For months now my 2.0 Carlton Diplomat Auto had trouble starting after long journeys when it has got really hot. After it had cooled a bit it would start fine.
So, I was convinced it must be the starter motor, so last week a sourced a replacement from a scrappie for £12. He tested it on a battery and it worked fine. On Saturday I took it to my friendly Morecambe garage who fitted the new motor. So, to make a long story a bit less long, this was fitted and worked okay (not quite as good as the old starter).
Fast forward a few hours, I drive 100 odd miles to Newcastle. Upon reaching my destination, I turned off the engine. Surprise surprise it refuses to start again - the new motor didn't solve the problem. So I started the car by shorting the motor - it starts fine, so its obviously not the motor, but something in the inhibitor circuit.
After giving it a bit of thought I thought it might be switch on the autobox that stops it from starting in everything but Neutral and Park - could that be getting really hot and not be working?
Your thoughts please...
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Presumably when you say 'won't start' you mean completely dead, turn the key and nothing happens. In which case the fault might be with the inhibitor switch, or might be somewhere else in the circuit from the ignition switch to the starter (which will run via the inhibitor switch).
What someone might suggest (and I'm certainly not going to suggest it, because it might cause an accident and then I could be sued) is to pull the plug off the inhibitor switch and bridge the two terminals in the plug somehow (how exactly depends what kind of terminals). Then drive around like that for a couple of days, always remembering to check the transmission is in N or P before starting the engine, and see if the problem goes away.
But as I said, I couldn't possibly recommend doing this.
Richard Hall
bangernomics.tripod.com
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Probably not related, but a friend had a very similar, intermittent problem plaguing two automatics Mk 2 Golfs.
After some years he asked at a VW dealers, where they knew of the problem. The fix was to purchase a contactor/relay that was fitted to later cars I didn't understand how this would fix the problem, but it did. It seems that it is a known defect but, not being safety related, wasn't publicised.
I think the first thing would be to enquire amongst Vauxhall mechanics.
Some elctric motors have thermistors embedded in the windings to cut off the current if they overheat in service. If there was some heat-shield missing, it was plausible that the starter motor or solenoid may overheat and not then work until they'd cooled down , IF they had thermistor overheat cut-outs.
Probably a defective gearbox switch.
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