Re: Car just won't stay running?

["jchapelhow" <chapelhow@xxxx>]

Joe

First of all, my sympathies for your problem.

I have just had a very similar experience which I will briefly 
summarise.

My car is 0737. I have recently purchasing it from an owner who had 
lovingly cared for it for the past 12years but only covered 400miles. 
I started having overheating problems almost straight away. To try 
and correct this I have changed all the fuses, had the relay update 
kit, fan fail 2x2, self-bleeder, new thermostat, new temp sensors 
from John Hervey. Whilst testing these I was not driving the car very 
far. 

Then like you I suddenly started getting extreme problems even 
getting the car to run. The car WOULD idle properly but as soon as I 
tried to accelerate the engine would splutter and die. Revving very 
hard and flooring the accelerator would only generate ~2500rpm. 

Sensors were adjusted/changed and the petrol flow from the tank was 
tested. After trying to move the car forward onto a ramp it was 
noticed that my rear bumper had started to distort. Upon inspection 
the original heat shield was found to have destroyed itself?. 

The cause of my misery was that the catalytic converter had 
disintegrated sending all of its internal stuff (I'm sure there is a 
technical name for the insides but I don't know what it is) into the 
exhaust silencer effectively blocking it. This was generating much of 
the excess heat causing my initial problems, and then when it became 
fully blocked prevented normal engine running. 

My initial problems were much more severe on hills. I believe that 
the bits from the cat were moving in the silencer becoming more 
blocked on an incline. My old silnecer rattled when shaken!

I have just got the car back after fitting a new cat-bypass pipe and 
new silencer, the engine is now running perfectly, I just need to 
find someone to repair/straighten the bumper.


Good Luck!

John Chapelhow
`Boeing' 0737