Stalling

[Andy1912]

Hello

I bought a roadsport with a r400 engine a few months back. I am really enjoying it and I drive to work and back very day, which is about 5 miles in fairly busy but not crazy traffic. Over the past week the engine has cut out about 3 times at junctions and it hasn't been easy to start the car again. The engine turns over but doesn't seem to catch if you know what I mean.

I have started warming the car up for about 5 mins in the morning before I start driving and regardless of temperature it starts fine and keeps going whilst I get things together in the house.

Today the car stalled after about 15 mins of driving and I thought I was going to have to get out and push the car on to the side of the road. It started again eventually.

Any ideas what might be going wrong or what I may be doing that isn't helping?

Cheers

Andy

[Andy1912]

Oh well not starting well after all. Had to call AA to get the car started after work today. Chap checked various things then after he took out one of the plugs the car decided to start. Recommended I put it in for a check up re: intermittent starting fault.

[Paul Holywood]

It's possible something is breaking down when warm, coils, leads all should be checked, if possible see if you can take a look under the engine bay when up to temp in the dark, not under a street lamp but pitch black if possible, you may see arching from leads etc.
Also get it serviced

[freerange7]

Is it a "K" series
If so replace the MFR, multi function relay
I had this on my Elise, problems starting, stalling, sometimes hard to re start, turned over for ages until it lived again.
Also, disconnect the power lead to the starter, sand the terminal and re fit, disconnect the battery terminals and sand the posts, both will help with charging the battery and better starting.
Hope this helps, good luck
Phil

[Andy1912]

Thanks for that. It's in the garage now as refused to start. The garage are struggling - no caterham dealer around here - so may have to get it carted down to either Revolution in Perth or Dreadnought near Stirling which is pretty disappointing.

Andy

[Helluvaname]

Are you a member of the L7Club ?
There's about 20 members in Aberdeenshire, so one of them may be able to help, or suggest someone more local?

[DCL]

OK, this is a Duratec, right? With COP's? Stalling when warm? After sitting in slow traffic, or at junctions? Does it just die, or is there there a bit of 'kangarooing' first? What ECU and who's map? have there been any changes to fuel pump or fuel line? Are you using supermarket fuels with a high ethanol content? Does it always start from cold.

A long shot, but my instinct would be this is a fuel issue of some sort. The Caterham Duratec's can have problems with cheap fuels that have high alcohol content (this can change with the season and does vaporises in the single fuel line/fuel rail). The first thing I would do is put some branded fuel such as V Power and see if the behaviour changes.

[anniesdad]

I had an issue with my car (1.6 Sigma Supersport) that refused to start at Oulton Park. It turned out to be a loose wire to the fuel pump. Is your pump priming? If not if the wiring on your car is anything like mine (which I guess it will probably be) I'd reach under the right rear wheelarch from behind the car and wiggle the wires to see if this helps. There isn't a lot of protection for the wiring so the crappy roads and the crap being flung up you'll be enjoying at the minute won't be helping.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

[anonymous-user]

anniesdad said:

I had an issue with my car (1.6 Sigma Supersport) that refused to start at Oulton Park. It turned out to be a loose wire to the fuel pump. Is your pump priming? If not if the wiring on your car is anything like mine (which I guess it will probably be) I'd reach under the right rear wheelarch from behind the car and wiggle the wires to see if this helps. There isn't a lot of protection for the wiring so the crappy roads and the crap being flung up you'll be enjoying at the minute won't be helping.

Hope you get it sorted soon.

Hi Anniesdad, how are you getting on with your car? Using it much at the moment?

[anniesdad]

REALIST123 said:

Hi Anniesdad, how are you getting on with your car? Using it much at the moment?

Hi. My car has 1500 miles on it and it's presently hibernating in a dehumidified garage with an Optimate battery conditioner attached. I've no desires to take it out at the minute but fully intend on taking it out to warm it through when we do get some drier weather. I've not been able to drive it as much as I would have liked since I got it but I've got a few plans for the car and I this coming year.

