Intermittent Fault Chimaera

[Heath24]

New Owner/new member. Cracking Site full of info, just spent the best part of evening on the site. Anyone help?? My Chimarea has started to lose power, suddenly and without warning, but is intermittent and can happen 2 or 3 times on a journey, or not at all, normally after driving a few miles, only once has it happened within 1/2 mile.

When this happens, the revs drop to idle speed, putting your foot down doesn't do anything, and you will coast to a standstill, if you dip the clutch, the engine will stall. If you try to start the engine straight away, it will just turnover and over. If you turn off, leave it for a few sec's and then start the engine, it will burst into life as normal, with no loss of power until the next time.

Sorry about the essay, but trying to give all info for best diagnosis.
This has not wiped the smile of my face and has not dampened my driving enjoyment.

Any Idea's?? Thanks In advance

[RCA]

does sound a bit bad earthish!

[rat]

This is a common symptom of

petrol tank breathing

or

lambda sensors

Good luck
Andy

[ribol]

Complete guesses - intermittent bad connection on fuel pump due to corrosion/crap on electrical terminals, Ignition coil on its way out?

Ivan

[shpub]

There are about 50 odd causes of this type of problem. Can be gummed injectors, intermittent coil, ignition module, faulty spark plug leads, temp sensors, ECU, bad connections, bad earths, dead lambda sensors etc etc etc. The problem is made worse because of the intermittent nature of the fault. Check the obvious but do not be afraid to call in the professionals. See the Power Engineering article in the bible on the fun I had tracing an intermittent cutout problem.! Turned out to be 4 seperate minor faults.

As for the petrol cap mod. Don't do it. Fuel can escape and it flows right onto the hot exhaust and woooomf!

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[GreenV8S]

Next time it happens, listen for the whir of the petrol pump when you switch the ignition on. When these fail, they tend to go intermittantly when they get hot (ten or fifteen minutes into the journey). Sometimes they will work again if you switch off and on again straight away, other times they will need to cool down. If this is the problem, it is likely to get progressively worse until eventually you are stranded.

If you suspect this is the problem, you can easily confirm it by feeding 12V direct to the fuel pump and confirming the car starts straight away. (This is also a handy get-you-home repair.) If so you will need to replace the fuel pump relay, which is one of two metal cased Bosch relays on flying leads close to the ECU (on top of the battery in a Chimaera). Make sure you get the exact replacement, it is easy to get a relay with the same pin configuration but this relay is a high current dual pole relay which is relatively rare. The more common single pole dual throw relays will run the engine but flatten the battery overnight.

[Heath24]

Thanks for the replies, given me some things to think about, time to get the overalls out.

Heath24

[drum4it2]

Heath24 said:

Thanks for the replies, given me some things to think about, time to get the overalls out. Heath24

Hi Mr Heath... I'm also quite new on here and sorry to hear of your problem.

What model type & year do you have? and the mileage?

Anyway, good luck & welcome!

[Heath24]

drum4it2 said:

Heath24 said: Thanks for the replies, given me some things to think about, time to get the overalls out. Heath24 Hi Mr Heath... I'm also quite new on here and sorry to hear of your problem. What model type & year do you have? and the mileage? Anyway, good luck & welcome!

Mine's a 94 4.0l now got approx 42k on the clock, and enjoying nearly all my time behind the wheel...., the fault has yet to dis-enchant me. Thanks for the welcome