cough cough splutter...die
Discussion
Out on a run this Sunday and in the company of other well behaved TVR's mine decides to have a tantrum. 
Driving down a very narrow country lane, just the ideal place to breakdown with a dozen TVR's close behind I feel the engine have a bit of a hicup, and felt very rough for a second or two, then the revs drop and it stalls, luckily we were going downhill so I hit the hazards, and try a bump start but that does nothing so coast to a safe-ish stop in a driveway.
Everyone stops behind but before anyone can come to my aid I try the key and it fires up no problem, so we're off again, this time at the back of the group and hopeing it doesn't happen again as I'd be lost, but 5 miutes later we get a repeat the car seems to know where the laybys are and luckily we coast in to a safe spot, and again if fires up before the car in front disappears out of sight. 
Manage to get to our destination and theres nothing glaring obvious a miss under the bonnet, or in the footwell.
Starting the car to come home took more turns of the starter motor than I would have liked but it fired up and we were off.
The drive home was a little scary as it was mainly motorway and I wasn't looking forward to it happening on a busy M1
It had a few issues of running rough, a few coughs, splutters and the feeling of loss of power but no complete stalls, and it was a big sigh of relief all round when we got home.
It seems very similar to the issues I had a year or two back which turned out to be the ignition amp, but that died and refused to restart until it was replaced, I've had rough running with certain batches of petrol so I've filled it up at my local and the drive back from there was fine, although it is only 500 yards.
Don't like losing confidance in the cars ability to reach it's destination so I'd quite like to sort this out sharpish......
So anyone got any ideas?
Driving down a very narrow country lane, just the ideal place to breakdown with a dozen TVR's close behind I feel the engine have a bit of a hicup, and felt very rough for a second or two, then the revs drop and it stalls, luckily we were going downhill so I hit the hazards, and try a bump start but that does nothing so coast to a safe-ish stop in a driveway.
Everyone stops behind but before anyone can come to my aid I try the key and it fires up no problem, so we're off again, this time at the back of the group and hopeing it doesn't happen again as I'd be lost, but 5 miutes later we get a repeat
the car seems to know where the laybys are and luckily we coast in to a safe spot, and again if fires up before the car in front disappears out of sight. Manage to get to our destination and theres nothing glaring obvious a miss under the bonnet, or in the footwell.
Starting the car to come home took more turns of the starter motor than I would have liked but it fired up and we were off.
The drive home was a little scary as it was mainly motorway and I wasn't looking forward to it happening on a busy M1
It had a few issues of running rough, a few coughs, splutters and the feeling of loss of power but no complete stalls, and it was a big sigh of relief all round when we got home.
It seems very similar to the issues I had a year or two back which turned out to be the ignition amp, but that died and refused to restart until it was replaced, I've had rough running with certain batches of petrol so I've filled it up at my local and the drive back from there was fine, although it is only 500 yards.
Don't like losing confidance in the cars ability to reach it's destination so I'd quite like to sort this out sharpish......
So anyone got any ideas?
As soon as i read the title, i though "Ignition module". Then read that you replaced it last year.
However, I still think this could be the problem. Very similar symptoms happened to me last year. My car would restart, but only after about 10 minutes rest.
It seems as though a failing ignition module will get too hot to work correctly after about 20 minutes and then cause the engine to die.
However, I still think this could be the problem. Very similar symptoms happened to me last year. My car would restart, but only after about 10 minutes rest.
It seems as though a failing ignition module will get too hot to work correctly after about 20 minutes and then cause the engine to die.
jonnyb said:
Vapor lock in the fuel lines? It was hot on sunday.
It'd be just my luck to have a convertable that doesn't like the hot weather.
Well I've got a tank full of fresh petrol looks like I need to go on a few 20 minute plus hoons, accompanied by my breakdown membership card and a fully charged phone.
See what the rev counter does when it splutters and dies. If it freezes, you probably have a fault in the switched ignition feed (I'd start by looking at the connector under the steering column). If it immediately drops to zero before the engine has spun down, you have a fault in the low tension side of the ignition system - coil, amp, pickup, wiring, earth. If it accurately shows the engine spinning down then there's nothing obviously wrong with the ignition low tension side and I'd look on the fuelling side. First port of call would be the fuel pump electrics starting with the relay.
V8 Kieran said:
Someone recently mentioned that the ignition module often left on top of the battery where much closer to hot pipes just above - jam module down side of battery (does fit, I've done it) just may be a simple answer (but probably not )
)Think you might be getting mixed up with the ecu. I had a similar problem however mine was caused by my battery spilling its guts onto the ecu and causing it to intermitently stop the fuel pump. Do you notice any intermitent wirring from your pump when the problem occurs?
GreenV8S said:
See what the rev counter does when it splutters and dies.
When it happened on Sunday I was too busy looking for the hazard warning button, a safe place to grind to a halt and looking in the rear view mirror hopeing the dozen TVR's behind didn't remodel my boot lid.
Cheers for all the tips.
Looks like I've got to venture out and make it happen again when it drys up Well I needed my 'spiritedly driven' sports car fix after watching 'The Race' so ventured out in the temperamental lump of plastic and gave it a thrashing, went out wearing my car fixing clothes, made sure the phone was charged up, and took Pete's 'what does the rev counter do' crib sheet with me
After over an hour of just about every style of road and driving I couldn't get it to break. High speed, fast corner, pootleing along, GP starts, the lot, it just laughed back at everything I threw at it.
Not sure whether it's a good result or not, could well have been a dodgy batch of petrol, or more likely the b
d is lulling me into a false sense of security so I use it when I really must be somewhere and it dies on me
My current guess is the old girl was jealous of its new passenger and wanted me to look silly, or was paying me back for not taking her out and giving her a good thrashing more often.
sports car fix after watching 'The Race' so ventured out in the temperamental lump of plastic and gave it a thrashing, went out wearing my car fixing clothes, made sure the phone was charged up, and took Pete's 'what does the rev counter do' crib sheet with me After over an hour of just about every style of road and driving I couldn't get it to break. High speed, fast corner, pootleing along, GP starts, the lot, it just laughed back at everything I threw at it.
Not sure whether it's a good result or not, could well have been a dodgy batch of petrol, or more likely the b
d is lulling me into a false sense of security so I use it when I really must be somewhere and it dies on me My current guess is the old girl was jealous of its new passenger and wanted me to look silly, or was paying me back for not taking her out and giving her a good thrashing more often.
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