November 2009
Hi all,
My partner has a problem with her car, infact I drove it to the garage this morning cos she didn't trust herself incase it broke down.
Once the engine is on, you have to keep accelatating otherwise the car stalls. There's hardly any power in the car when driving, had to drive in 2nd gear at 35mph otherwise if you put it in a higher gear, there just wasn't enough power and the car would stall again.
If at traffic lights or in traffic, you constantly need to keep revving again otherwise it stalls. Had it in a local garage and they honestly don't know what's wrong with it and can't diagnose it and advised us to take it to another garage to run diagnostics on it.
Anyone any clues to what this could be and how much are we looking at?
It's a Fiat Punto, 52 plate, manual 1.1.
Any help would be muchly appreciated.
Chris. Read more
Hi everyone
I am experiencing major problems with my focus diesel. Car cuts out at various speeds whilst driving along after which the glow plug light flashes, which i understand acts as an engine management warning lamp. This has been happening on and off for the past 4 months. Now it simply won't start. As soon as i turn the key the glow plug light flashes, car turns over but won't start.
In the past 4 months i have had a dual mass flywheel and clutch replaced(£900), battery, and glow plugs also been done. Had a diagnostic check done by ford and another done by an independent garage. The ford results printed off half a tree of paperwork suggesting about 10 possible causes so basically i need to win the lottery to be able to afford to get ford to work through the list!!! The independent results suggested an injector problem. They did a leak test on the injectors and found no problem. They changed the fuel filter and that cured the problem for about a week and now i'm back to square one.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Read more
Well after much deliberation the diagnosis was that the camshaft position sensor needed replacing. That's been done now so we'll see whether the car can actually run a few thousand miles without something going wrong with it. I have my doubts!!!
hi ya doin...
Hi guys,
Just did a HPi check on a car i'm buying (not paid for it yet). It states the car does not have outstanding finance, but a previous private reg does. The car's a CAT D write off, and the original reg was put on the car when it was written off. If the personalised reg is taken off a car, which has finance, does the finance relate purely to that personalised reg??
Bit confusing, but have a look a a screenprint of the HPi check i did (blacked out parts of the reg's for security reasons)...
i45.tinypic.com/2i1f29v.jpg Read more
HPi the chassis number?
It's far more than £5k, try £18.7k.
Tbh the damage pretty much speaks for itself. But what are the multitude of other sins you're refering to???
I've got a mondeo 1.8 petrol and the engine warning light has just come on.
left the car over night and it's still on today.
Any ideas??
cheers Read more
I would buy one of those universal car readers on ebay cost about £20 and you can find out your problem. I went to a garage through a friend thought I was getting it free until he said he had no idea who the guy was!
Anyway I found out it was types of fumes that are not realised in my exhaust which caused the engine management light to come on and then he reset it said if it came back, will need a further diagnostics.
Hello,
I have only had my peugeot 207 S for around 6 months, at first it was fine, but now, it wont seem to start by itself. I always have to press the gas to get the engine to start. The starter motor seems fine as the engine is turning over, but its asif the car is failing to squirt a little juice in and i have to do this manually with the peddle. I wouldn't think it would be anything serious as the car is not very old, has only done 20,000. Is there a sensor that tells the injectors to start working when you first start the engine, i used to have a peugeot 306 and that used to rev to about 2500rpm when you initially started it and then settled down to idle. Maybe an ECU error? Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks Read more
In this case there will be no idle speed stepper motor, so forget that. The electronic throttle valve is controlled by the ECM, and must be clean. Take it off and using some carburettor cleaner and an old toothbrush give it a through clean. Put it back on and cycle the ignition a few times, waiting a couple of seconds each time before starting the engine. See if that helps.
I have a megane that specifies (recommends) 10w40 oil but I have 5w30 oil. Would it be OK to use 5w30 for an oil change? Its only a car I intend to keep for a few months.
I cannot open the rear doors on the car. Initially I couldn't open the doors from the inside but it would open from the outside so I thought it was the child saftey lock. I switched it but now the doors don't open at all! Any ideas what the problem could be? Read more
If you put a lighter oil like 5W/30 in an older car that has been used to the thicker Semi Syn 10/40 grade, you could find that the oil seals at both ends of the crankshaft do not hold the lighter oil as well as they should and, as I have experienced, you may well end up with leaking oil as mentioned by "Falkirk Bairn" above.
Is it worth taking the chance for the saving of ~GBP15 especially if you are to part company with the car soon? The answer is no!
