6 replies to this topic

[DaveJH]

My car's fan belt snapped on Thursday as I drove home from Oxford (nearly 100 miles), the engine got a little hot and the battery ran out of charge before I managed to coax it home so I had to be recovered.

New belt is on, turns out the old belt was the wrong belt, it lasted less than 300 miles!

Today I took the car for its first drive since the belt snapped. I think it feels less responsive and it sounds almost muffled, perhaps a little hesitant. Also it quickly started idling at such low revs that it stalls. What do you think I've done and how can I fix it? It drives OK overall, just stalls whenever the engine isn't being used.

I apologise if the answer is easy to find by searching but I have a project deadline for tomorrow and simply don't have the time to go looking. At some point between now and tomorrow afternoon I have to finish my project, drive back to Oxford (after sorting whatever might be wrong) and hand it in!

Cheers

[DaveJH]

Sorry, should say I've got a '96 SPI cooper with a completely standard 1275 block. Let me know if you need any more info to provide me with advice.

[Jakeclubby]

this did happen to mine you want to adjust the idle. also if neccesary use some choke as the engines probably to cold

[Sprocket]

Overheat?>>Head gasket failure? carry out a compression test on a warm engine. Check the coolant level also.

Serious overheat can lead to poor ring seal resulting in excessive crankcase pressures also.

If the only thing that happened between it being OK and it running crap was the belt failure and overheat, you need to check for head gasket failure.

Edited by Sprocket, 08 April 2012 - 07:11 PM.

[Ryang556]

What does it run like when you're going?

[DaveJH]

this did happen to mine you want to adjust the idle. also if neccesary use some choke as the engines probably to cold

I don't have a choke, as it says above I've got a 96 SPI, incidentally it was fine when cold, the problem developed after the engine warmed up...

Overheat?>>Head gasket failure? carry out a compression test on a warm engine. Check the coolant level also.

Serious overheat can lead to poor ring seal resulting in excessive crankcase pressures also.

If the only thing that happened between it being OK and it running crap was the belt failure and overheat, you need to check for head gasket failure.

How do you do a compression test? Not done that before, do I need special tools? Do you check for head gasket failure by doing the compression test or some other way? The coolant had almost all escaped but I topped it up, should have checked it was all still there after my drive today but the engine temperature was completely normal.

What does it run like when you're going?

It seems to run OK, something about it seems a little muffled/hesitant but I might be imagining that.

[DaveJH]

Got my mate round to look at it today, he said the head gasket has gone. Gases from the cylinder are getting into the coolant system (and possibly the other way around) when the engine warms up. New head gasket should be sorted by wednesday evening. I'll report back if the problems persist but thanks for the advice.