Car running rough

dodgydan, Aug 20, 10:57am
I have a Mazda Capella '2000' 1.8L Wagon, Somtimes it idles very rough and has no power when driving, And somtimes it will not idle at all and will have a very bad plastic ! burning/smoking smell along with the other sympton's ive stated above, But it only does this when the petrol tank get's low on fuel, ie - fuel guage sits around 1/4 full . If the fuel tank is close to or over half full it will NOT do this an run's great, Any advise ! Thank's.

unclejake, Aug 20, 11:53am
Erm, I wonder if the fuel level is a red herring, but one thing you could try for cheap is a bottle of methylated spirits into the fuel tank.

It is remotely possible that you have water in the fuel, and if so the meths will help, but I struggle to believe (that even though petrol floats above water), the water wouldn't be a problem all the time.

The bad smell could be a blocked cat convertor, or a symptom of unburnt fuel.

It seems that we forget to change simple things like spark plugs on modern engines. A set of dodgy plugs could cause your trouble - but the symptoms would not be affected by fuel tank level and will only get worse. A bad AFM is possible too.

Mechanic time I am afraid!

dodgydan, Aug 21, 1:34am
Yep put some new plugs in, Stll doing it, Thank's for the reply ! That gives me a few thing's to check, Cheers.

jason18, Aug 21, 2:29am
Is the fuel guage not reading properly!

dent, Aug 21, 5:00am
Capellas do have issues with laking around inlet manifold gaskets. Would be one thing to check.

dodgydan, Aug 21, 7:38pm
Yep pretty sure it is working Jason but will check anyway, thank's, Thank's Dent will check for leaks too, Cheer's.