Car breakdown cure ?? | The Back Room Archive | Back Room Forum

What is life like with your car? Let us know and win £500 in John Lewis vouchers | No thanks

Mon 16 Jul 2001 16:10

Car breakdown cure ?? - Chas

My sister`s car broke down at the weekend ( misfiring then cut out ) and the Callout man from the Rescue Service says that it looked as though there was a problem with the fuel .

To cure it, so he said , he apparently swopped the leads around on the car and revved it hard..This made the engine pop and bang and produced lots of smoke smoke out of the exhaust !!!!

This supposedly sorted the problem out.

I`ve NEVER heard of this way to clear dirty fuel..
Can anyone explain what it was supposed to do, and explain the theory behind it??
I don`t think it cured the problem as it is still misfiring so it looks as though I`ll have to have a look at it.

Anyone any ideas on misfiring problems with an H Reg Nova ( with points ) ??
Thanks

Chas

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Mon 16 Jul 2001 20:49

Italian tune-up - David Lacey

This is commonly known as an Italian Tune up
Involving high revs and judicious use of the accelerator & gearstick!!

Seriously,
It is possible to clear a fuel blockage from the carburettor by using high revs to achieve vacuum levels not normally reached by normal driving, to drag a blockage out of a jet - this is possibly what he did, rather than strip down the carburettor.

Rgds
David

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Tue 17 Jul 2001 06:04

Re: Italian tune-up - Andrew Moorey (Tune-Up Ltd)

Treat it to a proper tune up, ensuring that a new condenser is fitted to the distributor. If it is, as I suspect, the older OHV engine, they suffer with problems in the distributor with eccentric cam-lobes making it difficult to set the points gap (dwell angle), more so with the Delco distributor. I personally set the points on these with a feeler gauge ensuring that there is adequate gap on all four cam-lobes. Look in Yellow pages under Car Engine Tuning and Conversion.

Reply | Report as offensive | Link

Related questions

I was sold a car without being told it was Cat S - where do I stand?

I bought a car privately but when the certificate returned to me through the post, it says that the car is a Cat S. I was never told that when buying it or I would not have bought it. Where do I stand...

I unknowingly bought a Cat S write off. How do I recover my costs?

I’ve bought a Cat S vehicle by accident as it wasn’t on the write off database and the HPI search was clear. I’ve spoken to the salvage yard and it was written off but never recorded as Cat S. The dealer...

Is the gearbox in the 2013 Volkswagen Golf DSG sealed?

I am thinking of buying a 2013 Volkswagen Golf 2.0 TDI DSG. The dealer tells me it is a six-speed wet clutch DSG with a sealed box. Does this description sound correct to you?

Why is my automatic transmission sluggish in the winter months?

I drive a 1998 W208 series Mercedes-Benz 320 CLK that's had oil changes every 9000 miles and has been utterly reliable since new. The 3200cc M112 series engine is as smooth now as when I first got it;...

Ask Honest John

Sell Your Car

Real MPG

Fuel Calculator