Urgent Tuscan advice needed please

[DublinTVR]

Hi all,

I have just bought a 2000 Tuscan a month ago in Dublin
It was serviced every 4k miles at Castle TVR and the service record is excellent

In the past week the dash constantly says

!Warning!

EFI Fault

and it keeps cutting out when i try to start it from cold. Once it's warmed up it seems fine.

Is this the Electronic Feul Injection?

Also in the past 2 days the aircon/heating and ventialtion fans don't seem to be blowing any air out.

I'm driving on the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead and then down to London in the morning and i wanted to know if it would be ok to drive it???

Thanks

[Rooty]

Hi

I've had the same problem since friday. I drove up to Birmingham and back with the 'EFI Fault' showing and haven't had any problems. I did a search of all the forums and most of them show that it just needs resetting by a dealer and is due possibly to something getting wet?

See-

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I've had mine a similar length to you and it worried me big style.

Cheers

James

[DublinTVR]

it is worrying isn't it, i'm scared to floor it in case it blows up!!
I'm going to bring it to a dealer and hopefully it won't be too serious. It was perfect when i bought it last month so i can't see how it would up within 3 weeks...ho hum

[Rooty]

Good luck with it, watch out for those random noises....

[b2tus]

Worth getting it checked out but when I first bought my Tuscan 2 1/2 years ago, the EFI sign came up quite regularly but went away when I pressed the brass dial on the dash.

After I had driven it regularly and on decent fast runs, the EFI stopped coming on and hasn't been on since. Often wondered if it was because it had been sitting in the showroom for a while and had been started/stopped/started etc to move around and give demos??

Anyway, 12,000 miles later it's still a brilliant car and the grin factor is still there!

[b2tus]

Forgot to mention the heating/aircon fan. Try pressing the fan speed dial, wait a second and then turn the dial.

When you adjust the temp control, the fan cuts out for a second and then switches on after sensing the new temp..

[andyoleary]

Hi,

I would consider the EFI warning coming on just after washing the car as being forgivable - reset and forget. However, if it is very regular/persistent and doesn't go away after a couple of resets, I would be calling the dealer or the local indie. It could be sign of something that needs looking at. Regular servicing is great, of course, but some things just go anyway.

A certain level of paranoia is a given when owning a Tiv, especially a SP6 engined one , (I can certainly empathise with that!) so don't panic just yet but no harm in dropping a call into the dealer to get their opinion.

Just my tuppence worth...happy

Andy

[andyvdg]

Are you saying the car won't idle when cold ? That's the most telling bit.
EFIs normally come up after washing the car / downpour of rain and then go away. I sometimes get a warning when the car is first started from cold if all the cylinders aren't firing well yet, but goes away very shortly.

If the EFI is persistent (i.e. comes back when cancelled) and the car isn't running properly (doesn't idle) it'll need a check (could be electronic part failure e.g. lambda sensor).

One tip is to run the engine at about 2k rpm for 30 seconds after starting from cold just to get the cylinders up to temperature before letting it idle on it's own.

Hope this helps!

[DublinTVR]

thanks, i think it could be a lambda sensor. no idea what it is but from info gathering seems the most likely complaint

[andyoleary]

Looks like one of these http://www.clever-trevor.net/part/137/raceproved-l...

Not sure how long it would take for a garage to fit though,

Andy