After 1st Jan 2010 the Shell Mcard from Citi will be no more.
In the past it offered 3% on Shell purchases, 1% on other purchases + Free Legal Motoring Cover............
This was cut back a off couple of months ago to 1% on Shell fuel, 0.5% on other uses, No Legal Cover.........
Personally I boycotted using the Shell Card, bought BP fuel......................
Maybe I was not the only one........Citi are offering another card in its place.
Shell may have another card on offer in the near future - hopefully with 3p off a litre .....or better Read more
>>Or have I misunderstood this?
No, you understand it perfectly. I got my replacement "platinum" Citi cards this week, still with the same low £1000 limit I had before - I never checked the APR, just cut them up as I've no use for them without the free money!
vw passat 2004 tdi saloon
Water under the drivers seat, carpets all wet through, where is water coming from, any ideas?
Read more
I suspect the water was entering via the seal under the Electronics box or even the grommet for the bonnet release cable. Regards Peter
My neighbour's 1996/7 Astra 1.7 TD has a strange problem developing (I think!), related to the fuel cut-off solenoid(s?) on the fuel pump.
He has had difficult cold starting, (turning over for ages, unevenly, then eventually starting with a cloud of smoke and still uneven for a few seconds), so I checked the glow plug feed / timer, and then replaced the glow plugs. I tested the old ones and 3 of them didn't work at all, so I thought 'job done'.
However, I then started the engine to make sure it was ok and it started within a couple of seconds, but it wasn't as instant as you would expect from a diesel (obviously letting the glowplug light go out before turning the key). So I immediately switched it off (so I could try it again) but it carried on running!
If you start the engine and then turn the key off again within a few seconds, it carries on idling. If you then leave it switched off, it will continue idling until about 12-15 seconds after you started it. (So it will run for a total of 12-15 seconds regardless of whether you try to turn it off after 1 second or 11 seconds). It's absolutely fine if you don't switch it off within that time. My neighbour (whose car it is) has never notice the fault, but has probably never tried to stop the engine immediately after starting it!
Anyway, I thought it must be the fuel cut-off / stop solenoid not closing, so I checked the feed to it: there is none (ignition on or off, engine running or not): it is earthed continuously. However, if I disconnect the 3-pin connector in the wiring that goes under the black plastic cover on the back of the pump, (above the cylindrical cut-off solenoid), the engine cuts out immediately (whether within the first 12-15 seconds or after that). One wire to this 3-pin connector has continuous earth, one is earthed with ignition off and live with ignition on, the third wire doesn't give any reading (on a test-lamp screwdriver thingy). I am wondering if the normal looking (as on most diesel cars of this age and older) cylindrical stop-solenoid is permanently stuck open or partially open and whether there is another solenoid (that the 3 wires go to, in the back of the pump), that stays open for at least 12-15 seconds after starting, even if you switch the ignition off again within that time. I can't think why it would need to do this, but presumably it's linked to an ecu or timer or immobiliser or something. When the normal stop-solenoid is working properly (ie closing as soon as the ignition is switched off), having the second solenoid staying open for 12-15 seconds wouldn't make any noticeable difference because the engine would just stop as expected when you switch off the ignition, due to the cylindrical one closing and cutting off the fuel.
So, can anyone throw any light on this strange fault?: Is my diagnosis/theory/guess about a second solenoid correct?
Also, the old type cylindrical stop-solenoid must be open, otherwise it wouldn't get any fuel through and so it wouldn't run. But there is no feed to it, so it must be either stuck open or somebody has removed the plunger, so it needs to be replaced. But then it won't start because the new one will stay shut unless I find out why there is no feed to it. Any suggestions on this?
Thanks. Read more
If its the same one that Citroen use the solonoid and module are behind a steel cover which is secured with tamperproof screws. To get to it you will have to remove the pump and then use some brute force . I have not done one myself but if you look on the 'french car forum' there are one or two that have done it on a Xantia. It might be easier to fit a secondhand pump.
I've got a 65.000 mile MX-5 I've owned for 5 years. Previously (say 10,000 miles ago) I had a intermittant failure of 1 of the 2 coils when it would run on 2 cylinders from time to time. Replacement of that single coil solved it, but I also changed the HT leads and plugs prior to the coil.
