first problem: it would appear there is a problem charging my battery. its gone flat a few times. tested the battery and is fine. tested the alternator three times- first it had a poor output, second it was fine, third it was fine then when i put load on it, ie lights, blowers, heated windscreens, the alternator output dropped to zero.

second problem: the engine seems to be misfiring. when i make the engine work hard it misfires, but not all the time. its most prominent when changing up a gear at lower revs and then giving it plenty of throttle.

third problem: engine warning light has now come on. the memory chip did have a fault registered before but was cleared- i think it was to do with the exhaust gas recirculation.

help!!

first problem: it would appear there is a problem charging my battery. its gone flat a few times. tested the battery and is fine. tested the alternator three times- first it had a poor output, second it was fine, third it was fine then when i put load on it, ie lights, blowers, heated windscreens, the alternator output dropped to zero.

second problem: the engine seems to be misfiring. when i make the engine work hard it misfires, but not all the time. its most prominent when changing up a gear at lower revs and then giving it plenty of throttle.

third problem: engine warning light has now come on. the memory chip did have a fault registered before but was cleared- i think it was to do with the exhaust gas recirculation.

help!!

can you tell us what engine you have?

first problem sounds like a duff alternator. has the battery been load tested?

its a petrol 1800 duratec. the car was in at an electrical specialist. not sure exactly what they did, but they couldn't find anything other than the original code for the exhaust gas recirculation. its an intermittent problem.

the dtc code is p0400- egr flow malfunction.

forgot to say that the outside air temperature gauge has a habit of showing high temperatures when she's sluggish starting. a particular favourite is 66C/150F. sometimes at startup it likes to switch from C to F.

temp gauge has decided it doesn't want to register any temperature at all now and both the amber and red low temp lights are glowing.

also noticed that the carpets are soaking in the car. front passenger is dry, the others are wet. i would put it down to wet shoes but as nobody sits in the rear nearside seat because the rear facing child seat is there, and people have been sitting in the front passenger seat, it makes no sense.

All these problems could be as simplecas wet wiring, you need to find where the water us coming in, correct it and dry out the car.

The alternators can be fixed or a new one bought but some are controlled by the ECU, where is the ECY? Could be somewhere near the wet patch, is it the engine bay, under the dash passenger side or under the seat? If this is wet you will have lots of problems.

Start a process of elimination.

battery has died twice in three days. first time was thanks to an hour or so with the radio on whilst the missus was in asda, the second from maybe 20 minutes with the boot open while changing a tyre.

i haven't fully examined the battery, but i'm thinking its not suitable for my car. from what i can see, it isn't a silver calcium battery and may just be a lead acid instead. would this cause any of the problems i'm suffering?

there is also a general mankiness around the battery but i'm unsure if its been leaking or if its dirty spray water entering the bay.

car went in for a service. the battery just wasn't holding the charge. as for the misfiring, its still there albeit nowhere near as noticeable or as often as before. plugs were changed- the old ones were apparently pretty manky. might tie in with the egr fault code?