I did, with a dry cloth. Part load breather I also cleaned, at least to the max length recommended nothing surprising came out, looked clean.

 

Either cap is loose or cap o-ring went bad, it tend to get hard and brittle with time so it is worth checking, leak at this location would cause unmetered air and lean condition

 

O ring in the cap looks hard and oil cap screws in a non very soft way, but I think there is no air leak there.

I did the test with the paper and the full load breather.

The paper is slightly sucked in so that it stays in place by itself when I release it, but it is not brutally sucked in, not sure what this means.

If I clean the part load breather again, I saw there is some indication of max length to reach with the drill. Is it measured from the very top of the stub I guess? First time I did not remove much dirt but I had the impression I as not going deep enough.

 

Google it: there are threads that describe how deep to go

 

http://www.jagrepair.com/images/TSB/...ings600-03.pdf

 

Umm took the car out today, again the low coolant warning message, around 100 km since last time.

I removed the carpet covering the fuel tank and guess what, there are shoe marks on the tank, other than that it looks proper. Seems like somebody has been there before...

Today while driving, there were moments where I was feeling the car more solid, it was also vibrating less when at a light stop (it always does a light vibration that seems to increase the more time it passes, sometimes more noticeable sometimes less). I filled it with 98 octane instead of 95 but no difference I believe in my issue.

Cheers.

 

Took the car to the mechanic today, just basically paying to get an elevator.

Result: fuel filter is correctly mounted.

Fuel lines do not seem kinked I believe. It took us 10 minutes to find a good angle. The mechanic was looking at me as if I was crazy.

 

Just providing a small update. I'm still fighting the car, 7 months now.

Bought a better OBD, had some old faults from when car was serviced.

Replaced battery.

I am fighting the tiniest leak in the lower radiator area. At the beginning I thought it could be a bad head gasket, because I did not see any leak but coolant was sometimes on the floor. Performed combustion gas test, negative.

Replaced coolant cap, first run afterwards the car does no seem to leak anymore, need to monitor.

Car has been behaving better, sometimes it pulled up to 4.2k rpm and rather than feeling about to die, it just seemed to hit a wall. Maybe it just needed a cleaning of the injectors. LTFT at 3.9

Next steps: compression test, to learn and just in case.

Injector pro cleaning.

Exhaust back pressure test.

If nothing works, I will live with the car as it is, or replace the pump, I don't know.

 

Did you test fuel pressure at load?
Now it is a long shoot but could you have stretched or misaligned (like i did) timing chains?
worth checking, especially that you should have a look at your tensioners which if plastic will ruin you love to car eventually
I know it is a bit of job but it isn;'t hard at all, just time consuming, it is actually quite enjoyable and you will get to know your car better

 

Hi xjack.

I did not test the pressure in dynamic. I know I should, but I'm blocked. I returned my mano and got a new one, only to measure 2.8 bar in static and then again it was giving weird measures, not moving.... I can't seem to find any tool that looks reasonably priced with guarantee to work. I contacted some mechanics, they all seemed not to be able or not knowing what I was talking about (I have my suspicious about why they were saying this, but I do not want to offend anybody). So I'm talking the windy road and getting there by elimination. Very slow, but learning a lot, which was one of my objectives. Critics welcome.

The only one who touched the timing was the mechanic who serviced the car at the beginning, who changed the secondary tensioners as well. No weird noises on that area. Which symptoms did you have when that happened?

 

What did first mano measure compared to the second? you mean it doesn't rise with vacuum line removed?
manual states 2.6 with vacuum 3 bar without, yours is in the middle and not moving, maybe your fuel pressure regulator is dead? you can always get some second hand one off ebay and see if it helps, if not you will have a spare
If your guy worked on timing it is safe to assume it is all right now, same for the pump which if i remember well was replaced in the past

 

I still think you have a dirty throttle: go buy some CRC throttle plate and bore cleaner, spray it into the throttle, then clean it with a clean rag.

Next, what do your fuel trims look like?

 

Compression test just done. I'm between 144-150 psi all cylinders. Cranking a bit longer and screwing the mano a bit tighter (it is one of this made of two pieces, where you risk leaving the adaptor at the bottom of the plug pit) could have give higher, but I'm very happy with these values, as they are consistent across the range. Test was done with car parked after a short run. No oil was added.

Now I need to repair 5 broken inserts.

 

First test 2.6 bar. Second test 2.8 (I primed 2-3 times, in difference to first time). Before second test, I was at 2.6 after 5 minutes. Then started the car and nothing moved. If I release pressure and restart the test, pressure will eventually show lower, below 2 bar.

Yes, I thought about the FPR as well. Once I removed the vacuum line and it only raised 0.1 bar, no apparent fuel leak.

It is funny that I'm not able to do the only test that could provide the necessary info.

I plan on buying a used FPR, probably after back pressure test and before injector cleaning.

 

Don't want to be stubborn or appear as I'm not following your advices, but I really don't know if my bore plate has this Molybdenum coating. I already bought the product to clean, but I don't see it very dirty, and cleaned with a dry cloth.

 

Check the hard bleed line that goes to the lefthand side of the rad, the O-rings can go bad so they weep under pressure. Took me ages to find something similar on mine as I don't have a pressuring kit to check it, eventually a garage pressurised the system past it's normal pressure & saw it.

 

Thanks, you mean the metal cooler lines, for transmission and the other one (oil maybe?).

In my case, there seems to be some liquid at the very bottom of the radiator, right next to the drain plug, in the metal/plastic seam of the radiator, left hand side looking from the cabin.

I replaced the coolant cap a a cheap measure and looks like the leak has stopped!! I need to check but right now the car is waiting for some adhesive for the inserts I took out while disassembling for doing the compression test.

 

No. The black plastic lines that lead back to the header tank. One goes down the LH side of the Vee & curves around the LH side of the rad pack & connects behind the grill.

But it sounds like you've sorted it anyway.

 

So putting the coils back in after the compression test, I have one insert out (and some others, but on the coil covers).

It looks like there has been some rubbing of the coil in the position where the insert was loose. There are some marks on the coil and also in the plug hole there is a shiny mark right in the same spot where the coil has the marks, as if the cam cover has been rubbed.

I noticed last time I was there that insert was loose but nonetheless managed to torque that screw.

This time I used some Loctite high temperature stuff, again is properly torqued but I'm suspicious right now.

In any parallel world, could that coil be vibrating and producing my issue?

Otherwise, I'm off for holidays, but I have some sweets for my return, spare fuel pressure regulator on the way, and I have the back pressure tester and key adapter, but I'm considering doing a vacuum test for easiness.


More in a couple of weeks.

 

Coil would keep functioning properly but would pull both inserts eventually and then probably start missing on that cylinder