Spluttering and cutting out.

[Al the mod]

Hey. I have a 96 mini equinox 1275 at the start of the year it cut out on me, after splutterting up a hill in 3rd gear, it drove for a few feet sluggish until finally cutting out has a real over fueling feel to & it after leaving it at the side of the road for 10min it started and drove home so i assumed flooding. I replaced plugs/leads and coil as there seemed to be a slight misfire under load and has drove perfect up and down hills and on long/short distance. Unfortunately this morning it done the same, came of the dual carriageway and up a slight hill in 3rd Merlin started to splutter and then after a couple of meters flooded again, this time i had tools in the back took out the plugs, which didn't seem to be that wet with fuel, cleaned them put them back and away we go a bit sluggish at first but fine for the rest of the journey to work bout 20 min of stop start driving. the conditions are almost identical to the first time it happened, cold wet and lots of traffic. Any way has any one else had trouble like this and could lend some guidance. i plan on taking the distributor cap off today at lunch and see if its built up with dirt. but if anyone has any other ideas i would appreciate your help.

Cheers Al

[DaveC]

If the weather was the same both times, i.e. wet and windy, do you have a splash guard inside the grille protecting the electrics?

[Al the mod]

Cheers DaveC. No that is one thing i dont have and was looking for. I was thinking of that too but kinda thought with the removal of the plugs and it starting first time after refit that it probably wasn't damp but it does make sense condition wise.

[woody]

Since your problem seems to be load related (uphill) the first place I would look would be the vacumn pipes between the inlet manifold and ECU. The elbows at the ends of the pipes split and if you havent already replaced them I would reckon due to there age that thay would be going.( common problem). The ends need to be 100% tight.

[Al the mod]

Cheers woody will take a look at them later on.

thanks again

[Al the mod]

Since your problem seems to be load related (uphill) the first place I would look would be the vacumn pipes between the inlet manifold and ECU. The elbows at the ends of the pipes split and if you havent already replaced them I would reckon due to there age that thay would be going.( common problem). The ends need to be 100% tight.

I took a look at the vacumn pipe on the bottom of air box to the ecu and they look new ish and don't seem to be sucking air from outside the pipe nor does the pip on the top of the airfilter housing to the underneath... I am wondering now if the timing is slightly off and when under load is over fueling could this be a possibility. Although general driving is fine, I only have since January and other then the first time it broke down and an alternator its flying.

[Al the mod]

Oh and I took the dizzy cap off and cleaned the rotor arm and contacts as there was a build up of White corrosion on the inside...

[keith]

look at the vacuum again... specially the rubber elbows, where the plastic pipe connects to the ECU, flame-trap, manifold. if the elbows are perished you can replace them with short bits of small rubber hose.

[woody]

The dizzy in the SPi is fixed with no timing advance, the timing is controlled by the ECU.