Cheers. RH is seen from the cabin, right? Battery connections could be a little bit dodgy, come to think of it. A while back I noticed the negative terminal wasn't on as well as it could be on. Fixed it, but it could have worked loose again.

I wonder if we should adopt "port" and "starboard" when referring to cars. That's universal and unambiguous, provided you can remember which is which. Which is pretty easy once you know what they mean. Starboard is "steering board," the side you steer ships from, which is the right (sorry, Americans/Europeans. Right is right, it seems), and Port is the side you park your boat against the port--again, not helpful for Americans and those Napoleon screwed with....

 

Right/left is from the perspective of sitting in the car looking forward.

Cheers
DD

 

Just a minor update. I had to take the car in for its biennial official government-required inspection (got out of there for only US$1300 equivalent, including the other stuff I asked them to look at), so got the garage to check a few things, including the jolts at idle. They said that rather than the alternator, it was likely to a coil acting up.
Is this likely? One's already been replaced after it failed and I nearly had a cat fire, so if the other is showing signs of old age, I'd naturally prefer to fix it before it goes completely, rather than after.

PS: The bulk of that hideous cost for the inspection is government taxes in various forms.
PPS: They regassed the aircon and it blows nice and cool now. The clutch can be temperamental, however. Possibly an electromagnet issue. Might just be a bad ground.

 

Scratching my head here.

Did they offer anything more by way of explanation? I might be missing something but I can't make any connection between a suspicious ignition coil and low charging system voltage.

Cheers
DD

 

No, not really. Just said "No, it won't be the alternator" (when pressed, the guy said it was fine), and that the coil should [probably: I can't remember how emphatic he was] be replaced.
To be clear, this isn't in relation to low charging voltage, but to the jolts/quick but small rev jumps the car can make idling when then engine's fully warm and the revs are at their lowest. He's not sure on the low voltmeter, but says the alternator's fine. (If it's related or not, the car does start normally. The voltmeter drops, it seems, in concert with the revs, which to my ignorant eyes does suggest a struggling alternator.)
Oh, and the battery's fine, apparently. That's one of the standard mandated check items.

 

A small misfire at idle can indeed be the coils. They are not hard to change, literally unplug the wires from the old coil and plug into the new one. Not too expensive on Rockauto.

 

Thanks. This should, at least, be something even I can manage....
I don't like Rockauto much, mind--their international shipping is bloody expensive. I'll take a look, however.
Actually, quite cheap, with very cheap shipping, too.

 

If it's only 1 coil then the miss should only be on one bank. swap the coils between banks to determine if it is the coil acting up/

Just swap BOTH plugs on each coil to the other one

 

Good point. I don't actually know which bank the miss is on. I've listened to the injectors with a long screwdriver, but found nothing noticeably wrong.

 

Listen at the tailpipes.

The non-misfiring bank will go "Hummmmmm". The misfiring bank will go "hummmm-spit spit -hummmm -spit spit"

Sometimes a small 'pop' rather than 'spit'

Cheers
DD

 

I've tried the card trick, inconclusively, and will try it again.