Oh boy! My 2001 Petrol Auto Trajet with only 36,000 genuine Km on the clock has had poor fuel consumption since I bought it 3 months ago. A week back the engine warning light (orange) came on and stayed on. I had an ECU scan done that came up that the catalytic converter should be checked. No rush I thought - how wrong!

Today, whilst in the middle of nowhere in the hills of Sri Lanka, the engine warning light started flashing instead of being on constantly and the engine began spluttering and pinking before cutting out. The engine temperature sensor was normal but the exhaust manifold seemed red hot. I had to wait an hour for it to cool and then set off again. 5 Km later it happened again, and again and again. A journey of usually 3 hours took over 8. There are no garages here so I have to make it back the way I came. Oh joy!

Fuel consumption from what I can make out today is now down to about 4Km per litre. Eeek! What's going on? The mixture is obviously far too rich but that's all I can figure. One little garage I passed took a look and told me to cut one of the 3 wires leading from the O2 sensor before the catalytic converter and all would be well. Yeah right! Another mechanic at the same place said it was because I had used 90 Octane fuel instead of 95 (95 is hard to find in Sri Lanka). Can anyone tell me what's going on? Good mechanics are like hens teeth around here.

Thanks!

Hi borneo

First of all the idea of a car that was stored in korea for 6 years

without running is hard to believe , it seems the KM counter in your

jet has been rewinded . No CAt can be blocked in 36000km . I

had my jet from korea used with 120 k on it , yet the cat was fine .

my advise to you is simply to remove it and install a middle mofler

there , like I did 14 months ago and things are fine . I used leaded gas

for 2 years (85 octine ) and the jet did not mind . now I use unleaded

92 octine which the lowest grade available .



regards

Hi Borneo,

I am having a similar problem with my Trajet in that the ECU says there is a "catalyst efficiency failure" (see my Oxygen sensor thread). I am not having the fuel efficiency probs though as my car seems to drive the same as normal (at the moment).

There is a link on this web giving info on O2 sensors (autotap) which says that if they go defective they can cause fuel consumption probs. Local auto electrics garage will be checking mine this week to see if they are working ok. Cheaper than a new cat.

Your high exhaust temp seems worrying and could be to a blocked exhaust / cat but maybe could also be because of incorrect combustion due to poor fuel mix linked to O2 sensors.

I am not a mechanic and my knowledge is limited, but I have been told that if a catalytic convertor becomes defective the body of the converter has a purple tinge around its edges. This is a quick visual check to determine its condition. Maybe some other forumers could confirm this "old wives tale".

I will let you know whether my prob is fixed by changing the O2 sensors or if I have to do a cat change.

Hi Mazen,

Surprising as it sounds, the mileage on this car is probably correct. It was imported into Sri Lanka in 2002 by an army guy who hasppened to have a coveted duty-free import permit. He then stored it and defininitely didn't use it for the 6 years between then and now as I was the first to register it in Sri Lanka a few months ago. Also, most things about it are pretty near mint condition. Nothing looks like it's 8 years old.

I'm still in the wilderness here in the mountains but took it to another mechanic in a tiny garage who did a strange thing. He took out two of the relays from inside the fuse box and swapped them over (or so he told me). Amazingly, although I've only driven it about 20 Km since then, the problem with pinking and spluttering before cutting out every few Km have gone away! He tells me I shoudn't try to run it without the a/c on until I get the relays replaced (why???). I don't yet know about the fuel consumption and the exhaust seems pretty hot still but suppose it would anyway :P The engine warning light remains lit though.

Rich T, I checked the forum carefully and had read everything I could about the O2 sensors too. Would be very interested to know what happens if you change your sensors. I have read that just removing the cat upsets the ECU no end, if that's not true I'd love to tear it out by the roots. Maybe also, although my car has a low mileage, the cat may have degraded with age. It all seemed to happen quite suddenly though. From no problem, to light on to pinking and cutting out occurred over less than 200 Km. Interestingly, the warning light started flashing on and off just as the pinking started.

Thanks very much Mazen for the user handbook. Really kind of you to send it. I'll go through it now and check what that flashing light meant.

Thursday, I'll get the car to the only Hyundai garage in the country and see what they say. They were singularly unhelpful about the crankshaft position indicator problem (see other thread).

Hey, I checked carefully my consumption on the last tank of petrol, it comes to 4.2 Km per l. Might as well trade it in for a tank!

Thanks again guys!