G'day from down the bottom of the world.

I recently purchased an 86 240GL with 270,xxxkm on the clock. The thing is in remarkable condition in every aspect it starts within 3 cranks regardless of the weather (it's quite cold here at the moment), idles beautifully and accelerates and changes gear without any dramas. Got it for an absolute bargain $1000 with almost a full year's registration and all the fruit (auto, air con, P/S, tinted windows, CD, towbar etc etc).

However I've now driven just over 300km since I first purchased the vehicle and shockingly have used almost a full tank of fuel. I have to wait until tomorrow morning when I get paid to re-fill it to check economy figures, but it's looking like I'm going to only get 20L/100km or 11mpg out of this tank!

I was guilty of not checking the air pressure in the tyres until this afternoon (two were at 20psi, one at 25 and one at 30 I've now put 40psi in all four), and also driving it somewhat spiritedly as you normally do when you first buy a vehicle. Plus I ran a tank of E10 which I've found to not give as good fuel economy in the past.

However judging by the smell, the vehicle is running very rich. At traffic lights its enough to make my eyes water. Reading up it seems I've either got a dying MAF or O2 sensor, so I went out to pull the error codes and couldn't find the diagnostic box!

Where it's supposed to be in between the power steering reservoir and the passenger strut tower (although in Australia the passenger side is the left side of the vehicle) there's the ignition coil and nothing that resembles the diagnostic box.

I hunted around the engine bay but with not much light I will have to wait until tomorrow morning for a proper look. However I could not see it for the life of me.

Any suggestions as to where it might be hiding??

Brendan

 

There wasn't a diagnostic port until 1989 (LH2.4). Check for gas inside the vacuum line for the fuel pressure regulator and measure the voltage from the o2 sensor - it should swing quickly between .2 and .8 VDC. Could also be the air mass meter.