French Fancy - behaving badly!!

[Clare Cowe]

I have a great little R4 I call the French Fancy, which up until now has served me faithfully for the past 2 years (I paid £197 for her and so she has done well!) her exhaust started blowing a few weeks back and back firing (farting) when I decelarated etc ( I feel really guilty for not fixing it right away) then a few days ago she started miss-firing (she has always had a few funny moments) but then just the other morning she started fine and I drove off but then the miss fire got so bad she packed up..... I towed her back home and now need to acertain what could have caused this. I so hope its not terminal. The one thing I am really worried about is the fact that a machanic friend said that I should have been using lead replacement additive and that I might have burnt out valve seats.. that sound bad!! I promised the French Fancy that if she got better I would use lead replacement sup. in future. I would love to hear any suggestions. thanks Clare X

 

[malcolm]

Welcome to the forum. The running problems are unlikely to be valves. I'll only use an additive for long distance motorway driving. Otherwise the valves are safe.

Most likely it's the points or another fault with the ignition. If the car hasn't been serviced for a while fit some new ignition points and reset the ignition timing. Also it's turned cold - might be worth setting the air filter inlet hose to the winter setting to suck air from the exhaust.

Your van sounds cool (I don't know where to get parts for it though). Post some photos of your fleet if you get a chance.

 

[Clare Cowe]

Thanks so much for the advice - I will post pictures soon of my girls. I will replace the bits you suggest. Im so pleased you said about the additive - I never go that far in her - she's a country lanes lady thats all. Glad to know there are others out there to offer advice.