Megane 1.6 16v Sport Loss of power

[Eedam]

Hey all.

Now i'm going to try and explain this as best as possible so bear with me.

I own a W reg Megane 1.6 16v Sport with 57k miles on the clock.

When i'm pulling away from a junction or travelling up a hill and i put my foot down, i suddenly lose all power and the accelerator is unresponsive for about 1-2 seconds. It seems to work ok soon afterwards but the problem repeats. The weird thing is, i don't have this problem when my trip computer reads over 140 miles left. As soon as it hits 135-140 miles to go I start losing power. I don't get any warning lights and whilst i can replicate the problem by driving up a hill, it feels quite random around a corner.

I've read many threads on this very site about meganes losing power but none have mentioned anything about having lower fuel when the problem occurs. I've also read about many fixes, from a fault in the ECU, coils to a simple earthing problem. I've just been getting around the problem by treating 140 as the empty point of my fuel tank.

My main theory is not that the fuel isn't igniting, but more to do with the fuel intake, it doesn't feel like its actually taking in any fuel (if i'm making any sense).

So here is my question, after seeing a lot of the solutions. What do you think i should try to fix first? I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment so anything i can do myself to attempt to fix it would be brilliant. I also don't want to spend money on parts that don't need fixing, so any ideas you may have on diagnosing the problem myself would be much appreciated.
In the bad news that it is the fuel system, can anyone give me a rough figure on how much it would cost?

Hope i was clear enough, if anyone needs any information or wants me to test anything out let me know. I currently have my trip computer telling me i have 90 miles remaining as i wanted to be in a position to test any ideas people may have and to see if my car is reading fuel correctly in the first place.

Cheers!

	ECU Electronic Control Unit In automotive electronics, an electronic control unit (ECU) is an embedded system that controls one or more of the electrical subsystems in a vehicle. Some modern cars have up to 70 ECUs.

	Ignition Coils Ignition Coils An ignition coil (also called a spark coil) is an induction coil in an automobile's ignition system which transforms a storage battery's 12 volts to the thousands of volts needed to spark the spark plugs. This specific form of the autotransformer, together with the contact breaker, converts low voltage from a battery into the high voltage required by spark plugs in an internal combustion engine. In older vehicles a single (large) coil would serve all the spark plugs via the ignition distributor. In modern systems, the distributor is omitted and ignition is instead electronically controlled. Much smaller coils are used with one coil for each spark plug or one coil serving two spark plugs (so two coils in a four-cylinder car). These coils may be remote-mounted or they may be placed on top of the spark plug (coil-on-plug or Direct Ignition). Where one coil serves two spark plugs (in two cylinders), it is through the "wasted spark" system. In this arrangement the coil generates two sparks per cycle to both the cylinders. The fuel in the cylinder that is nearing the end of its compression stroke is ignited, whereas the spark in its companion that is nearing the end of its exhaust stroke has no effect. The wasted spark system is more reliable than a single coil system with a distributor and cheaper than coil-on-plug. Where the coils are remote mounted they may all be contained in a single moulded block with multiple high-tension terminals. This is commonly called a coil-pack.

[Dewgel]

Originally Posted by Eedam

Hey all.

Now i'm going to try and explain this as best as possible so bear with me.

I own a W reg Megane 1.6 16v Sport with 57k miles on the clock.

When i'm pulling away from a junction or travelling up a hill and i put my foot down, i suddenly lose all power and the accelerator is unresponsive for about 1-2 seconds. It seems to work ok soon afterwards but the problem repeats. The weird thing is, i don't have this problem when my trip computer reads over 140 miles left. As soon as it hits 135-140 miles to go I start losing power. I don't get any warning lights and whilst i can replicate the problem by driving up a hill, it feels quite random around a corner.

I've read many threads on this very site about meganes losing power but none have mentioned anything about having lower fuel when the problem occurs. I've also read about many fixes, from a fault in the ECU, coils to a simple earthing problem. I've just been getting around the problem by treating 140 as the empty point of my fuel tank.

My main theory is not that the fuel isn't igniting, but more to do with the fuel intake, it doesn't feel like its actually taking in any fuel (if i'm making any sense).

So here is my question, after seeing a lot of the solutions. What do you think i should try to fix first? I'm a little strapped for cash at the moment so anything i can do myself to attempt to fix it would be brilliant. I also don't want to spend money on parts that don't need fixing, so any ideas you may have on diagnosing the problem myself would be much appreciated.
In the bad news that it is the fuel system, can anyone give me a rough figure on how much it would cost?

Hope i was clear enough, if anyone needs any information or wants me to test anything out let me know. I currently have my trip computer telling me i have 90 miles remaining as i wanted to be in a position to test any ideas people may have and to see if my car is reading fuel correctly in the first place.

Cheers!

Did you ever get this sorted mate? I've got a similar problem but I've never tried filling mine to the brim yet.. I've always only had 100 miles left. Mine seems to choke and splutter when I put my foot on the floor, does yours cure itself? Mine won't rev past 3,000rpm..

	ECU Electronic Control Unit In automotive electronics, an electronic control unit (ECU) is an embedded system that controls one or more of the electrical subsystems in a vehicle. Some modern cars have up to 70 ECUs.

	Ignition Coils Ignition Coils An ignition coil (also called a spark coil) is an induction coil in an automobile's ignition system which transforms a storage battery's 12 volts to the thousands of volts needed to spark the spark plugs. This specific form of the autotransformer, together with the contact breaker, converts low voltage from a battery into the high voltage required by spark plugs in an internal combustion engine. In older vehicles a single (large) coil would serve all the spark plugs via the ignition distributor. In modern systems, the distributor is omitted and ignition is instead electronically controlled. Much smaller coils are used with one coil for each spark plug or one coil serving two spark plugs (so two coils in a four-cylinder car). These coils may be remote-mounted or they may be placed on top of the spark plug (coil-on-plug or Direct Ignition). Where one coil serves two spark plugs (in two cylinders), it is through the "wasted spark" system. In this arrangement the coil generates two sparks per cycle to both the cylinders. The fuel in the cylinder that is nearing the end of its compression stroke is ignited, whereas the spark in its companion that is nearing the end of its exhaust stroke has no effect. The wasted spark system is more reliable than a single coil system with a distributor and cheaper than coil-on-plug. Where the coils are remote mounted they may all be contained in a single moulded block with multiple high-tension terminals. This is commonly called a coil-pack.

[central161]

hi i would start by eliminating the obvious ,assuming that you don't have service history and you don't know when it had a good service done ,and bearing in mind that 57k is very very low for a W reg car, i would start first by changing the fuel filter as if this filter is 10 yrs old i am sure is ready for a change ,second, i would fill half a tank (let's say £15 )of fresh petrol and reset the trip computer as to make sure that it is accurate and matches the fuel gauge,If you are running the car with the trip computer showing 130 left it must be near empty in any case .
If after filling petrol the problem is solved i would defnetly change the fuel filter ,it must be due in any case -see how you go!