Oh my g*d!

I have had no problems with my car for ages (apart from gear boxes) yesterday she was running fine...ran her a bit low on petrol (no worse than normal) and parked up in the afternoon for the night!

This morning when i went to start her, she started, then died, then wouldnt start, then started but wouldnt hold idle.

Now, i live on a hill in Leeds so i thought maybe the petrol wasnt getting to where it needed to go, was planning on topping up anyway so drove to the petrol station, left foot braking and foot always on the gas to keep the idle.

It stalled at the garage, put £20 in it and turned it on again, smelt very fumy and shaking a little bit, like it wasn't firing on all 4 cylinders.

Checked the oil and water...OK.

Turned it on again and gave it a bit of a rev to see if it just wanted clearing out and a lot of water came out of the exhaust (all over the car behind) i dipped my finger in it and it smelt a bit fumy but was definatly water or some mild mixture there of!

The car has not been able to hold its idle all the way to work, but it seems to drive OK other than that! any ideas? i have done a search but i am restricted on the old internet usage at work (i have only been here 4 days!!) so any help you can give will be very useful .... especially if anyone knows of a good mechanic/garage in Leeds for emergency work on my baby!!

You need to keep checking the oil and water religiously. Remove the plugs and see if any of them are much cleaner than the others, this would indicate coolant being burnt. Is there much white smoke out the back when warmed up? I'm sure someone will know of a decent garage round Leeds where you can get it checked out.

I had a problem like this when i forgot to reconnect my amm, wouldnt idle unless i held my foot on the accelerator and just died otherwise. I had been bleeding the clutch and forgot to hook it back up ;oops:.

This is what is confusing me, i have not touched the engine bay (aside from water/oil checks) it is leaking a bit of oil and the oil keeps getting low but there is no smoke when warm (at full boost there is probably some but i am too busy looking where i am going to see it, not like when the head gasket went last time - cars and sometimes streets would be engulfed in smoke)

Oh - it hsa had a headgasget done on it in the last year and a bit!

It is just so random that it has suddenly done it! i am going to take it for a drive at lunch time and see if it settles down - Its due a service so if there is nothing obviously wrong with it i might get in touch with Wessy at NS and get it down to him, was hoping to wait till feb to get the MOT done with it!:cry:

Sometimes i think these cars do this to take the p!ss:evil:

As quick as it started causing problems its now back to normal and boosting happily with a pretty steady idle (nothing out of the ordinary!)

Given it a bit of boot and it seems fine! GRAAAGGHHH!!! must have thought i needed reminding to save up for the next big problem!!:o

Thanks for all your suggestions! i will put this down to being tempremental!

i will put this down to being tempremental!
As the late great Moe Howard (of the Three Stooges) once put it - "90% temper, 10% mental" ...
I had this with my '85 a few weeks back - turned out my dipstick cap wasn't on tight - causing a vacuum leak. I discovered this after doing all sorts of other "checks" - hence the 10% mental ...

Steve

Did you flood it? It "runs" like a sack of poo and when plugs have dried off kids the **** off you.