another nissan primera question

[123hotchef]

So far my mate has changed the cats over and fitted a new lamba sensor stilll no joy.

this is his story

Any ideas?

Right ....I'm gonna ask here as not getting a lot of help via the primeras owners club....

As some of you will know I broke down on the M5 just north of Bristol on Saturday eveening on my way back to Devon from the Highlands. Car is a 56 Plate Nissan Primera 1.8 ( Yes I know its a **** car but needs must! )

Symptoms : losing power whilst climbing hills ...to a point I couldn't get more than 25 mph going uphill on the M5
Stuttering as it loses power
Exhaust gets louder ( growlier! )

At idle the car runs fine, revs freely and ticks over like it should, going down hill it appears fine , under hard acceleration I have noticed the stutter but back off and gently apply power it will can speed
First noticed it around Lancashire when I had stuttering trying to accelerate from 70 to 80 and then noticed it losing speed uphills.

Called RAC out ( best £70 I've ever spent LOL! ) and got treated like an idiot to start with , but guessing he was just doing his job ...so before anyone else asks ..The clutch is fine as I changed it not 2 weeks before we left for Scotland! and it hasn't got a fuel filter so to speak!
The RAC man was not 100% sure what was wrong ...he sprayed something in the airfilter and promptly stalled it ...not sure what he was trying to proof ..unless an air blockage possibly...
checked my oil?!?!?
Then approached the exhaust at the rear and said that he could get his hand far to close to it ( but in my mind it had been sat for an hour and half so was probably cold! ), as the car started to warm we did got white vapour from it so something is going through the exhaust.
After he got us off the M5 and we were chatting he said he suspected the CAT as following us ( slowly LOL! ) he could smell sulphur, so recorded it as potential blocked CAT

Does this sound logical ( it does to me ... but seeking second opinion! )

Also I know these have a CAT directly on the downpipe, but I have what looks like a CAT a bit further along too ...any ideas?

 

[mfletch]

White smoke /vapour is water so possible head gasket can you smell in the header tank can you smell anything? Is the car petrol or diesel

 

[rtbcomp]

Compression test next job I guess.

 

[123hotchef]

thats what i said as it is using oil too, he is swapping out lamba sensors as we speak

 

[pedrobedro]

Burning fuel produces water and vapour and cats stink till they get hot so that sounds normal. There will most likely be a flexi in the front pipe if the cat is built into the manifold or attached directly to it. Burning oil is bad news for cat converters. There is a fuel filter canister type listed for Primeras depending what model yours is and a stutter could be fuel or ignition. Can you get a reader on the OBD to see if any faults are showing ? It will save a lot of guesswork if anything is recorded. Is it misfiring ? Try a set of plugs as a first port of call you never know and they are cheap.

 

[123hotchef]

no faults recorded on obd.no its not misfiring and yes its a canister type cat attached directly to the manifold

 

[123hotchef]

he sent me pics of the plugs they look terrible new ones tomorrow i think

 

[Miggy89]

when it stutters etc does the eml light up on the dash atall?

 

[Miggy89]

also most cars nowadays if the cat did fail it would record a fault code due to post cat lambda readings rluctuation, you can rule them out with live data

 

[scotb]

timing chain......

 

[123hotchef]

no eml and no fault codes

 

[Miggy89]

wont be lambda sensor(s) then. has it got a pre & post cat sensor if yes then its not likely to be cat either, could be as simple as crappy plugs & fuel filter needing replacing

 

[123hotchef]

I reakon its plugs looking at the pics h sent me of them 60k on those plugs!

 

[123hotchef]

wasnt the plugs!