My 360 GLT not starting

Post by **D4V2K1** » 01 Apr 2006 10:06 am

Hi guys. I've been having a nightmare this morning. Went to start the car and it wasn't having none of it. Battery seems good, starter was turning fine, just wasnt starting. It sort of tried a bit with the throttle pressed right down, (i usually start it with a bit of throttle no problems), just wouldnt get enough to get it to idle. I checked the plugs, dizzy, leads etc and tried again. Eventually got it to start and left it to idle for about 5 mins. When i went to pull away and accelerate it was struggling like hell, as if it wasn't getting fuel. I then pulled back into my parking space and it died again.

Am i right to think its possibly the fuel pump? I'm going to go out and check the aux fuse box and fuses now,, but i'm in a bit of trouble as i am in deepest norfolk away on a course for work and am due to drive back to scotland on friday. Any help would be appreciated!

Sorry about the long post.

Cheers

Dave

Post by **990** » 01 Apr 2006 10:12 am

I have had the pump go but I would not have expected it to idle for 5 mins or so with limited fuel, although it is possible.
I would have gone looking at dirt or blockages in the fuel lines instead after checking the fuses - then I would go for the pump.

(Doing this saved me a few £)

Hope you get this sorted

Post by **pettaw** » 01 Apr 2006 02:56 pm

Yeah I would check the fuel pump fuse, but also check the electrical connections near the battery, positive and negative, including the large spade connectors on the main positive lead just away from the battery, maybe even remove them and reconnect. A few of us have had these connections go intermittent causing all sorts of weird symptoms.

Post by **D4V2K1** » 01 Apr 2006 05:56 pm

Well this has totally bamboozled me. After i posted on here, i went back to it (aboout 30 mins later) but thought i'd give it another try before i looked at the fuses etc. It started first time and has been fine a day today now

I stuck a bottle of comma injector and fuel treatment in for good measure on my way back from the shops too.

Something must be on its way out i think anyway, as it seems to be taking longer to start it the past week or two. I changed the fuel filter last month, so i might just change the pump anyway if i can get hold of one. Also Is there another smaller fuel filter nearer the tank on a 360?

Once i get back to scotland i'll take a good look at all the connections and fuses ner the battery too.

Why do things like this always happen when you start to spend money on the car? This morning i was on my way to the volvo dealers to pick up a new headlight relay, and next week its booked in for a cambelt change.

Post by **Fuse** » 01 Apr 2006 06:09 pm

I've had the exact same problem few times.. Both times it was very cold, like -20 celsius degrees or below. I don't know what was the problem but the symptoms were just like you had. It run very poor and low idle, if I touched the pedal it stalled and coughed immediately. If I floored the pedal I got it running with something like ~3000-3500rpm without coughing. It was running way too rich by the smell. After I had kept it up there for a while, there was small "bang" and it worked as nothing had happened.. Weird problems.

My throttle position switch got frozen though before and my throttle cable was faulty so those might have caused some problems too..

I though that it was my extra ecu with mechanical pressure switch which had frozen and it flooded the engine with gas on idle but if other have had the similiar problems then maybe it's somewhere else.

Post by **pettaw** » 01 Apr 2006 06:09 pm

before you fork out on a new pump, just check those bits first.

Post by **D4V2K1** » 01 Apr 2006 06:15 pm

I'll definatly check those bits first, but if a pump pops up on ebay i'll get one because ive got money in my paypal doing nothing!

Hopefully it was just my car playing april fools......

Post by **petefarrell360** » 01 Apr 2006 09:02 pm

At a guess I'd suggest looking around the air mass meter pipe work, it may be the air mass meter on it's way out but I doubt it, but what is making me say this is when my car was slow to start one morning, applying the throttle caused some pressure resulting in a small back fire which popped the pipe off to the air mass meter as the jubilee clip wasn't very tight. It could well have got close enough to seal back on and work again or the leak has sealed once the car is running again. Worth checking before spending fuel pump money! I can't remember exactly how mine ran when that happened, but it seems to be similar from memory. Was your car backfiring or missing badly when it was running? Intermittent faults are the worst to diagnose! Good luck.
Pete

Post by **D4V2K1** » 02 Apr 2006 03:21 pm

When i had it running before it conked out again, it was popping and misfiring a bit.

Strangly enough it has been fine again when i went to today. I'll give it a good investigation next weekend.

Post by **foggyjames** » 02 Apr 2006 11:37 pm

I was about to suggest checking ignition components, but this does sound fuel related.

cheers

James