wont start :(

[nordin450]

Hi,
(Was) looking forward to my second weekend in my newly bought -98 Chim. But when trying to start it this evening it didn't start.....

Have looked around on the forum but could not find any thread with similar problem as I seem to have.

The car have been standing for 5 days. When trying to start it tonight, the car almost started - it ran for itself (without me keeping the ignition on) for about 30 seconds and then it stopped, but it didn't sound normal. It was like it only ran on a subset of the 8 cylinders.
I tried to start it a few more times and it was similar behaviour but it didn't "start"/"run" for as long as 30s again.

Any ideas to share?

[tvrbubblecar]

Thats bad luck

Did you mean without the ignition on or without the starter turning ?

Does the fuel pump prime when you switch on the ignition ?

Chris

>> Edited by tvrbubblecar on Friday 20th January 22:12

[tvr1]

nordin450 said:

Hi, (Was) looking forward to my second weekend in my newly bought -98 Chim. But when trying to start it this evening it didn't start..... Have looked around on the forum but could not find any thread with similar problem as I seem to have. The car have been standing for 5 days. When trying to start it tonight, the car almost started - it ran for itself (without me keeping the ignition on) for about 30 seconds and then it stopped, but it didn't sound normal. It was like it only ran on a subset of the 8 cylinders. I tried to start it a few more times and it was similar behaviour but it didn't "start"/"run" for as long as 30s again. Any ideas to share?

Nordin,

Hi and welcome to TVR!

Without sounding condescending......I think you have run out of petrol!.....fuel guage is a little, shall we say 'enthusiastic' I remember a very red faced siuation with a Tuscan similar to this not so long ago.

Ed

>> Edited by tvr1 on Friday 20th January 22:17

[nordin450]

tvrbubblecar said:

Thats bad luck Did you mean without the ignition on or without the starter turning ? Does the fuel pump prime when you switch on the ignition ? Chris

Hi Chris,
I've turned the key as you do when you start the car, then I let it go as you do when the engine has started, and the engine "ran" for about 30s.. As I described before, it didn't sound as it normally do, it was struggeling to get to normal idle, did not respond to gas and it died after about 30s..
Believe the fuel pump does prime, I can hear something go for about 3-5 seconds when turning on the ignition.

Can we just confirm "ignition" is turning the key to one step before the engine is to start?

Sorry for any confusion in language, I'm really good at Swedish though if anyone want to learn that

[nordin450]

tvr1 said:

Hi and welcome to TVR! Without sounding condescending......I think you have run out of petrol!.....fuel guage is a little, shall we say 'enthusiastic' I remember a very red faced siuation with a Tuscan similar to this not so long ago. Ed

Hi Ed,
Thank for the warm welcome!!

No, I've not run out of petrol I can say that much but not much more :-)

[tvrbubblecar]

Hi Nordin,

Your English is definitely better than my Swedish

Yes - ignition on is the first step....that is why I was confused when you said it ran for 30 secs without ignition on

I now understand what you mean

The noise you describe is the fuel pump priming which is correct

I also thought it may have been out of fuel but you have ruled this out

I am sure the experts will be along soon with ideas where to go next but I would check the condition of the rotor arm and distributor cap next

Good luck and welcome - there are lots of helpful guys on this site

Chris

[greenv8s]

How willing are you to get your hands dirty? It may be a combination of damp around the engine bay and dirty plugs leading to the plugs flooding and then fouling. Make sure the plug leads and outside and inside of the distributor cap are clean and dry, let it sit for an hour or so for the petrol to evaporate from inside the engine, and try again. If that doesn't work then take the plugs out. If they are wet with petrol replace them with a new set (NGK B7ECS 0.9mm gap). If they're dry, you have a fuel injection fault which needs further investigation. If you are able to charge the battery then do, it will be much easier to get it to start with a fully charged battery.

[Parrot of Doom]

Maybe the cylinders aren't getting any o2?

[dodgyviper]

Dare I say it - dirty Stepper motor??

