View Full Version : Car died and now won't start
Right spoken to some of you about this already, here's the problem...
Spent all day saturday rebuilding my engine bay, putting the manifold back on, fuel rail, injectors, plumbing everything in, connecting everything up.
Started the car up and it was running fine, maybe a little lumpy but sounded ok, it had been off the road for a week drained of water so thought that was probably why.
Went to apply some rev's gently on the throttle body assembly, butterflys opened a little, ok, then all of a sudden the engines dies. As it died we noticed a very small spray of fuel or mist coming from the alternator side of the engine. Maybe something coking back up injector 4?
Now the engine won't start.
We have tested a few things like trying without various vacuum hoses connected in on the manifold.
No joy.
We also tested the injectors, took the fuel rail out, with the injectors attached and pointed them into a rag to catch any fuel... as the engined turned over it actually started! burned off whatever fuel was sitting in the cylinders and then stalled, obviously.
We put the fuel rail back in, without securing it down and the thing started again, after a few seconds i turned the ignition off thinking we'd solved the problem.
I've tried a number of things since then and can't get the engine to start.
The injectors, fuel pump, spark seem fine.
Does anyone have any ideas wot the problem could be? maybe a duff sensor?
Have tried not connecting up the iscv and potentiometre but still no dice.
One thing worth noting is that after it died the first time, we noticed that we hadn't connected in a connector, it sits below the inlet manifold on the passenger side, half way up the support bay that comes from the bottom of the engine block. has a little black connector on it. Think the radiator fan wires also come from the same loom, which passes over the top of the gearbox.
did any fuel leak out of the exhaust downpipe do u know ?
u might have got petrol in the vacumm lines if thats the case
no idea on fuel in the exhaust mate... exhaust is still fully connected so wouldnt know.
petrol in the vacuum lines??? hmm will have to check. How would that effect things?
wot if the map sensor or sensor thats in the manifold got petrol on it, wud that affect anything? as there was a squirt of petrol, wonder if that could cause a prob with something.
Have you tried disconnecting the battery for a few hours?
Never know, if its a sensor problem mgiht just clear the memory
lol, should of mentioned that you need to unplug the king lead to the dizzy...sorry, it was midnight.
But at least you know that you had flooded it and the open injector ports bled in air allowing it to fire for a second.
I'd be inlcined to sort the TPS and double check the ISCV to see if its bleeding any air in at all.
Hmmmm, weird one.
like i said on sun mate....have u checked the mani yet??
remove and label - so u can refit in the same place next time summeh :D
jon:
i've checked the vacuum hoses and they all flow. nothing blocked there. will have to whip the manifold off at the weekend to see if its actually blocked itself... im starting to think that the fuel pressure reg is blocked or not working properly so there isn't enough pressure. although when i pull the injectors out and sit them above the holes, the car does try to start.
northy:
i've refit everything in the same place u git :D
northy - Martins williams - york.......I aint saying shit lol
Tis a strange one this one :?
northy - Martins williams - york.......I aint saying shit lol
Tis a strange one this one :?
true - thats why i said try checking the vacumm pipes.
PBV - Pah hate them.
hasnt got a pbv mate...afaik
i know it hasnt - just explaining to winston
no PBV... but will need to fit one when I go for higher rated nitrous injectors.
dunno, read it on the won site :)
as someone mentioned disconnect the battery for a while, and while its disconnected remove the earth wire from the starter motor and clean it up, the wire is quite flimsy so make sure its getting a good connection. You never know what it could be, you checked all the fuses? the fuel pump fuse could have blown! done it to me and baffled me,my dad and the aa man! took me ages to find that!
Hope it helps
Craig
P.S. Make sure you reconnect the battery :lol: and the fuel pump fuse is in the fuse box in the engine bay :D
nah mate aint either of those...
All fuses are good.. and nothing to do with the starter motor... as the engine is turning over, its just not starting.