I've never had any other engine problem with this car until recently. Symptoms have varied a bit, but there is a sort of pattern. Generally it will fire and start, but it will either stop within a few revs, or idle and hesitate every few seconds, and then stop, or idle OK for longer, hesitating occasionally, and then stop, or it might run perfectly. If it decides to run, I can drive it and have driven it for 10-20 miles without a problem until I try to start it again. It does not seem to be any different when hot or cold, except that it seems less problematic starting if it had just been running OK. So it seems a bit different from the other threads here.
When it does stop this way, it makes an unusual sound rather like a rattling relay or mechanical valve which seems to be coming from the front of the inlet manifold area. When it stops by switching it off normally (by switching off with the ignition key), this sound does not occur.
I've asked lots of local garages for help and suggestions. Generally I was advised to look for electrical connector problems. I have removed, dried, re-connected and sealed every engine-related connector I can find in the engine bay apart from those at the bottom of the coils (lazy me, they are difficult to access) but I didn't believe they could be the problem as it either runs or doesn't run, never running on 2 cylinders. Sometimes after doing one I've tried it and it started OK and I thought I'd solved it. Sometimes I could stop it and restart it OK, but on leaving it a few minutes the problem has come back, so clearly it was a red herring. This has happened several times so I no longer think any of these was problem.
I have a fuel pressure guage fitted to the injector gallery and know that my fuel pressure is OK.
I have removed the ECU from the footwell and found it dry and not corroded in any way.
In desperation I took it (it started and drove on that occasion) to a local garage earlier this week, which has a range of engine diagnostic computers as they do rally tuning. They failed to find any fault (apart from seeing it perform its new tricks). They had the computers on its diagnostic port and diagnostic oscilloscope on various sensors and reckon they saw normal waveforms. They believed it is the ECU but were unable to test it. For 4 hours of failed diagnostic work I got charged £230. Ouch!
My local Mazda dealer offered little hope here, saying they could not test the ECU, and replacement for a test is difficult as the ECU is linked to the immobiliser and they had an MX-5 that had been in there for 7 weeks with an ECU problem that they couldn't solve! They suggest leaving it until the car fails to start at all, thus making it easier to find (they hope). So I've avoided taking it to them at least at the moment.
The previous owner fitted a Cobra Thatcham 1 immobiliser which might be the problem I suppose, although I doubt it. Circumstantial evidence here is that the passenger door central locking has not been working for about a year and it is a signal problem because I've tested the door solenoid and it works fine. However since it went to the garage I've noticed that the central locking causes this door to lock, but won't open it still. The driver door locking works fine. They claimed not to have touched the immobiliser, so maybe that's another red herring.
As a final piece of information, I fitted a Jackson Racing supercharger to it soon after I bought it which has been faultless (and extremely good fun!) and is believed not to be part of the current problem.
From other threads I see that replacing a "coil pack" might be a sensible move in view of comments in one thread about one coil affecting the other one. Given that I replaced one coil as mentioned above, what does this mean? Both of the coils situated right at the back of the engine next to the firewall, or something else?
Usually, when it is being troublesome which is maybe 95% of the times I try to start it, if I open the throttle with it idling, it will stop immediately, although sometimes it picks up a few 000 revs whilst coughing, barking and backfiring badly. When it stops on its own from idling, there is sometimes a slight backfire.
Before I go out to do some random chequebook engineering, can anyone please help with these symptoms?
Many thanks. Read more
Well, I think the problem is solved.
First I de-activated the immobiliser. Cobra gave me some phone help with this, and whilst this has de-activated the central locking as well, I can live with that for now. However the car didn't run properly after doing that, so I suspect it wasn't the problem.
I decided not to sample the fuel. I'm sure it wasn't contaminated fuel as you would expect that to be worse after standing as any water would settle to the low points. It is presently running OK - it started and ran OK this morning after standing in my drive for 2 days.
What did I do? Well I remembered that the garage had said that they found no signal from the throttle position sensor once, but then they did get a signal reliably so presumed it was OK and they had made a mistake. This was when it was running better than it had been afterwards when I posted the message here. So on Monday I removed it, but found it is sealed so I couldn't get inside it. So I very thoroughly and carefully cleaned the contacts and put it back. The result is it has started and run perfectly each time I've tried it since. I'll need a bit more experience to be 100% convinced it was the problem, but I've got fingers crossed.
Really frustrating problem! I have sympathy with people trouble shooting modern cars. Thanks for your help, all.
Stuart
Browse
hi sorry t just join in conversation i have a punto an it keeps just cuttin out totally dont no wats wrong with it is this wat was happening to urs ?? wat was it that was wrong ?? zoe