Please Help

[Has786]

hi,

I have a big problem just need some advice as i cannot be without my as i have a ill child.

here we go.......

the car is a corolla verso 1.8vvti 2004 reg

a month ago car started misfiring, loss of power and the revs went down and up at idle. slight white smoke on start up but not much. engine check light came on, it was cylinder 3, while taking out the spark plug it looked wet, not oily but watery. changed spark plug, reset engine light and added wynns stop smoke, everything was fine until yesterday.

last week i had the car serviced, car drove smooth sometimes then a bit rough, this was intermittant.

parked the car up, when i went to start it, the revs went up and down like it was going to stall but it didnt, just like the problem started before, this is when the car is idle. took it to the garage earlier, they did compression test, turns out cylinder 3 has no compression and the spark plug had oil on the bottom, spark plugs 1,2 and 4 are fine. the garge told me to change 3 coil packs because it looked like they had water residue on them.

he also said it could be the head gasket and quoted me £800/£900 for the repair but for now he said to change the coil packs and see if the problem reoccurs.

i have had cars before which have had blown head gaskets, and the funny thing is i do not have any coolant loss or white smoke.

PLEASE can somebody shed some light on this as i cannot afford to be with out a car.

all help will be much appreciated.

[Devon Aygo]

If there is no compression on cylinder # 3 then changing coil packs will have no affect on cylinder 3 at all, it sounds as though you have a head gasket fault or serious issue with piston or rings in cylinder 3

[Has786]

i really dont understand what is going on with this car because i changed the one spark plug in cylinder #3 and now its running fine, no stuttering. no revs dropping been 3 days now.

[korat102]

First thing that came to mind when I saw your post was piston rings. If it happens again (and it will if it is the rings), take the dipstick out of the tube and see if you can feel the engine 'puffing' at the tube. Rings tend to rotate and a broken ring can still seal if the break is in the 'right' position in relation to the other rings.

[Has786]

I did a cylinder compression test myself today and it turns out that all 4 cylinders have 75 psi.

I thought I would try and try some restore engine restorer, was a bit sceptical but so far ive driven 100miles and it seems alot better on acceleration and not as sluggish as before.......BUT they say to drive it for 1000 miles. I will do a compression test again to check the results.

I know all these magic potions might be abit too good to be true but it seems good so far. has anybody else had any experience with this restore engine restorer??

[korat102]

Never used the stuff. Some people seem to swear by it though. Looks like something that fixes the symptoms to me. The sort of stuff you'd tip in just before selling the car... If you intend to keep the thing, I'd still get someone who knows which end of the spanner to use to take a look at it :)