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Can this 2004 Nissan Micra with an uneven tickover be repaired easily?
A dealer 25 miles from me has a 2004 Micra 1.2 SE in what looks to be good condition and at a very tempting price. We need to replace an aged Polo and have very little cash to spend, so this looks promising. But the ad mentions a “slight fault”, which on phoning turns out to be an uneven tickover when cold. This disappears when the engine is warm, and the dealer says the car runs fine in motion. He says it came in a batch from main dealer and he is putting on at this price for a quick sale because he has too many other jobs to sort to get this fixed quickly, but if it doesn’t sell this weekend he will fix it and put it on his forecourt in two weeks or so at over £3000. Could the fault be indicative of serious problems or should I just grab the bargain and hope my usual service garage can sort it fairly cheaply?
Asked on 23 August 2011 by GK, Newark
Answered by
Honest John
The fault with these engines is usually the mass airflow sensor which, unfortunately, is part of the throttle body so unless it can be fixed the entire throttle body will need to be replaced at considerable expense.
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