Daewoo Forums and Owners Club

Hi all,

I'm having problems with my 1995 Espero 1.8i (C18LE). When the engine's cold, and I mean cold as in after a normal spring night, the engine start very good but runs terrible. It seems that one cylinder isn't firing all the time, but skips some ignitions. This keeps on going for a couple of minutes until the engine is a bit warmer, after which the problem disappears and the engine runs smoothly.

In some occasions the motor management generates an error. Does anybody know if I can read out this errors without specialized equipment? I know it can be done with some Opels (Vauxhalls, I'm Dutch ).

If I start the car after work, it runs fine. Also, if I start the car later on the day after a night (and the engine + liquids are a fraction warmer), it also runs fine. So it seems to me that the temperature is the key factor in this problems.

I've checked the following:
Sparkplugs, looked good, bit brownish-white. Ceramics also good.
Rotor and distributor cap. Although a bit worn, they looked okay to me.
Distributor cables. I have driven only halve a year with this set.
Temperature sensor, when cold enough for the problem to occur, the resistance of the sensor is about 4.5kOhm and rises after the engine is started. So seems fine to me.

I've tried to reproduce the problem by spraying water on the spark plugs and distributor cables but this had no effect.

Can it be the distributor coil? I know that a defect coil can cause rather odd problems, but can it be the cause for this problem too?

Does anyone here know where to look for the solution. If possible a cheap solution. The car is bound to be replaced (2 months), so I don't want to spend too much money on it, but it has to keep running!

The cars also runs on LPG, but the problem occurs on both petrol and LPG.

Yours faithfully,

Roy van Lamoen

hi

sounds like the beginning of a head gasket issue to me

nelse

Hi,

thank you for your reply. Not what I hoped to hear though .

Also, except for the awful running in the morning, there aren't any signs pointing in that direction. No white nor blue smoke (some white smoke when cold, but this seems normal to me), no bubling in the cooling liquid, no loss of power (but then again, may not be noticed because the gasket is failing graduately).

The engine does blow rather heavy from the oil filler cap when unscrewed with running engine. The cap really dances. Is this normal or not? I also measured the resistance of the distributor cables, to determine their state. Cable 4 has a resistance of 8k Ohm. The other cable are all less then this 8k Ohm, with cable number 2 on 4.7k Ohm. Cable 1 is slightly higher, 5k Ohm, but this should not be a problem as far as I know.

Any other simple tests I can perform to test the head gasket? Can it also be that the valve head needs to be overhauled? Seems plausible after 200k km on LPG.

On last question. As the car is being replaced by a imo beautiful Citroën C4 in two months, is there anything cheap I can do to stop this temporarily? Maybe some additive to the cooling liquid or oil?

RvL

I would just run it if it is going in 2 months

nelse

Okay, I went to the garage to read out the error register of the ECU. It returned the following 3 errors:
1. O2 sensor circuit error
2. Cooling water error
3. MAP sensor error

Although I didn't suspect the cooling water temperature sensor, the garage suggested me to replace this sensor as it did cause a similar error with the first series of Dutch Espero's, back in 1995. I've replaced it with an used 1995 Espero version, from a 2.0 motor. Both 12V ACV3 sensor (number on the sensor). As error #3 refers to a MAP sensor error, I've replaced the MAP sensor with an used MAP sensor too. Too bad, this didn't solve my problem. I do have the parts I have replaced.

Error #1 refers to an O2 sensor circuit error. My garage suggested it may be the Lambda sensor. Of course, this is possible as the Lambda sensor measures the amount of oxygen in the exhaust gases. But does error #1 refer to the inlet or to the exhaust? I ask this question because I thought that the main part of the O2 sensor circuit was the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) sensor. So I replaced it with a used part (donor Espero) but this didn't solve the trick. Obviously there are more sensors involved in the O2 measuring process. So my next question is: is the Lambda probe used when the engine is cold? As far as I know, and please correct me if wrong, the Lambda probe is only used when the engine is warm.

Maybe the Throttle Position Sensor (TPS), thus the stepper motor on the air inlet, is the cause for the problem? Maybe some other sensors that are involved in the O2 measurement?