally random guessing now)

Feel free to enlighten me or tell me if you know what the issue is I just don't want to fork out a ton of cash changing various things with guess work and I can't afford a mechanic right now.

[GavTheMighty]

*UPDATE*

Well I messed around and tried changing a few things.

Now it starts on the button odd thing is it wasnt the idle control being faulty so much as the throttle cable not being in the right position there is a screw on the Throttle housing that adjusts the cable slightly I tuned it a little and bang no more starting issues.

Car still seems to be running ok although it does seem to be eating oil and there is no oil leaks so dunno if the oil seals have gone or if it's back to the original issue of a possible damaged cylinder.

[scotsvampyr]

i have the same problem with the clicking but mine is from left hand side of dashboard somewhere it will turn over but wont start then it starts and runs fine just the issue with this clicking i have another corsa which starts fine cylender head went and i took the ignition coil off that put it on but still the same problem