running fault on hyundai coupe

[simonruss]

this evening my girlfriends hyundai coupe sudenly lost power, it still runs but very very slowly, no power at all. this fault occurred without any prior warning that something was amiss. the revs are very low on tick-over and it sounds like a tank, thought a valve may be down but it doesnt 'feel' like it is, the misfire isnt that harsh as it would be when its not firing on all cylinders, when i popped the bonnet to have a look the first thing i noticed was the cat converter glowing cherry red which leads me to suspect that the cat may have gone as my chain of thought would suggest that the lambda sensor wouldnt be able to send the correct signals back to the engine management. does anyone have any ideas as cat converters aint cheap!! thanks

[Lakitu]

I have the same car and haven't experienced that (apart from the time I ran out of petrol).

My last car did the exact same thing and it was the cat converter that was the culprit.

[simonruss]

thanks, thought it might be. i didnt want to go and get a new one before i try out the alternatives, it was too dark to have a good look round this evening however the cherry red cat would have kept me warm!!

[Lakitu]

LOL, yes it would have!

I'm not into the mechanics of a car so I could just be talking rubbish here, but do you have a firm near you that buys insurance write off cars and sells the parts that are good? I'm not sure if a cat converter can be used 2nd hand?

I would avoind going to a Hyundai dealer in any case, my handbrake snapped in the Summer and Hyundai charged me �50 for a new one and that was just one side, apparently the Coupe has 2 handbrakes!

[simonruss]

i think will investigate the lambda sensor first as been scouring the web and the failure of that sensor can sometimes mislead people into buying a new cat. thanks for your help.

[Lakitu]

You're welcome, good luck :o)

p.s. You might want to check if the sensor or the cat is under the 5 year warranty if the car is young enough :o)

[dm1982]

basically what has happendd is that the mesh inside the convertor has collapsed therefore restricting gas flow, your engine isnt able to breathe properly, to answer the above question it is possible to use a 2nd hand cat, the c02 sensor may have copped it with the heat mind you.

[simonruss]

thanks all, apparently the train of thought is now a wiring fault, the red hot cat was a red (literally) herring. a new ignition coil has shown that its not sparking on cylinders 2 and 3, think a wire upto the multi-plug has shorted and burnt out. now just to find out which wire.............