[sailing502]

Took my Esprit out yesterday. easy around town drive.
Then suddenly is was running like it had no power. Was not really going quick enough to really use the turbo for the entire drive but it was and is working.
The car felt like a diesel , gave it gas it it hardly accelerated. Went to 3000 rpm and it still felt like no power and I did see the turbo boost gauge start to rise but no push. The motor sounded deeper no higher wine from the motor. I feel its a lack of either fuel or bad plug? or injector? Was running a littler rough at idle. All gauges temp, oil etc were all fine in correct ranges.
Any ideas of what I should start first as far as trouble shooting?

 

[lotusespritman]

Does the engine exhaust blows black smoke? Is the "check engine" light on? If yes , try to get the fault code. In most cases it's your O2 sensor. If no, check your catalytic converter...it may be blocked. To test it, let the car cool down for at least 30 min. Then drive it and observe the engine's power, when colder it should run normal but after 5 mins or so you will feel the power loss gradually as the engine gets hotter. If the cat. is ok, then check you fuel system. Start from checking the fuel filter, water in fuel tank,fuel pump, injectors, high tension wires, igniter assy for cracks, and lastly vacuum leak.

Give us more info to narrow down the cause of problem.
Good Luck and keep us posted.
JR

 

[mieczkow]

If you still have the exhaust back pressure valve (EBPV) on your car check to see that it is not stuck in the closed position. Also you may be in the "limp home" mode because of something the ECU is seeing. You need to get Freescan or a Tech 1 and check to see what your ECU is seeing from your engine sensors.

Beyond that there are a number of other things which could cause this to happen but more information would be required to make a better guess.

 

[Vulcan Grey]

Most likely a bad injector. Could be a spark plug wire or plug.

Start with the normal checks to see which cylinder is not firing, check spark.

Go from there.

THe Esprit SE uses a batch fire wasted spark system, where both #1 &#4 fire fuel and spar together every revolution and #2&#3 both fire fuel and spark together every rev, so any time one injector goes bad, it'll usually cause it's partner to stop working as well.

Just helped a friend replace all 6 injectors on his X180-R a few minutes ago due to one bad injector. Car only had 13k miles on it, but time is catching up to some of these components.

 

[e-spree]

I just had these symptoms. Suddenly not enough power to get up a small incline and engine sounding awful. Turns out one coil w/slight arcing and one injector going. Replaced injectors, coil packs and wires. I hadn't realized how rough the engine was running before the power loss. The coil & injector misfiring was intermittent but gradually worse. Really good now.

 

[sailing502]

Thanks for the info to start trouble shooting. There is no black smoke etc and no check engine light. I will start with the basics fuel, spark etc. Also the injector info is helpful. All of the suggestions give me a great place to start and check off items as I go. I will let you know what I find as I go. My biggest problem is finding the time.

 

[danutcha]

Same for mine. One bad injector and changed both coils. Runs great now.
Get the injectors from JAE. I tried getting from other places and it didn't work.

89 model also.

 

[sailing502]

Update on running issues. Ran fine for a 15 min drive today.
Came home .. it sat for just 5 min so still full temp. Started it and it immediately was running odd, deeper sound, a little rougher maybe but not much if at all. rev to 3,500 and when I let off throttle a light back fire.
Did not have time to check anything suggested yet but this probably narrows it down

 

[maxvelocity]

I light back fire means rich or non firing cyl. Also low battery might do it but you did not mention slow crank so it is probably ok. check for non firing cyl unplug one at a time and replace. If you unplug a wire and it does not alter idle that is the one. intermittent non firing might not give a wet plug like a total non fire. If you have boost then feels like running out of gas check waste gate capsule and hose to actuator

Good luck.

 

[sailing502]

I think the fact that it only runs that way once warm and not cold would seem to be something either like a coil going bad and under heat, or as a previous post the CO2 sensor. The check engine light has not gone on but I think I need to check that too in case it is not operating. I am going to connect a PC to the connector to see what codes come up first. I appreciate all the advice and will use it all as a check list. I will update as soon as I can read the codes.

 

[Vulcan Grey]

Yes definitely possible for an injector to suffer heat issues. Either due to an intermittent short, or corrosion... or a few other reasons. Also possible for a spark plug wire or coil to suffer heat problems.

First figure out which cylinder, or cylinders, isn't firing. Then see if it is spark related or fuel related.

Due to the batch fire nature, you can't tell if it is one injector or both on a pair, so swap them around to the other positions, so if 2&3 are bad (on a pair) then move 2 to 1, and keep 3 and 4 where they were. See if the problem follows 2 or stays with 3. Then check the wiring, wiring problems may be heat related too. So if the problem stayed on 3, you can move 3 to 4 and see if the problem follows. That way you will know if it is the injector or it is the injector driver, ecu, or wiring.


The EMH section of the Esprit shop manual is a good thing to have, and goes through this troubleshooting.