[anonymous-user]

anniesdad said:

REALIST123 said:

Hi Anniesdad, how are you getting on with your car? Using it much at the moment?

Hi. My car has 1500 miles on it and it's presently hibernating in a dehumidified garage with an Optimate battery conditioner attached. I've no desires to take it out at the minute but fully intend on taking it out to warm it through when we do get some drier weather. I've not been able to drive it as much as I would have liked since I got it but I've got a few plans for the car and I this coming year.

Sounds good. I ordered my kit about the time you took delivery, I think. Got it in December and hope to have it built by April.

Have you had any issues other than the pump connection?

[anniesdad]

REALIST123 said:

Sounds good. I ordered my kit about the time you took delivery, I think. Got it in December and hope to have it built by April.

Have you had any issues other than the pump connection?

I took delivery in July. You'll have loads of fun this year when it's built I'm sure , April would be a great time to complete it.

No issues other than the fuel pump connection.

Hoping to get some track days booked in this year, family and work commitments as always restricting me somewhat.

edit: apologies to the OP for taking this off thread.

[Andy1912]

Apparently no trigger at the injectors so thinking probably needs shipped somewhere with the diagnostic equipment to be able to explore properly. I suspect that means Dreadnought or Revolution as he thought no one locally would be able to do this - they have been using traditional fault finding methods which will turn out costly!!!

[Smollet]

Helluvaname said:

Are you a member of the L7Club ?
There's about 20 members in Aberdeenshire, so one of them may be able to help, or suggest someone more local?

Good advice. For all the adverse press the club gets it's worth joining for the fact that someone near you can help.

[IBDAET]

Or someone here or on the Facebook group could fix it.

If there is no injector trigger you need to check:

Do you have a spark at the plugs? If you do not have this, then the fault is probably crank sensor or a slim chance its crank sensor.

If there is a spark at the plugs, check you have a +12v supply to the unswitched side of the injectors. The ECU switches a ground connection.

I cannot determine if it is a K or a Duratec. If you can tell me which (and its a K) I can talk you through some simple checks to determine what's wrong.

Do you have a laptop??

[Andy1912]

Thanks for that. I have a decent background in electrics and electronics as it happens but limited mechanical mouse I'm afraid. I don't feel confident I could sort this to be honest especially as a decent garage has been left stumped without the software needed to analyse the MBE ECU.

As it happens. I have found someone locally with the software and who reckons he can sort it, Ricky Gauld in Huntly. So I'll ship it through there on Monday. If all goes well I may ask for a service too.

Thanks again

Andy

[IBDAET]

Software is here: http://www.mbesystems.com/pc%20software%20files/ea...

And the wiring for the cable is here: http://www.mbesystems.com/Mapping_Lead_Picture.gif You'll need a PC/laptop with a 9pin serial port or a USB virtual serial port.

[Andy1912]

Hopefully, this thread might be coming to an end now, so just in case it might help someone in the future......

Well, Ricky seems to know his way round the car, apparently a Lotus specialist. Anyway he soon found the problem which relates to insufficient fuel being pumped in to the engine partly due to a filter (now fixed) but probably also because the ECU isn't signalling for enough (for the temperatures up here at this time of year). So he's connecting a cable and looking at the mapping tomorrow.

He tells me it looks and works well apart from the current problem, so fingers crossed for the future.............

Thanks all for your help and thoughts

Andy

[IBDAET]

The symptom you now descripbe is completely at odds with your original post. The fueling/coolant temp map is simple to change, and the mixture can be quickly checked by anyone with a wide band lambda. Should take 10 mins to prove its this max.

I think it is far more likley your throttle poit has moved and that is casuing the lean running. Reset to the load site 0 value in the throttle index map.

If he knows MBE at all, he will know how to quickly do this also.

[Andy1912]

I finally got the car back today and drove back home, about an hour, with my youngest. The ECU went back to MBE for checking and the original map was reinstalled and then tweaked by Ricky to suit. Running very sweetly now, no misfires, seems more responsive and purring beautifully. Looking forward to getting back to driving the Caterham every day again...