Hi took my str out for a drive today and it was a completly diffrent car at tick over the idle was lumpy and the exhaust note sounded louder and rough the car still performed though the engine light came on once while driving for about a minute then went off and didnt come on again when I got back home parked in the garage and noticed a smell of sulphur no warnings came up on the dash I am at a loss as to what has happened I have ordered a diagnostic code reader but that will take a few days to arrive hopefully any one have any ideas as to what has happened will be grearful for input

 

I'd try not to drive it at all until you can read the codes. And if you do start the engine also check the fuel trims. Sounds like you may already have some cat damage so best to try not to cause more.

 

thanks have never used a code reader before have ordered one I presume there will be the option to read the fuel trims what do I look for when reading the fuel trims

 

Only some tools provide live data. Refer to its manual...

 

How long has it been sitting?
Any idea how old the gas is?
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When you get your reader read the codes first jot them down and post only the codes and not what the reader says they mean. Then see if you can read the fuel trims and if you can post the Short and Long Fuel trims at idle and if you can with the engine RPM at 2500 and post your results.

Gus
www.jagrepair.com

 

ok I will do that maybe a couple days before I get it though as almost everything is online nowadays

 

got my scanner today managed to work out how to read the fuel trims the manual is hopeless any short term at idle bank 1 3.1 bank 2 2.3 long term bank 1 1.6 bank 2 0.0
at 2500 rpm held for about 1 minute short term bank 1 -23 bank 2 -10 long term bank 1 2.3 did bank 2 0.0 colud the problem be bank2 long term readings

 

If the engine was hot then doesn't sound like an air leak.

Subtracting so much fuel is very unusual. Dirty/bad MAF, maybe.

You might try looking at fuel pressure in case it's way out.

No codes?

 

Hi did another scan today managed to get code P0303 missfire on cylinder 3 I have been told that sometimes water gets into the sparkplug boss on cylinder 3 causing a missfire the funny thing is I had driven the car 2 weeks ago and it drove like a dream did wash it that evening put it back in the garage didnt drive it until sunday when suddenly this problem has cropped up only drove a few miles and returned home I am thinking that water ingress has caused this problem I presume cylinder3 would be one nearest to the windscreen

 

Don't guess wrong - grab the free downloadable workshop manual and look up how things are numbered (plus how to do jobs) or read previous threads about work on STR, not least because there are meant to be seals that... well, seal.

If you find it's oil... well that's what the threads discuss as well.

 

ok probaly will have a look over the weekend

 

found the cylinder numbering swapped cylinder 3 ignition coil with cylinder 1 ran a scan and got a P0301 cylinder 1 missfire so looks like I will need a new ignition coil

 

Sure does - and you know which one.

 

If you replace one I would recommend that you replace them all. I had an issue where i replaced them on one side and ended up replacing them on the other side because of a poor idle with no codes.

 

I'd start with the one.

It should relearn how to fuel; hard reset if you want it faster.

 

I have ordered one and that will cost £68 can't rember if that included the vat so buying 8 would be quite costly when I used the scanner there was only one code which was the missfire the coil was causing so the others seem ok at the moment touch wood when you say faster do you mean the hard reset will make the ecu learn at a quicker rate

 

Yes. It will be rough at first - see drive cycle info in codes PDF.

 

Got the new ignition coil today put it no more missfire was a bit lumpy at first but did get smoother I have a bottle of cataclean in my garage was thinking of using to clean out the cats now the missfie is cured don't know if it is any good though

 

Read this and try to convince yourself that you didn't get scammed

CataClean: My Findings