The Battleship,Williams, sentenced to death!

[foggyjames]

Its at times like these i'm really glad I have another car I can jump in to go to the pub

Fixed But yeah...I know what you mean

cheers

James

[magnumpi]

Not another car, coz the Beetle is out of action aswell, but the work van will sufice for pub visits

I'm fully stumped by this. Like i say it was running perfectly, it just had a tiny drip, drip of coolant. I simply undid the heater box, pulled it out of the way, sorted the leak put it all back together and now it won't start

I've checked and it has spark and fuel, from what i can see i've disturbed no wiring so i'm at a loss now and it's rather hacking me off. It turns over well, cranks as it should but is not firing. It did cough once or twice like it was going to start then nothing again, just cranking??

Any ideas, could the coil just have given up again? The last time it did though it gave warning, i.e it ran badly for a bit, which is what makes this weird, it was running fine, now just refuses to start?

[kaos]

check your crank sensor.

Also ont he coolant side, when you drained it and refilled it did you have the heater turned to hot? so that the pipes were open?

[magnumpi]

Well i swapped the coil over to the old dead one, suprisingly it made no difference. However when i put the other one back on it started straight away. I then went to check the heater pipes were getting hot and knocked the loom and it cut out

Started it again and had a fiddle with the wires, i recon there is a slight break somewhere in the loom, although not 100%, basically by giving it a slight tap it cuts out. I've got an auto electrician mate coming out to look at it on Sunday.

If it's the crank speed sensor i take it it won't run at all rather than run fine then cough and splutter a bit then be fine etc.?

Oh and re the heaters yeah, they were in the hot position when i drained it and refilled it, that is if the hot position is with the heater valve arm upwards?

[MCHUDD]

Hi mate.
I had this problem once. Air lock is what it probably is.
Foggys squeezing pipes while running idea is what solved mine.
Cheers Mark.

[magnumpi]

Aarrgghhh i'm getting uber hacked off with the old beasty now!

So my auto electrician mate came and looked at it on Sunday, had a jiggle with the wires and agreed there was something up with the loom, so he took it on his lowloader to his workshop.

Yesterday he rang and said he's sorted it, had found a split wire, and a "dry" solder whatever that is? But then said did it used to run lumpy, hhmmm i thought, no it didn't.

Fast forward to today and i cycled over to pick it up, he told me where he'd hidden the keys and we'd sort the cash next time i see him.
Start it, que lumpyness a gogo, right well i thought i'm not cycling back coz it's like a 45min ride, so bike goes in the boot.

Basically it now idles as lumpy as a VERY lumpy thing in lumpy land but rev it past 2k and it feels kind of normal. Everytime i pull up at a set of lights or if i down shift slowly it stalls! So unless i boot it every where it's almost undriveable, as just coasting along it kangaroos like crazy.

Basicaly he said he'd look at it again for me, but that still doesn't stop the fact i'm getting mighty fed up with the ol wagon, just a quick thought it was running fine when it left mine, bar the cutting out loom bussiness, so it's not got anything to do with the HG has it?

Surely if i'd done something wrong there it would run like a bag o sh*te continually rather than just on idle?

Pulling my hair out - Paul

[Speedy88]

Mine ran really badly at certain revs when my fuel pressure was too high. Could be putting too much fuel in the cylinders. Dunno though, sounds a bit fishy to me. Anything to do with idle, I'd check the idle control valve first. Apparently they seize up really easily.

[magnumpi]

Yeah thats whats doing my head in so much as two days ago on the drive it was running fine, just like it always has.

I'll check out the air sensor tomo, just can't see it seizing up solid in two days, it did smell more petroly (is just made that up) than usual on the way home but that i pressume is because it's running so badly and not burning the fuel correctly?

ho hum

[340GLT]

This confuses me. Which part of the loom needed repairing. Is the car missfiring? I would check idle control valve first.
Adam

[Speedy88]

Yeah thats whats doing my head in so much as two days ago on the drive it was running fine, just like it always has.

I'll check out the air sensor tomo, just can't see it seizing up solid in two days, it did smell more petroly (is just made that up) than usual on the way home but that i pressume is because it's running so badly and not burning the fuel correctly?

ho hum

When mine was running high pressure it stank of petrol all the time. Get a gauge on the regulator or pipe a T-piece one in on the fuel lines.

[magnumpi]

This confuses me. Which part of the loom needed repairing. Is the car missfiring? I would check idle control valve first.
Adam

It was in thye loom somewhere between the ECU and where it splits off towards the injectors. It's hard to say if it's missfiring as it's basically running like an ill dog at the moment. My guess is that it possibly is though, but as soon as you give it some throttle it runs fine, when the revs drop down again it just stalls.
One thing it's deffinately doing is pumping out black/sooty smoke which suggests to me some sort of injector issue? I started it next to my mums silver car today and as the side exit is angles upwards after 30 secs or so of running it was spattered in black dots, which didn't really have any smell, i was expecting it to be oil or fuel

*Edit: I'm reconning what ever he has done to "fix" it is causing the problem as it's now worse than when it went to the guy. Adam is there any wires that do nowt in the loom that he may have mistakenly connected or did you strip all the unnecesary stuff out?

It's not using water/oil so i reckon my side of the work is fine, especially as it drove perfectly well for two days after doing it.


I've checked the idle control valve tonight and it moves freely straight away and didn't feel sticky or seized.

Thanks for the input guys, just want to get it on the road again

[Speedy88]

Black spots will be fuel. The more you you talk about it the more it sounds like my fuel pressure problem.

[340GLT]

Yeh but speedy he is running adifferent regualting system to you so it wont be that. All unnecessary wires are removed from the loom. its awkward trying to diagnose this way. Drop me a PM or a call and we can have a chat about it.
Adam

[Speedy88]

Fair enough, hope you get it sorted matey

[magnumpi]

Yeah i thought you had Ad, i was just making sure he's not connected something that shouldn't have been.

I'll give you a ring tomo if your about, i'll run it so you may possibly able to hear it down the phone.