Discussion
After two weeks sans Cerb I'm enjoying the benefits of a new and improved beast when I decide to pop in and see robsco. After a few minutes' banter I bid him farewell and make to leave and, on pressing the black button - nothing.
After an hour or so of pulling various fuses, trying a jump start and a booster pack, it looks like only the AA can save the day when suddenly it just fires up at about the 20th time of asking, like nothing happened.
I've had three or four stops since and it's fired up again good as gold each time. God knows what the gremlin was* - but gotta love these cars eh? They're almost human. I figured it was just letting me know who the boss is after a bit of time apart. Anyway, it's back in the garage now after a fantastic hoon - on the trickle charger.
Thanks again for the help Rob - as I said, couldn't have happened in a better place on a better day really.
After an hour or so of pulling various fuses, trying a jump start and a booster pack, it looks like only the AA can save the day when suddenly it just fires up at about the 20th time of asking, like nothing happened.
I've had three or four stops since and it's fired up again good as gold each time. God knows what the gremlin was* - but gotta love these cars eh? They're almost human. I figured it was just letting me know who the boss is after a bit of time apart. Anyway, it's back in the garage now after a fantastic hoon - on the trickle charger.
Thanks again for the help Rob - as I said, couldn't have happened in a better place on a better day really.
- = happy to hear anyone's suggestions, for future reference
Yep, fuel pump primes but no starter motor turning. Did the AJP have the same hot start problem the RV8 had?
Did think it might have been the battery but the fact it was well conditioned prior to recent work, coupled with the fact it suddenly sprung into life, makes me think it's not that.
Did think it might have been the battery but the fact it was well conditioned prior to recent work, coupled with the fact it suddenly sprung into life, makes me think it's not that.
No nothing got mine going i need to phone Mr baker and get him to send me a new unit. I read on here how when it fails it only sends 9v to the starter i could here a very small click but it would not crank the engine. The fuel pump would prime fine just the cranking side of things is failing/failed.
DAVEY DEE said:
C3BER said:
Ever since Robsco touched that silver key things have been going wrong!! 
We did warn him! 
It really is a mystery, we'd been messing about for a good hour or more when she finally just started up as though nothing had happened. Fuel pump was priming, starter wasn't even attempting to start the car so surely that leads to immobiliser as the potential cause?
Good to see you earlier Si, the old girl looks better than ever.
My immobiliser packed up so I by passed it but on my 4.5 2001 cerb it is not the starter that is immobilsed. Its the factory meta system and has a 2 circuit immobilser that takes out the fuel pump and the ECU. The starter is not immobilised. It might be different on other models and years but my guess would be a faulty starter motor.
Common issue, voltage drop or something like that through the starter circuit.
The voltage supplied by the starter circuit isn't great enough to energise the solenoid sufficiently. People have fitted an additional relay to allow a greater voltage to the solenoid.
Hence holding the button for LOOOOOONG time seems to get it to work.
The voltage supplied by the starter circuit isn't great enough to energise the solenoid sufficiently. People have fitted an additional relay to allow a greater voltage to the solenoid.
Hence holding the button for LOOOOOONG time seems to get it to work.
Hi
There appear to be numerous cases of this happening. Reason I know is it happened to my sons 1998 4.5.
We scoured the forums and the consensus seemed to be that the starter circuit within the immobiliser goes AWOL.
We proceeded to bypass that particular circuit leaving both the ignition(ECU) and fuel pump circuits intact.
We wired in a hidden switch allowing the starter circuit to be switched between bypass and non-bypass.
Have never had the problem again.
Now I know this doesn't fully rectify the problem but it does the job meantime.
The only difference now is that if you attempt to start the car after that initial 15 secs the starter will crank the engine but there's no way it's gonna start as the ignition(ECU) and fuel pump are still immobilised.
I found out purely by chance that the immobiliser on my 4.2 had been completely bypassed ie no circuits immobilised.
I guessed someone in the past had the above problem and just bypassed the whole thing.
I have since wired the immobiliser back up as per above, also with a hidden switch, and everything works great.
There appear to be numerous cases of this happening. Reason I know is it happened to my sons 1998 4.5.
We scoured the forums and the consensus seemed to be that the starter circuit within the immobiliser goes AWOL.
We proceeded to bypass that particular circuit leaving both the ignition(ECU) and fuel pump circuits intact.
We wired in a hidden switch allowing the starter circuit to be switched between bypass and non-bypass.
Have never had the problem again.
Now I know this doesn't fully rectify the problem but it does the job meantime.
The only difference now is that if you attempt to start the car after that initial 15 secs the starter will crank the engine but there's no way it's gonna start as the ignition(ECU) and fuel pump are still immobilised.
I found out purely by chance that the immobiliser on my 4.2 had been completely bypassed ie no circuits immobilised.
I guessed someone in the past had the above problem and just bypassed the whole thing.
I have since wired the immobiliser back up as per above, also with a hidden switch, and everything works great.
Edited by TVdinneR on Friday 18th November 08:25
Useful stuff.
Hard to argue with the immobiliser theory, particularly after the last post. That and the fact the battery isn't that old and has been pretty well conditioned. I've had flats before and there was none of the associated carnage they wreak, although I did reset the alarm using the meta fob just to rule it out.
Ridds, Rob reminded me about keeping the black button pressed but after giving it a blast for a minute or so a couple of times we gave up on that.
I've added the immobiliser key to my key ring, so hopefully this will give me more of a chance if I don't get to the bottom of it in the meantime, or if it does it so infrequently as not to be a real concern.
Thanks again all.
Hard to argue with the immobiliser theory, particularly after the last post. That and the fact the battery isn't that old and has been pretty well conditioned. I've had flats before and there was none of the associated carnage they wreak, although I did reset the alarm using the meta fob just to rule it out.
Ridds, Rob reminded me about keeping the black button pressed but after giving it a blast for a minute or so a couple of times we gave up on that.
I've added the immobiliser key to my key ring, so hopefully this will give me more of a chance if I don't get to the bottom of it in the meantime, or if it does it so infrequently as not to be a real concern.
Thanks again all.
The symptoms we were getting were that you could approach the car, disarm/open the car with the remote fob and, assuming your within the 15 secs or so, push the black button, hear the fuel pump energise then........nowt, no clicking, no cranking, nothing!
This was becoming more and more frequent. You wouldn`t have a clue when and where this would happen.
Sometimes we could still be sitting there 20 mins later still trying then for no apparent reason it bangs into life.
The sheer uncertainty of the thing was a real pita, not to mention downright embarrassing, depending on when it decided not to start.
This was becoming more and more frequent. You wouldn`t have a clue when and where this would happen.
Sometimes we could still be sitting there 20 mins later still trying then for no apparent reason it bangs into life.
The sheer uncertainty of the thing was a real pita, not to mention downright embarrassing, depending on when it decided not to start.
ridds said:
Common issue, voltage drop or something like that through the starter circuit.
The voltage supplied by the starter circuit isn't great enough to energise the solenoid sufficiently. People have fitted an additional relay to allow a greater voltage to the solenoid.
Hence holding the button for LOOOOOONG time seems to get it to work.
Hi Ridds, do you have any more information regarding where the additional relay would go please? (sorry for the potentially n00b question!)The voltage supplied by the starter circuit isn't great enough to energise the solenoid sufficiently. People have fitted an additional relay to allow a greater voltage to the solenoid.
Hence holding the button for LOOOOOONG time seems to get it to work.
Thanks!
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