Xantia Won't start

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Mon 11 Aug 2003 22:45
Xantia Won't start - Hugo {P}
My 1.8L Xantia seems to have developed a sterting problem.

There was not much petrol in it when I tried to start it tonight and it ran but not for long.

After several attempts, gave it up as a bad job, got some petrol from my garage, put that in, only a couple of litres and still won't start.

The push button code is OK, coming on green, however, I have now run the battery down and will give it up until morning.

Hopefully a full 5 litres of petrol from the garage will do the trick, but are there any obvious probs with this I should look at if this doesn't work?

Further info, the car has been parked on my drive for a few days, which is reasonably steep. The back end is somewhat lower than the front.

Any ideas please?

H
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Tue 12 Aug 2003 08:09
Xantia Won't start - RichardW
Hugo,

I suspect you have simply run it our of petrol, give it a try and report back if it starts with more fuel (noting that it will take a while to get the fuel back up the engine!).

Now if it still won't start then you need to establish if it's sparks or fuel. Sparks - take off one of the plug leads, and fit a plug to it. Hold the plug against an earth (with insulated pliers!) and get the engine cranked you should see it spark. If not then more diagnostics required (My Dad's 1.8 Xantia died a couple of weeks ago with no spark and it turned out to be the crank sensor).

If you've got spark, then you've got to suspect fuel - you should be able to disconnect a fuel hose somewhere, route it into a jar, crank the engine again and look for fuel coming out - not sure, but I suspect Xantias use an electric fuel pump.

At least this gives you somewhere to 'start'......


RichardW

Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Tue 12 Aug 2003 09:35
Xantia Won't start - John S
I reckon it's the steep drive, keeping petrol away from the pick up which is never at the bottom of the tank. I recall just this with an Escort. Got home low on fuel, started OK the next morning to go to the garage, but immediately parked it on the slightly sloping drive. Stalled while I shut the garage, and would only restart with 5 litres added to the tank.

Regards

John S
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Tue 12 Aug 2003 15:51
Xantia Won't start - Hugo {P}
Well, both of you are right.

I did put about 5 litres in it today and it worked!

I remember a similar problem with my pug 309 a few years ago. The car would not pull out of the side of the road normally as the tank was so low, due to a camber. So, I pulled out using the starter! Once I was on the level it ran fine and got me to the next garage.

Many thanks

H
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