Got a mate coming round at weekend with some diagnostic equipment, hopefully it'll tell me wot the problem is :)
is that 5th injector thingy firing???
try them anyway had same problem with mine and it was a fuse. had earth probs wi starter, it was turnin but not starting, very strange....
right, me and mikey172sport (from cs) have been trying to get this thing started all weekend...
one of the o-rings on the fuel pressure regulator was knackered, so wasn't getting enough pressure. sorted that.
TPS wasn't set up properly, sorted that.
CTS, air temp sensor and road speed sensors are working fine.
getting a spark, and we're getting fuel.
We had it running after fixing the fuel pressure regulator problem... Got it warmed up nicely and noticed that on idle it wasn't firing on cylinder number 1. Give it some revs and its finem, fires on all four. We tested everything and concluded that cylinder 1 has got low compression.
Shut the engine down, left it an hour, went to start it, and bugger, it wouldn't start!!! We got it started by towing it, but it was running VERY lumpy, as soon as u let it idle it dies, so its running on 2 cylinders maybe.
Now im thinking that where the manifold has been drilled etc maybe some swarf is stuck in the valves, but normally this can be blown out by a good thrashing, which we did. And i gave the manifold a good ****ing clean before fitting it anyway, couldn't get my hands inside though obviously, but got any loose crap with the vacuum cleaner!
When we turn the engine over on the starter, it whirrs away very rapidly... not as quick as taking all the spark plugs out and doing it, so could this indicate low compression on a couple of cylinders, or maybe just one.
Has anyone had any probs like this, and if so, wot did you do to fix, short of taking the head off?
also its worth noting that air/"easy start" was getting pushed back out of the inlet manifold when we cranked it over :|
VIPERONE
16-10-2005, 20:51
gunsons compression tester will let you ellliminate, or find the fault...hopefully not though..
head off jobby otherwise aye?
Hmmm, this is a strange one but at least you've moved on since lastime we spoke.
Have you fired the N2O at all since plumbing it all in?
Do a compression, and more importantly a leakdown test, that will tell you if your valves are not sealing.
I cleaned the manifold out before sending, and you obviously did aswell, dont think any of the paper shredding packaging could of been sucked in, and even then it wouldnt still be stuck in there or damaged anything.
Air was getting pushed back out? You mean it was spitting back, did it pop out of the TB? Thats generally ignition timing/cam timing problem or possible lean running problem. Spray some wd40/water/soap around the N20 injectors and turn it over, see if air is leaking past them as the seals on them can be damaged quite easily.
Before taking the head off i woudl suggest sticking the old inlet manifold back on, see if its the manifold thats hte problem or not?
Cheers for the reply Ben, some interesting comments there...
Will hopefully get a compression tester tomorrow (tuesday) so will know more then.
Yes it is spitting back out, i guess this could be caused by lean running? We did have a problem with one or two vacuum hoses not being attached properly and whistling, guess they could be causing a problem still.
Also the o-ring fix we did on the fuel pressure regulator might have failed? It was a botch job to fix with some o-rings from halfrauds really... Will try and get a genuine o-ring or two tomorrow and see if it fixes it.
Sounds promising if it isn't leaking/lacking compression... only thing that worries me though is the speed of the engine turning over :/ Like you said though you cleaned it well before you sent it, and I tried to give it a damn good clean, nothing loose inside and i was very careful.
How much do leakage testers cost, and where can i get one?
oh poop....
comp test readings:
cylinder 4: 47.5 psi ... 3.27 bar
cylinder 3: 45 psi ... 3.105 bar
cylinder 2: 37.5 psi ... 2.5875 bar
cylinder 1: 42 psi ... 2.898 bar
did the comp test on arj's valver... 160psi or bang on 11bar on all 4 cylinders.
only diff is mine was stone cold, and his was hot. shouldnt make that much diff though surely? tried putting some oil down a cylinder and tested again and it read 55psi rather than 50.
cant understand it... my engine was really strong before.. its had a head end rebuild just 30k ago :|
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