Missfire- still

Spent the whole weekend working on the zed I purchased from Arthur a few weekends ago, which despite being a lovely car has skinned my knuckles enough, hwoever fitted the engine must have been ghenghis Khan and his brother , 1 non of the spring clips on the injector plugs were in place, so they were just push fit, the rubber intake pipe had the jubilee clip missing from the front end and the rear was loose, so was the double clamp on the lower end of the metal pipe, the story was the same on the other side, except that the front end of the metal pipe was oval shaped with some not so pretty hammer marks on it, several of the vac pipes were split , cut, or unclamped. the TPS is knackered, and set completely wrong ( suspect this is a major missfire cause) also the o2 sensor on the o/s has failed. The o/s PCV valve was blocked but the n/s looked new.

PCV valves are not so hard to do all you need is an extended socket and a short UJ socket extension, on the nearside remove the battery to gain access, and on the o/s possibly the vac hoses and wiring to get the socket in, basically make room for youself. the o/s one is way harder to access but is not too big a problem. took me less than an hour to do both, make sure you have replacement PCV hoses before you start , they will invariably break/split on removal.

So far ive replaced all the vac hoses that were split, tightened or replaced all the clamps, replaced the PTU, re taped the wiring to the injectors.

Its off to SE next weekend to have the new TPS fitted and set up the new o2 sensor fitted and the wiring sorted, as well as the rear main oil seal replaced.

They are fitting a replacement spoiler ( purchased from the zed centre) whilst its over there. I am hoping that it is going to be sorted and remain so for a while, as on the few occasions I have driven it I ve really enjoyed it.

Advice is :1) nothing is as straightforward as it first seems, apart from the PCV valves which were an easy job. 2) dont give up on what is basically a sound car. 3) nothing is insurmountable 4) take the time to learn when your in the midst of it 5) Don't Panic.