00' Astra 1.4 slow acceleration and bad fuel consumption

zt-OctaviaN

Hi Folks,

I was wondering if any astra 1.4 owners had experienced very poor acceleration particularly above 4,000 rpm? The engine is not delivering any torque, and is only returning about 360 miles from a full tank. The timing belt was changed a few weeks back at 72k and the power came back for about 3 days then it went back to this flat sort of acceleration.

Its been like this for the last 25k miles and I had a warning light appear apparently (the knock sensor had the fault code read) but was gone next day anyway.

Seeing as the power magically returned after timing belt renewal I suspect its in that area that something is loose or giving false reading to the ECU.

Sparks, and air filter you can rule out theyve been changed since this first started.

Any suggestions.

Oct

gibbon75

Can be your lambda probe,water and inlet temp sensor (the one wich gives the signal to rhe ECU),clogged catalyc converter,injector,thermostat (is you water temp ok?).Any black smoke from exhaust,smell of gas from engine oil?

Or the timing belt is not stiff enough and the camshaft jumped a tooth.

Hal1

gibbon75 wrote:

Can be your lambda probe,water and inlet temp sensor (the one wich gives the signal to rhe ECU),clogged catalyc converter,injector,thermostat (is you water temp ok?).Any black smoke from exhaust,smell of gas from engine oil?

Or the timing belt is not stiff enough and the camshaft jumped a tooth.

Hi, I had this problem with my polo turned out it was the lambda sensor that was causing the bother.

zt-OctaviaN

really? thanks guys both of you suggest the Lambda sensor!! hmm that little **** of a thing.

Hmm when you guys pulled away from Idle had you to increase revss so the car wouldnt stall by any chance? I got that also and new it was the lamda just didnt think it would affect the overall performance.
If you unplug it that problem goes away but the acceleration is still cuck?

I have read the haynes manual and its used for oxygen and Mixture control bloddy hell. Bet thats why its running bad on the fuel consumption.

Cheers for the help.
Nick

Hal1

Yeah, but dont blaim it all on that but I would say it would be a main contributor to the problem you have.

I would check the distributor leads maybe replace them doesn't cost too much and maybe some new plugs?

gibbon75

If you unplug the lambda your ECU will produce a fault code.But you could try it,if there's any change.But a faulty water temp sensor can produce even a 100% raise in fuel consumption.From your description it sounds like your engine is choking from fuel.

kluivert

It could be just be the age of the car. I think your doing ok there.

My 1999 Opel Astra 1.4 does 325-345 miles per tank.

Power is not what it use to be, am just putting it down to the age of the car. Although my exhaust manifold is rust, so there maybe holes in it, replace it & i may get some power back.

Clean the throttle body with some carb fluid.
Upgrade the spark plugs.
De-restrict the air box and replace the air inlet pipe (The pipe that sits over the radiator with a Vectra C Desiel air inlet pipe, its bigger that the Astras so it lets in some cold air.

Good service will improve things as well for you.

If you think that the power is down and fuel consumption is up normally i though that meant that the car is running rich.

Scruff

acceleration is slow, accelerator has to be floored to get any kind of acceleration out o f it.
need to get my 99 astra serviced and timing belts changes. how much will that cost? any good places in dublin west area?