terrible fuel economy

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Simon Dean - 12 Nov 2005 09:20 GMT

Oh my god. Im getting five miles a litre out of my car, 1994, Nissan
Primera, SR20De engine, automatic. What should I be looking at?

The only noticable real problem is a total lack of get up and go (but
only at times), apparently the camshaft and rockers are worn and could
do with a replacement, and there is a ticking when accelerating but the
story goes, is that it's coming from the O2 sensor, because when the
garage changed the exhaust a few years back, the sensor was cross threaded!

Anything else I can do in the mean time?

Thanks
Simon

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Peter Hill - 12 Nov 2005 16:31 GMT

>Oh my god. Im getting five miles a litre out of my car, 1994, Nissan
>Primera, SR20De engine, automatic. What should I be looking at?
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
>Anything else I can do in the mean time?

"in the mean time"? Do you mean the time between now and when the
neglect this engine has suffered finally causes it to give up? Yeah,
join a roadside recovery club.

Fuel consumption. Maybe fix the cross threaded lambda - an air leak
will give a signal that says it's running weak so it makes it run
rich.

SR20DE (and DET) have oil spray bars in the head. They have small
holes that spray oil on the highly loaded rubbing surfaces of the
rockers and cams. Failing to do oil changes results in them blocking
up. Then the cam and rockers wear quickly as they have no
lubrication. A secondhand engine is cheaper than getting the bits
from Nissan and having the head rebuilt.

Get a secondhand engine fitted. DO THE OIL CHANGES at service
interval. Or scrap the car - you or a previous owner has killed it

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Simon Dean - 12 Nov 2005 16:56 GMT

>> Oh my god. Im getting five miles a litre out of my car, 1994,
>> Nissan Primera, SR20De engine, automatic. What should I be looking
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
> neglect this engine has suffered finally causes it to give up? Yeah,
> join a roadside recovery club.

How do you know it's been neglected? Are you telepathic? (good call
though). To be fair, it was neglected when I first had it, but my dad,
who's supposed to know about cars (that's his job), didn't detect this
but still let me buy a caked up with oil engine.

I meant though, in the meantime between now and when I have some cash to
replace various parts... I still believe at 130k miles, it still has
enough life in her. I can't afford to buy another car just yet, but I
can afford to maintain it. False economy maybe.

> Fuel consumption. Maybe fix the cross threaded lambda - an air leak
> will give a signal that says it's running weak so it makes it run
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Get a secondhand engine fitted. DO THE OIL CHANGES at service
> interval. Or scrap the car - you or a previous owner has killed it

Previous owner. I take pride in oil changes and do them regularly.
There's no hope for the engine. The oil rails have got blocked twice
previously. And I guess rather unforunately, I don't think the car is
worth sticking another engine in it, unless I can get one for a couple
of hundred quid, because the car is rusting around the outside. Only on
the rear door area... and I just had to get the right rear wheel bearing
changed too...

Maybe I should just let it die. :-(

Cya
Simon

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SteveB - 12 Nov 2005 16:35 GMT

The usual reason for bad fuel economy on anything these days is a bad O2
sensor. Or you're just doing short journeys.

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