Firstly i would to say hello to you all and introduce myself.
My name is Marie.
I am an aircraft engineering technican in the Royal Navy working at RAF Cottesmore. I fix Harriers for a living have been doing this for about the last 2 yrs and before that i worked on Seaking MK 4's for 6 yrs.
I have owned my omega (its a 99 plate) since 2003, and since last year she has done nothing but swollow money. seems like problem after problem. It all started last year when the day before she was meant to go for a cam belt change the cam belt snapped (trust my luck) fixed that but in the process of this we found a 3 inch crack in the exhaust manifold (which was a kick in the balls). in all it cost me £750 to fix (pulling in some favours i was owed.) she has had 4 new tyres £250, new air idle control valve £90, just replaced the front part of the exhaust £100.
The problem is as follows:
When its damp, wet or raining when you start her she sounds like a tractor and there is no power for about 10 minutes (until shes warm really) it feels like she is missfiring aswell sometimes when driving. the exhaust sounds like shes blowing too, fwd of the fwd section.
we have looked at the spark plugs to find that the vauxhall garage replaced them with cheep ones but they look ok. will be replaceing them with better ones as soon as the parts place i use gets them in stock for me. i think the problem might be the ht leads or the dis but not to sure.
How can i check before i go and spend even more money on her.
Could someone please help its easy enough to fix & maintain aircraft but when it comes down to my beast i am less confident.
Nice to meet you all

Cheers Marie
p.s. whould anybody be able to tell me how to do the paperclip test?