82 Spider 2000 Random Loss of Power

[ronfrohock]

Hi,
Randomly, while trying to accelerate I experience a partial loss of power. Plugs, wires, cap, vac advance, fuel filter, etc were all replaced. I also removed and sent the injectors out to be re-built. Still have the problem.
One thing to note is that one of the old plugs seemed to gave a copper colored residue on it when I removed it. (Clue?)
The car starts and idles fine and most of the time, it pulls with power. It only looses power sometimes and there dosent seem to be a rhyme or reason to it.
Id love to see if anyone here has any recommendations.
Thanks
- Ron

[azruss]

sounds like you have some crap that is partially blocking the fuel line when you are sucking a lot of gas thru it. may want to blow out fuel lines. My guess is you have garbage in the tank.

[narfire]

What shape are the wires to the pick-up under the dist cap? If they are old and brittle that can be an issue. I recently had a look at mine and found a wire had a loop in it and contacted the underside of the spinning rotor and wore the insulation off. Good conection to the ignition control module Although I replaced the plugs recently with NGK's I had still had a miss,took a look at the plugs and found one had a crackeld insulator (3rd set of NGK's over the years with this issue) The miss is from another issue though.
When you took the plugs out,only one had a different colour? If so then I'd suspect a bad injector. If you had the injectors cleaned and tested,perhaps the conector is loose or the wire has a crack in it. How are the two grounds...nice and tight on the intake plenum bolts? I use a set of bent nose pliers and pull each injector conection off one at a time and see if there is a difference. Just be carefull as I had contacted the hot on the starter once(with my wedding ring) when mucking about down there.. big spark and a blister.
When it is dark,perhaps start the car and close the hood most of the way and see if there is any arcing.
Good luck
Chris

[ronfrohock]

What shape are the wires to the pick-up under the dist cap? If they are old and brittle that can be an issue. I recently had a look at mine and found a wire had a loop in it and contacted the underside of the spinning rotor and wore the insulation off. Good conection to the ignition control module Although I replaced the plugs recently with NGK's I had still had a miss,took a look at the plugs and found one had a crackeld insulator (3rd set of NGK's over the years with this issue) The miss is from another issue though.
When you took the plugs out,only one had a different colour? If so then I'd suspect a bad injector. If you had the injectors cleaned and tested,perhaps the conector is loose or the wire has a crack in it. How are the two grounds...nice and tight on the intake plenum bolts? I use a set of bent nose pliers and pull each injector conection off one at a time and see if there is a difference. Just be carefull as I had contacted the hot on the starter once(with my wedding ring) when mucking about down there.. big spark and a blister.
When it is dark,perhaps start the car and close the hood most of the way and see if there is any arcing.
Good luck
Chris

Wow thanks for the time it took to respond to you both.
The cap, rotor and plugs are new. Good connections thru out.
I just went down to the garage to see if these is any arc'ing. Its completely dark in there and there wasn't....
I heard that fuel filters aunt happy with the ethanol gas that we are being forced to buy. I heard that they are breaking down. Has anyone else heard this?
I sure want to get this corrected. I don't like it if my car isn't running 100%. Again, its running fine most of the time. It only fails under load part of the time.
I think I will go back down an pull the plugs again to see if one or all of them are coated again.
Any suggestions welcomed. I know this is a tough one.......
Thanks
- Ron

[majicwrench]

Don't worry about the pick up coil wiring or individual injectors unless car is missing under load. If it is just losing power is likely fuel related.
Will car act up enough that you can test?? If so, hook a fuel pressure gauge into system and watch it when symptoms occur. Should not go down at all.

IF engine is classicly missing, then you likely have plug/wire/injector type issues.

Alcohol is tough on a lot of fuel injector components. Hard on rubber esp. Have not heard of fuel filter issues.

I wouldn't get too concerned about one plug looking a little diff.
Keith

[Fiatspiderofpowell]

We're currently experiencing the same problem. We think that we've finally got it down to the ambient air temp. sensor in the AFM that will randomly jump to high resistance.

I'll tell you if replacing the AFM fixes it, as its an expensive part and you probably wont want to go replacing it on a hunch.

There are a ton of guys on this forum that have this same issue. You might want to take a look at the replies to this man in particular.

http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11537

[So Cal Mark]

I'd bet the afm flap is sticking or the intake boot is split

[ronfrohock]

Wow,
Thaks for sharing this information and I will look forward to hearing the results.

I was out last night, ripping around the back roads of central MA, loving the car. Man these Fiats are great!

I just wish I could get rid of this gremlin. When it happens, it seems as though the engine completly cuts out.

Please get back to us with your results.

Ron