Hi all,

I doubt anyone remembers but i am currently running an nissan micra from the late 80's which has had probs with the clutch and bodywork. The clutch was sorted and the body work has been sealed with duct tape which works pretty well.

However having just got it through an mot, not a happy process though i was strangely proud of the fail sheet running to 2 pages!

My main prob with it now is an irritating misfire at idle, it isnt noticable anywhere else in the rev range but at idle it misses on one cylinder at random times, ie it can go for awhile with out mising then get 4 or 5 in quick succesion, it rarely stalls from this, it is not running that amazing until it gets warm, but i am putting that down to the cold weather as the car is a carb 1988 model.

I have changed the spark plugs and ht leads tho i had to put the old leads back after the new ones started sparking really badly!!

anyways i am hoping for some suggestions of what it could be, i don't want to mess to much just yet as the car has only just been put back on the road, though it got me home and back for christmas fine, that was a 400 mile trip.

many thanks

[Edited on 4/1/07 by trogdor]

[Edited on 4/1/07 by trogdor]

oh this is my kind of car! duck tape

Sounds like the dizy cap is tracking, run it at night and you'll soon see where your sparks are sneaking off too.

Try spraying the sucker with WD40, good idea in winter anyway.

oh yeah nissan carbs are not the best in the winter with the coke on. Known to go chugga chugga rather alot. If it clears when it's hot then it's just normal

[Edited on 4/1/07 by macnab]

it does have its foilbles, but i love it too bits, i like the way the radio will only work one time in three that u start the car and two different keys, one for the door and one for the ignition

its me and my gf's first car, will have to check it tonight then, it needs a run anyway. it also doesn't like being left alone, if u leave it for a week or so it's not happy until its down a few miles!

yeah it does go chugga chugga alot in third gear until it gets warm

four gears are annoying at times, as 1st and second are close together and 3rd and 4th are, but there is this MAHOOSIVE gap between them, its not happy when ur in traffic that travellling between 20-25 miles an hour, u have to change loads as its too high for second and too low for first

Aww poor thing it's gettin lonely, it's old.

Sounds also it's getting a bit damp in the bay, big can of WD40 then.



So it’s got character then

[Edited on 4/1/07 by macnab]

yeah it has quite a bit of character, when it hadn't run for a month as i had to work on it for the mot it was a moody cow until it had been driven about 20 miles,

but it is running well now, we have only been towed home once with it, the clutch gave up. it was really hard to get in gear, to the put of when it was idling u had to stop the car, put it in gear and start it in first, otherwise it just would not go into gear! but the gearchange is fantastic now its been replaced tho.

will get my wd40 out tonight and go mental then!

guess who's nissan this is

hang on is that monkey calling my bluey lame cheeky little f$£ker!

[Edited on 4/1/07 by macnab]
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quote:

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Originally posted by trogdor
it does have its foilbles, but i love it too bits, i like the way the radio will only work one time in three that u start the car and two different keys, one for the door and one for the ignition

its me and my gf's first car,

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The first five cars I had didn't even have radios, you probably wouldn't have been able to hear them anyway Check the cap for cracks or loose/corroded segments. For the price of bits a new cap and rotor are always worth fitting at the same time as the plugs and leads. I had 2 out of a set of Champion plugs pack up in 300 miles so have a look at them while you're at it.

Is that a nissan bluebird? it looks pretty cool, i remember reading a article about them in Retro cars, it was quite interesting how good they were!

our micra is a faded red with a soon to be black front wing as one needs replacing!

Is annoying when the car your stripping in the scrap yard is much better condition than the car you have. Its not our red rockets fault tho, its done nearly 150,000 miles! alot for a little micra!

Ps have checked for sneaky sparks but seems ok so far, if there is light when i get home i will check the distrubter cap

If there's one in the scrappy take all the bits you can, certainly if its in good nick.

You seem to be running out off parts to go wrong, just the cap and the coil left so you know what to get when you go there

Have you checked the valve clearances? As that can cause a misfire if their to tight.

The Bluebird, 'Best British car ever built', as described on Top Gear!

Then again another show apparently described it as the 'Worst British car ever built' but that's Top Gear for you, rubbish program anyway


[Edited on 5/1/07 by macnab]

That was the plan, when it failed its mot we went to the nearest scrap yard and found a micra of the same age in pretty good nick, it had had a shunt in its passenger door which is a shame as ours needs a new one of those too!

It was in good nick but didn't have the time to get all the bits i wanted as i had to get important stuff to pass the mot such as both headlights as one was loose and the other was full of water!!!

it had great door cards and interior which i want to get, unfortunalty this was 2 months ago and the car is prob gone?

Would be a shame as it would make our car much better! Need to take the trip up there with my tools, is hard to find time at the mo tho!

Top Gear is a good prog, not really for the cars but the stuff they do such as the pickup destroying etc.

The really sporty model of bluebird was the model the article i read focused on, someone had made one into a very fast car!

[Edited on 5/1/07 by trogdor]

TopGear.

Hmm use to watch it without fail for years, that was till it turned into some sort weird chat show. Every time I turn to it now there’s Clarkson chatting to some celeb, eh? what happened to the cars???

Yeah they can be very fast cars, mines not though only ever got 115mph out of it which is pant's really. But then I'll have the locost on the road soon so who cares’s

115mph sounds really fast! the best our baby can do is about 85mph. 90 if we are going down a hill! Having four gears doesn't help.

I used to watch it loads when i was younger, its deffo just a golrified chat show, but it's still pretty good tv, at least compared to alot of whats broadcast nowadays!

[Edited on 5/1/07 by trogdor]