What is wrong with my car?
I have a 1994 Vauxhall Astra 1.4ltr injection Automatic. It has had two lady owners before I purchased it and only had 63,000 miles in the clock. It had not done any motorway driving before I had it as the two previous owners never had need to drive on the motorway. However I do alot of motorway driving and this greatly increases the amount of fuel I go through as to get my car up to speed of 70mph I have to put it into sports mode which greatly increases the revs but it does get it to the speed I need otherwise my car would be quite happy to chug along at 50mph. When I am on the motorway I have to keep my foot pretty much to the floor to keep it at a constant speed of 70mph. I do not have kick back like most automatics have as I have noticed there is a restrictor under the gas peddle to stop you from flooring it. My car is not very efficient on speed or fuel I have replaced the spark plugs, put some special fluid into it that cleans the components as it runs, its similar to red ex but it is specifically for injection engines. I dont know what else I can do to try to fine tune it and get it to run as it should do.
When I am on the motorway or if I have had my foot pushed down on the peddle for a while I will suddenly get a scrapping noise of metal rubbing on something, easing off the gas does not help it sometimes makes it worse, to get it to stop I have to decrease my speed and let it cure itself. Which it always does but one day I am afraid it is going to break down on me, and I will be stuck in the middle of nowhere as I do not have breakdown cover. When this scrapping noise occurs I hear it first then I feel it in the gas peddle.
I hope this is nothing too serious as I really dont have the money to fix anything major. Was going to take it to a garage but would not have a clue what to say or what they would do for that matter? Also money is scarce so any useful advice you may be able to give me would be greatly appreciated.
I am in the United Kingdom by the way in case that helps. Thanks in advance
Compare Breakdown Cover | | October 13, 2009
automatics, breakdown cover, clock, clue, fine tune, flooring, injection engines, money, motorway, revs, spark plugs, sports, united kingdom, vauxhall astra
Go to one of the "crap" tuning shops and ask for a roll of "GO FASTER TAPE" and a pair of fluffy dice or a "fir tree" air freshener. That my friend WILL do the biz. ???
you need to go to the auto parts store and buy an airline plunger, fuel plugs, and some headlight fluid. should be fixed up in a jiffy!
It could be the gearbox disengaging. On a manual you would be able to feel it on the stick but on a auto you dont have that luxury. Automatics generally have more to go wrong with the gearbox and oftent they do. Think you might have to bite the bullet and get it checked out at a garage. You can always have someone look it over and ask them not to spend any money fixing it or on parts until they have contacted you to let you know what the issue is and how much it will cost. That way you can pull it out of the garage if need be and just pay for the lookover.
next time you go by a garage, pop into the garage and just casually ask what they think, just explain like u did here, they’l probably tell you whats wrong and tell u how much, otherwise its a case of who u know, i had a similar car but know nithing about cars and little bits kept going but someone on my road just came round every now and then and did a bit here and there and he just took 10-20quid each time, everyone was happy, try askin your neighbours if they know anyone
Rather than pay out on breakdown cover, if you use the same route often – just use yellow pages to find the garages in these areas that have a recovery truck. At least you will have a list of numbers if you do break down.
Sounds to me like the steel drivebelt is worn in the autobox, or the clutch is worn. This will happen with short trips/ older drivers more than long miles.
Replace the air filter for a start – and fuel filter. This will improve things a bit.
Another thing to try is take it to an auto-tune place. Tell them you cruise and would like economy at these speeds as much as possible.
It may be possible to chip the ECU to specifically provide this.
Ask specialists about overhaul of an auto gearbox – give the problems you have, and ask if the ratio’s can be changed to give you a higher top gear for motorway cruising. Look for eficiency rather than speed.
It sounds like you may have a problem with uneven wear on the bores of the engine. What happens in a normal car the wear over the length of the cylinder bores is equal as the car during normal driving will be rev-ed hard.
However if your car has never been on the motorway the pistons do not fly to the tops of the bores. I am not talking about 5 to 10mm throw but only 1 to 2mm, the result of this is that you end up with a lip at the top of the cylinder bore.
Now you have bought the car and are trying to get motorway speeds out of the engine, so every time you try to rev the car the top of the top ring is banging into the lip in the bore.
Unfortunately there is only two things you can do about this, first have the head removed and the top bore polished to remove the lip or second you could just live with it. Over time the lip will disappear but you will need to be a little care full with the revs as its possible to snap the top ring if you go to hard on it.
Ja.