1.8 16v cab playing up

[tsotd]

my mother in laws 1999 1.8 16v cab is playing up.

you can be driving down the road all fine then the next thing without warning she will start firing on 3, when it first did it she was plodding down the motorway at 60ish then it just started, she said that she pulled over to the hard sholder and turned the engine off, waited afew mins then started it up without any problems.

ive taken the car out and it done the same thing to me at a set of traffic lights, just starts firing on 3 then turn the engine off, after afew seconds a turn the car over and it run fine again.

ive plugged the car into a diagnostics machine which reads the fault as the coil packs, ive changed the coils, plugs, fuel filter, fuel rail and its still playing up as and when it feels like it. it can go afew days without any problems then it will start up again.

ive checked the compression and she reads 13 across all 4 so theres nothing wrong there.

again everytime ive plugged it into a diagnostics it reads a coil pack fault, im now on my 3rd set of coils but without any change.

any ideas?

also ive read on here that the 1.8 16v is a poo engine, loads of coil/ecu problems. why is that? poor building/planning on peugeots part?

thanks

[4WayDiablo]

only think i can think of is one of two options
the coilpack went but spiked the ecu
or the spark plugs, with time the gap increaces naturally and make the spark become a lot weaker
and when the engine is getting hot, it expands more making the spark useless?

[Niall]

The 1.8 is definitely not a rubbish engine. If anything it's probably one of the better ones Peugeot did. Problem is its let down by the shitty Sagem ECU.
This does sound like the coil pack has spiked the ECU. Other thing that can happen is one day it just will not start!
Depending on how much you want to spend, you can buy a new coil pack for about £100 which is a new version that won't spike the ECU and then buy a brand new ECU for £195. Alternatively, you can get a second hand coil pack and ECU and hope the same doesn't/hasn't happen again.

If you go for the latter, you will need the ECU, BSI and immobiliser chip from the key all from the same car. Oh and get the vin from that car because if you ever need a new key programmed, you will need this.

[tsotd]

£300?? seems like a stupid amount when you can get gti6 lumps for £350 these days.
hell ive got one in bits and a kms managment/throttle bodies.
i will let her know but i do know she wont want to be spending stupid amounts like that on it. i think the 2nd hand parts option is the best bet

[tsotd]

ive now got this plugged into pp2000 and its comeing up with the following

"intermittent fault, mixture regulation function"

does anyone know what that means?

[Niall]

Lambda sensor

[tsotd]

lambda?

you sure? as my gti6 (in a 205) runs fine without a lambda and the cab cuts out and is just a pain in the ass