hello people!

i am a new member with a question about repairs...

i have an ancient 15 yo fieta which is problematic..

it conks when coasting to a stop - battery and oil lights come on and engine conks.

i can 'come out' of this by dropping gear and booting the gas to get it going again - at roundabouts and etc.

also serious probs when accelerating sometimes - have to drop a gear and boot the gas to get moving.

this is more frequent now - new spark plugs and HT leads...

is it the coil pack?

or summat else?

I had a similar problem with my old bike, your engine isnt idling and by dumping it down a gear you're basically bump starting your engine mid-flight.

A lot of crap builds up in an engine over time, flushing the oil sump, changing the oil and filter may help and is worth doing every year anyhow. Infact a good service would be my first stop. Plugs, fluids and filters are the cause of so much greif and looking after the basics truly looks after the car.

Try and find out if theres a way to adjust your idle-speed manually, if the service doesn't work, and if not look into flushing or replacing your idle control float.

There's a million things that could cause your engine to die a death though, and if its truly old there may not be much you can do yourself.

thanks smokin! i took it to the garage - they did the diagnostics and replaced the lambda sensor and cleaned the throttle body , now it runs incredibly well! i need to get shut of it before the automobile dementia sets in though.....thanks mucho! george