My wife drives a 10 year old 998cc Micra. A few weeks ago the engine was
doing some frantic kangarooing when being driven. It didn't happen all the
time,but was worrying enough for it to be taken to a garage.

It cost us dearly as it needed a new catalytic converter, a new lambda
sensor, new HT leads, plugs, dizzy cap, air filter and rotor arm. The car
ran very well for a few days except for a couple of hiccups, but as the fuel
pump had started making strange noises and then packed-up altogether I put
the hiccups down this.

I replaced the fuel pump with a fairly new looking one from a scrappy
(saving about 140) and the car has been running beautifully since until a
couple of days ago when the hiccupping started again. It feels as though the
fuel has been briefly shut off. It clears; the car runs fine, but then it
happens again. There is no pattern to this and it may be many miles between
hiccups. The car has a 16v injected engine. I'm at a loss as to what to
investigate next.
Any ideas, please?

Regards
Raymond

Have you checked the fuel filter, fairly obvious but also the cheapest
and easiest to fix.

I had a simialr problem to this earlier this year with my escort and it
ended up going thrugh 3 fuel pumps.  Basically whoever had owned the
car before me must have been working on the fuel pump but they'd sealed
it hermatite which doesn't like to be soaked in petrol.  The hermatite
had dribbled into the bottom of the tank and kind of half set into
small lumps whihc were sloshing aorund in the petrol.  It was these
small fragments that the fuel pump picked up and they clogged the mesh
up around the pump pickup.

Never worked on a micra so things may well be different but could be
worth a look.

On 10 Jul 2005 13:12:25 -0700, "tollermccallum"  wrote:


>Have you checked the fuel filter, fairly obvious but also the cheapest
>and easiest to fix.
>
>I had a simialr problem to this earlier this year with my escort and it
>ended up going thrugh 3 fuel pumps.  Basically whoever had owned the
>car before me must have been working on the fuel pump but they'd sealed
>it hermatite which doesn't like to be soaked in petrol.  The hermatite
>had dribbled into the bottom of the tank and kind of half set into
>small lumps whihc were sloshing aorund in the petrol.  It was these
>small fragments that the fuel pump picked up and they clogged the mesh
>up around the pump pickup.
>
>Never worked on a micra so things may well be different but could be
>worth a look.


See "Micra Hiccups" thread in this ng (I posted a few days ago).
See also,

http://www.micra.org.uk

I'm about to try the throttle body fix mentioned in the K11 forum (see hiccups
thread) there. If you want to see how it goes, please contact me as user mmikra
there.

"Raymond"  wrote in
news:42d14274$0$6283$ed2619ec@ptn-nntp-reader03.plus.net: 


> My wife drives a 10 year old 998cc Micra. A few weeks ago the engine
> was doing some frantic kangarooing when being driven. It didn't happen
> all the time,but was worrying enough for it to be taken to a garage.
> 
> It cost us dearly as it needed a new catalytic converter, a new lambda
> sensor, new HT leads, plugs, dizzy cap, air filter and rotor arm. The
> car ran very well for a few days except for a couple of hiccups, but
> as the fuel pump had started making strange noises and then packed-up
> altogether I put the hiccups down this.
> 
> I replaced the fuel pump with a fairly new looking one from a scrappy
> (saving about 140) and the car has been running beautifully since
> until a couple of days ago when the hiccupping started again. It feels
> as though the fuel has been briefly shut off. It clears; the car runs
> fine, but then it happens again. There is no pattern to this and it
> may be many miles between hiccups. The car has a 16v injected engine.
> I'm at a loss as to what to investigate next.
> Any ideas, please?
> 
> Regards
> Raymond
> 
> 

Perhaps the fuel pump realy is at fault, rather than the pump itself?
Either way, I would complain to the garage - they've obviously decided to 
throw new parts at the problem, at your expense, and failed to diagnose 
or cure it. Many (or all) of those parts may not have been necessary!


-- 
Stuart Sharp