All Cylinders Mis-Fire 1Zzfe

[paulcap]

Hi,

I have a 2001 Avensis Vermont 1.8vvti which has recently had a problem with sometimes running very rough, unable to tick over at all. The car starts and runs OK for about a minute while it is cold and the revs are high (~1600rpm). As it slows down the tickover becomes rough, gets worse and then the engine stalls. If I keep the revs up for several minutes until full warmed up it is fine in every way. The next time it started from cold it does the same again.

I googled it and was convinced it was contaminated fuel. I wasn't totally sure because there had been about one minute of the same problem soon after starting off a few weeks earlier. I drained nearly all the fuel and diluted what was left by filling it up again and the problem was solved - it seemed. After about 10 days of trouble free driving, the problem came back today.

Can anyone suggest what I should try next?

I should mention that the car developed the sudden high fuel consumption problem about a year ago. I took the head off and removed the pistons, etc., drilled out the oil drain holes and scraped all the carbon out of the grooves, fitted new rings and big end bearings and rebuilt it. It needed replacement catalysts too. It has been running fine since then apart from a couple of minor issues that I caused but obviously all the connectors, etc. were disturbed so something could have come loose.

Thanks in advanve for any suggestions.

Paul

[fastbob72]

That's an interesting one,the way you describe it it sounds like an enrichment problem during warm up.

Most cars I had when I past my test had carbs,if you've had a Ford with a dodgy choke you'll know what I mean.lol.

Does it trip the management light when it's wanting to stall n run rough ??

Even if it doesn't stay on all the time it may have logged a fault code on the ECU that may give you a pointer.

Your point about fuel contamination is interesting.When it appeared after 10 days was it low on fuel or heavy rain that day as I had a car once that had water in the fuel tank,it was never a problem aslong as it had a couple of gallons of petrol in the tank yet any less and it ran like yours,as rough as f**k :)

[paulcap]

Hi,

Yes, I meant to say in the original post that it immediately shows all the P0300 to P0304 codes. Unfortunatley the light is always on anyway because the VVTI valve is jammed in the head and it doesn't work after my attempts to remove it.

I do know what you mean about Fords I had two 105E Anglias (both running th same Cortina engine) a long while back.

When I thought I bought the contaminated fuel, it was on a long trip and I bought about 40 litres when it was quite low. I had about 25 left the next day when it first went properly wrong. I pumped out about 20 before refilling it but couldn't see anything obviously wrong with what I had got out The fault came back a couple of days ago when I had filled it up the previous night just before getting home.

It would be annoying to have to give up on it because it is otherwise such a great car.

[closchkutza]

Is there any connection between the jamming of the VVT-i valve and the start of the symptoms mentioned by you in the above posts?

In which condition are you spark-plugs? Are they the indicated ones?

You could also check your fuel injectors and mass airflow meter.

Are there any other DTC stored beside P0300, P0301, P0302, P0303, P0304?

It is definitely a fuel/air mixture problem that occurs only during warm-up.

Here is what the service manual indicates to be checked in cases of cylinder misfire:

Trouble Area:

- Open or short in engine wire
- Connector connection
- Vacuum hose connection
- PCV hose
- Ignition system

- Injector
- Fuel pressure
- Mass air flow meter

- Engine coolant temperature sensor

- Compression pressure
- Valve clearance
- Valve timing
- ECM

[paulcap]

Hi Bogdan,

The misfire started about two weeks ago but the vvti valve was damaged about 8 months ago. It is showing the error code P1656 which says the valve is not working. Top end performance is a bit low but it's still good to drive.

The plugs are Denso, seem OK and have been adjusted. I'm guessing that injector problems would still be there at high and low temperatures but I think I will try and clean the airflow meter.

Thank you for the suggestions.

Paul