Bad luck to have your first fault so soon in ownership - hope its sorted today

ged

editted to add:

Also read this thread - maybe helpful
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=227806&f=8&h=0&hw=flooded

>> Edited by dodgyviper on Saturday 21st January 10:52

[dadamsv8]

Hi Johan,
Sorry to hear about your problem guess we won't be meeting up this weekend after all I'm sure it's not too much wrong with the car and am confident the experts on here will solve your problem.

If you have no joy we can talk at work on Monday and get it sorted

Dave

[chim666]

nordin450 said:

... it was struggeling to get to normal idle, did not respond to gas and it died after about 30s.. Believe the fuel pump does prime, I can hear something go for about 3-5 seconds when turning on the ignition.

Go to the battery (behind carpet in footwell of passenger side), you'll see two identical silver relays on 'fly-leads' coming from the relay/fuse board.
Unplug and re-plug them both, if still no better...swap them over.
IIRC, one feeds the fuel pump, the other provides some form of feed to the ECU - so if the fuel pump was whirring and doesn't after swapping them over - you've found the culprit.
If this is the problem, the part number is Bosch 0332014112, you may as well replace them both.

[SteveGRF]

Nordin

Iam no expert but you could try this little gem - Go back to your pasenger foot well, carefully pull out the ECU unit & dissconnect the
main multi plug from it for a few seconds, connect it back (make sure it locates to prevent
damage to pins) then try restarting. This will/ should reset any faults (if only short term)
& hopefully it will run okay.

Steve

[nordin450]

Update.

Thanks for all your tips up to now.

Today I've investigated around the cables between the ignition coil and the spark plugs. Found one that looked really dodgy so that's now replaced. However, that did not make a difference.
As suggested by greenv8 I should try and detach the spark plugs from the engine to see if they're flooded. That is still on the todo list but will call for assistance before doing that as they are really hard to get to and I don't have the right tools (yet).

I have also added to the todo list for tomorrow to complete the suggestions from SteveGRF and chim666.

It's possible the engine is flooded. This is something I will try to check out as well.

Any other DIY steps I should complete before calling on a specialist?


Edit.
Will also try and clean the stepper motor, reset the ECU and possibly try and disable Lambda sensor.

First two tanks of petrol I put in was 95 oct. last two have been 97 oct.. Could the ECU have become confused or some other problem be caused by doing this?

>> Edited by nordin450 on Saturday 21st January 18:40

>> Edited by nordin450 on Sunday 22 January 11:59

[Parrot of Doom]

Fuel type won't make that much difference tbh. Unless its diesel

[nordin450]

Update.

Have today cleaned the stepper motor (yes it was pretty dirty).

Have also tried reset of ECU and tested that the two "silver boxes" are working.

Now, time to change all spark plugs (in case one is broken or flooded), if that don't help next to check is the ignition coil?

Am I moving in the right direction?

The battery is pretty flat now, I should still be fine with jump starting or does it need a full charge?

[greenv8s]

nordin450 said:

Now, time to change all spark plugs (in case one is broken or flooded), if that don't help next to check is ?

The plugs will tell you whether you have a fuel or ignition fault, so you need to see what state they're in before you decide what to do next.

Make sure the battery is kept charged. It will be much harder to start the car if the battery is running down.

[tvrbubblecar]

Johan,

Have you checked the distributor cap and rotor ? - see www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=232779&f=8&h=0&hw=rotor

Good luck

Chris

[nordin450]

She started again about 1.5 hours ago!!!

<< to all of you who gave advice how to go about and investigate this problem. I've suddenly got a decent picture over the ignition system

In complete darkness at 11:30, outdoors in -2degrees, I tried a few more things out - was giving myself a last chance before callout out breakdown service.

So what was the problem? Not sure but I bet it was one of the following...
1) Tightened the vacuum advance bolts, yes - they were slightly loose
2) I tried to check the rotor arm, couldn't really open it (it = "distributor" ?) completely as I didn't want to risk mixing up spark leads

I suspect option 1 was the solution.

Once again, thanks for all advice!!!

>> Edited by nordin450 on Tuesday 24th January 01:34