hi-ling , Good morning Allan, I sent you an email but have had no reply. We took the Barina for a decent run up and down the Raikia Gorge hill road 5 times locked in low gear between 4500-5000 rpm. It has now gone 9 days without the engine check light coming on.
chebry,
Jan 20, 1:59pm
That was going to be my suggestion the old Italian tune up, drown it in carby cleaner let it soak a while then whale the snot out of it. Alternatively decoking using water worked back in the day, Are we heading back into the 1930s in maintenance now with regular decokes and valvegrinds! Good luck with that on your multivalve Jap shitbox now the sulphur is gone valves on diesels should last indefinitely Ill go with that,
donz01,
Jan 20, 2:27pm
I can remember an old mechanic about 30 years using a spray bottle with water in it spraying the water straight into the carby on a valiant running rather high revs. I think he said at the time that it would clean out all the carbon build up around the valves and rings. I have recently asked a few other mechanic friends if they have ever heard of anything similar as i did think about doing the same.They had never heard of anything like it. I decided not do it so went for a drive to the only close hill instead.
franc123,
Jan 20, 3:18pm
You wouldn't think that this sort of crap would happen on a late model EFI engine that runs lean mixtures to start with and is spraying the back of the intake valves nicely with fuel. Have heard of the temporary water injection trick before on old engines, and have seen it done with used brake fluid too but on an emission controlled one you wouldn't think it would do the cat or the oxygen sensors much favours, I'd be expecting to bash that out before long because its blocked or maybe o2 sensor codes being chucked up.
clark20,
Jan 20, 3:50pm
Water does clean the combustion chambers, as well documented on water injected turbo cars, but I don't know about behind valves. Seafoam is meant to be great if you can get it.
Edit: You need one of the scope things to look in the spark plug hole to check the valves
donz01,
Dec 16, 10:36pm
My daughter has a 2003 Barina that sometimes has a miss and it is enough to trigger the check engine light. Other times the car just totally dies and will usually run ok again once it is restarted. The only fault codes that come up are miss fire on cylinder !( varies from 1 to 4) and once it showed multiple misfire. I replaced the coil without telling her and the very next morning it just cut out like previous times. Has anyone here had similar problems and how did you sort it out in the end I have read a lot about problems with them in the UK and it all seems to be coil packs, EGR valves or catilatic converters etc. it's a nice tidy car with only 20,000 km on the clock but with it having this fault once or twice a week it is starting to frustrate her and me as well. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
a.woodrow,
Dec 16, 10:48pm
Yep needs new valves. talk to a holden dealer, they were reworked under warranty and they might come to the party
a.woodrow,
Dec 16, 11:08pm
The issue was carbon build up on the valves causing misfire, they have a new type of valve to counteract this. Are you the original owners!
hi-ling,
Dec 16, 11:36pm
Which motor is in it!
donz01,
Dec 17, 3:58am
We used a can of wynns fuel system cleaner about a 6 weeks ago and it seemed to run ok for a while. The local Holden service manager explained that because it was previously owned by an elderly lady who hardly used it that the valves could possibly be gummed up a bit. He suggested using a fuel cleaner but made no recommendations on which product to use. He did not mention different valves. She is the second owner and the car is now nearly 10 years old so I dont think Holden would be interested in helping because bought it privately. I believe the motor is a Z14XE .
a.woodrow,
Dec 17, 4:07am
Well it was a pretty well known issue, run it on 98, use injector cleaner and possibly an intake manifold cleaner might allieviate the symptoms, but at the end of the day it has a design flaw
My wife has the same car with the z14xe motor and was having silimer problems, I removed the egr valve, fitted a 3mm alloy block off plate, Replugged the EGR valve in (or it throws up a fault code) Never had a problem since. I cant comment on the other valve issue as this car was bought with a broken cambelt so I replaced all valves 20,000 kms ago. DONT buy an after market EGR valve, as they will throw up fault codes. I have a brand new valve you could try out and see if it sorts it.
hi-ling,
Dec 17, 4:40pm
Parts for these things are very cheap, the valves work out about $10 each from the UK, or $117 each from Holden. Complete headgasket set is $58 from UK, Headstuds are $42 the set, cambelt kit is $149, and water pump is $55. Try finding that for a late model Jappa. They are a great wee car if you maintain them as per Opel's specs, neglect them and your in the poo.
donz01,
Oct 10, 10:07am
I have a brand new valve you could try out and see if it sorts it. hi-ling (1368 )11:30 am, Tue 18 Dec #8Quote
Could you list it !
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