Not As Smooth..

[kimae]

Hey guys,

firstly just wanted to say thanks for last week's meet it was good fun even though i had to bail out early..

Lately, my is200 seems to have significantly dropped in performance and isn't as smooth as it was a couple of weeks ago (only had the car for bout a month) it seems that it is struggles with acclerating but once im goin bout 80 its smooth again.. i really have no idea whats causing this but i'm going to change the oil this weekend.. hopefully that might improve things a bit.. any help would be great.. btw its auto is200 2.0L 6cyl...

thanks guys

[ctk1]

Could be that you have dirty fuel or dirty injectors, filled it up anywhere dodge of late, try running as tank of Optimax or other 98 ron fuel with cleaning agents through it and add some 104+, that'll clean it up a little.

Is it new or 2nd hand?

[kimae]

hmm.. i just filled it up yesturday with full tank of pulp.. where do i get cleaning agents and 104+ from?

and the car is second hand its done 110KKM but has good service history.. and clean car...

Edit: I just found out that the pulp i used (caltex pulp) is only 95 octane and actually this is when the car started playing up... you think that this would be the problem?

[frylai]

How Old is your car? it might need tuning...afterwards you might want a Tom's Drop in Filter and a aftermerket muffler to get the extra power you want as well!!!

Matt =)

[kimae]

its 99 model

[frylai]

time to get it tuned...get it tuned and see what happens...if not it might be some MAF sensor problem you know...

Matt =)

[bmalar]

If your engine etc is standard, I wouldn't have thought running Caltex pulp would have made that much of a difference. You will notice a small difference, but what you are decribing is pretty major.

I always run my standard '99 model on Optimax, with the exception of 1 time and the difference was noticable, but I wouldn't have said it made it run bad..

[lextcy]

Yeah i wouldnt have thought running caltex pulp would make that much difference

Maybe they add ethanol to their peterol? :o

[stephenc]

Is the air filter clean?

[ctk1]

All Premium Fuel and Vortex are 95 RON, Optimax and BP 8000 are 98 (In Aus anyway).

I was reccomended by the Lexus dealer not to use Optimax as there are too many cleaning agents in it whislt he said BP 8000 is the better fuel. However my car is new. In a seconed hand car it could be worth useing Optimax every now and again to clean out injectors etc.

Quite possibly you got bodgey fuel if tanks were low etc could be dirty.

104+ is just an octane booster you can get from Autobarn. There are other brands aswell. It will raise your 98 Ron to 100+ Ron ouch thatll give you some Octane. LOL

[SSML]

I agree that 95 fuel or even just 92 ulp should not cause engine to run unsmooth.

I have put 92ulp in loan car (Is200) no problem, the label inside the fuel cap cover says "unleaded petrol" .

However, I have always used 98 octane fuel since I got the car new.

I used to fill BP ultimate b/c it was only 7cents dealer than ULP ,whereas Shell Optimax was 9cents dealer than ULP. Now BP ultimate 98 also 9cents more than ULP, and with Shell, u get 4cents off with Coles dockets + Fly Buys points.......

So I go to Shell now :P

SSML

[Serran]

yep yep buying at coles makes sense.. esp. if you do the figures with $1.15+ per litre now a days :(

[Thunderbird2]

In every car i have owned/driven, i have switched between ULP and PULP. PULP always gives a marginal improvement - ie. in Aussie (US) made Holdens, there is a slight improvement in economy and 'smoothness'

In Japanese cars like my old Cressida the improvement was far more pronounced. Better pickup/power delivery and an extra 50kms out of each tank. So, therefore, more economical!

The quality of your PULP is not only dependant on wether you go Shell or BP. In the other groups i run with, notes have been made on a couple of dodgy Shell or BP outlets that are probably loading their PULP with more ethanol then usual.

BP certainly seem to have better quality control IMHO. But i go with major BP or Shell and haven't had a problem thus far *touches wood*

The problem you describe with your car, however, does not sound like it is fuel related. Definitely sounds more like injectors or as Matt said, MAF. Go with PULP, then injector cleaner and see how you go.

[kimae]

hey guys,

thanks for all the help... I changed the oil in my car which

gave it a small improvement not very noticable i also added

some octane booster which also didnt do much but yesturday

my tank was empty as in the E light was on for bout 40 minutes

so i stopped at the first servo (7-Eleven) filled up 5 bucks and

the car was running as smooth as it was before i have no idea what it was

the next day ran out again filled 20 bucks BP then another 50 bucks

7-eleven.. now the car's playing up again... this is seriously stressing

me out.. anyone got any ideas.. i thought it might be that 7-11 have some

sorta magic petrol but now i think it was because the car was empty...

any help would be appreciated

[Serran]

dood you may have to get it checked out with a mech or lexus service if you've exhausted everything else that your capable of checking out...

[SSML]

In every car i have owned/driven, i have switched between ULP and PULP. PULP always gives a marginal improvement - ie. in Aussie (US) made Holdens, there is a slight improvement in economy and 'smoothness'

In Japanese cars like my old Cressida the improvement was far more pronounced. Better pickup/power delivery and an extra 50kms out of each tank. So, therefore, more economical!

The quality of your PULP is not only dependant on wether you go Shell or BP. In the other groups i run with, notes have been made on a couple of dodgy Shell or BP outlets that are probably loading their PULP with more ethanol then usual.

BP certainly seem to have better quality control IMHO. But i go with major BP or Shell and haven't had a problem thus far *touches wood*

The problem you describe with your car, however, does not sound like it is fuel related. Definitely sounds more like injectors or as Matt said, MAF. Go with PULP, then injector cleaner and see how you go.

Hi thunderbird.

How do find out if the pertrol station has put ethanol in PULP?

I thought PULP should have no ethanol?? esp Optimax and ultimate.

and also what do you mean by "go with major BP or Shell"? Do you mean go the LARGE SIZE petrol station? or big brand station?

thanks

SSML

[Thunderbird2]

Well, your big brand petrol stations are generally going to be better than your Dodgy Brothers Petroluem.

However, the big brand stations are franchised, so they can still be dodgy. You can assume, however, the large popular stations on major roads are the ones that are going to be audited regularly for fuel quality.

Regarding ethanol, it's only recently that fuel stations have started stating wether or not they use ethanol, but i THINK there are still little/no laws against them using large amounts. It's supposed to be not more than 12 percent or something like that.

I hang around with the Renault Clio Sport club, the Clio Sport's engine is very sensitive to dodgy fuel. A couple of the drivers have reported dodgy PREMIUM at some supposedly reputable fuel stations around Sydney.

[greeneyes]

I assume the problem with ethanol is that it absorbs water from the air. It also doesn't have much energy per kg of fuel. Does it burn OK in the petrol mix?

[Thunderbird2]

"doesn't have much energy per kg of fuel"

This is the worst thing about it! But the Clio guys have reported pinging, loss of power, rough start/idle, which has vanished once they changed the fuel station they were using.

Worth thinking about, and certainly worth keeping an eye/ear out for!