Car cranks but doesn't start

[jrallye]

GreenV8S said:

That's encouraging and shows that the fuel pressure is within a sensible range. I don't know what the fuel pressure is supposed to be on that car but what you're seeing looks reasonable to me.

If you're up for a little more testing, I suggest you run the pump briefly to build up the fuel pressure, then stick 12V across one of the injectors. You should hear it click open. When the injector is open the fuel pressure should drop much quicker. If you see that, it proves that the injector is flowing fuel.

Seems unlikely that all injectors have failed at the same time but for the sake of a few minutes it would be good to prove that at least one is working.

Good to see your name again aha

My current problem is that i'm testing pressure from the outlet of the fuel filter in the bay so no fuel is running too the injectors

I'll have to get a T setup but that sounds like my best bet

Doing some thinking and it maybe that the car simply won't run on 95RON fuel these cars weren't supposed to run on 95 and the Shell V Power I had is now long gone so might be worth draining the tank again running some VPower through the system and then trying to start it up after that too? Grasping at straws here as i feel like i'm running out of things that can go wrong

The only other thing that might cause an issue are the fact that there's a PCV hose disconnected fell off whilst I was installing a starter motor and I couldn't see where it went so left it off (car still runs on starter fluid this way)

And the car doesn't have any coolant in it at the moment but again it's ran on starter fluid

Edited by jrallye on Tuesday 13th August 16:26

[SamR380]

jrallye said:

The only other thing that might cause an issue are the fact that there's a PCV hose disconnected fell off whilst I was installing a starter motor and I couldn't see where it went so left it off (car still runs on starter fluid this way)

Edited by jrallye on Tuesday 13th August 16:26

What size is that hose and where is it connected to? They're normally connected to the air inlet pipework after the throttle, probably on the inlet manifold. If there's an open ended pipe on the inlet manifold then unmetered air will be getting into the engine, ie there will be more air than the ecu thought. This would result in a weak mixture (the ECU injects the right amount of fuel for the air it saw at the AFM, not including the air that sneaked in that open pipe).

It might not solve the issue but it's worth considering. I had something similar when I forgot to refit the oil filler cap on an SD1, it ran terribly and idled high from all the extra air that went in the open filler, through the crank case, out the PCV valve and into the manifold.

[jrallye]

SamR380 said:

It might not solve the issue but it's worth considering.

It's probably around an inch OD it does connect to the inlet manifold I asked on the facebook group and they let me know where it goes but I had already put the intercooler back on at this point

You could be right though because it's coughing only a little which might mean it's running super lean?

I'll just have to take the damn intercooler off again ahah only thing with having two turbos is that you've got double the pipework to mess with

[SamR380]

You could just bung the pipe to see if it’ll idle. Don’t use your hand or anything likely to get pulled in though, it will have a strong vacuum on it.

[jrallye]

SamR380 said:

You could just bung the pipe to see if it’ll idle. Don’t use your hand or anything likely to get pulled in though, it will have a strong vacuum on it.

It's right up under the manifold so it'll be just as much of a faff blocking it off as it will be just putting the pipe back on correctly, I'm going to get on it tonight though will let you know the results!

[jrallye]

So stuck the pcv pipe back on and made no difference but the battery was slightly flat and I'm guessing there's very little fuel left so not really giving it a chance ahah

Battery has been on charge since last night
I've siliconed up the leaky pressure gauge with the appropriate adapter so can make sure the injectors are spraying fuel
And I'm going to get hold on some V Power and stick that in the tank and see how I get on

[jrallye]

Alright have a confession to make, I dun goofed

Got home and tested the pressure when cranking, and all is good, try and crank the car still nothing have a look and there's not much fuel left so it about time I sorted that

Pop down to the local shell grab some vpower and get home and stick it in the tank and try again, still nothing

At this point I start questioning whether everything else is okay so I re-test the injector wiring 12V and a pulse on each wire, right that's fine.. re-test the resistance of the injectors, 11.2 across the board perfect..

So I grab my 9V battery and old injector pig tail, prime the fuel system and open the first injector perfect pressure drops the injector makes an audible click, brilliant. On to the second one, audible click but the pressure doesn't drop.. Hmm, maybe there's not enough pressure to let the injector open.. re-prime the system and go again, same audible click but no pressure drop.. I think to myself something's going on here look closer when I press the wires to the 9V battery and there's a spark?? Did I see that on the first one? Let's see, nope, no spark? Hmm something is definitely off here.. I listen closer and the clicks sound different.. Here's the kicker what I thought was an injector opening was just the noise of the spark being caused by the 9V battery, with no pressure tester to tell me any different I believed all 4 injectors were opening when in reality I only have 1..

I'm annoyed at myself and currently hunting for a set of working injectors

So if all goes well the car should be running within the next couple of weeks!

[GreenV8S]

That looks like a useful diagnosis. Before you strip the injectors out, try again with a full 12V. 9V ought to be enough top open the injector but it's less than the voltage they would normally get.

[jrallye]

GreenV8S said:

That looks like a useful diagnosis. Before you strip the injectors out, try again with a full 12V. 9V ought to be enough top open the injector but it's less than the voltage they would normally get.

Got it all sorted now! The fix probably isn't the best idea but I got 2 of the 3 stuck injectors out sprayed brake cleaner through the filters (they're side feed) and they started to open and close got them back in the car and ran fuel through them asap to clear out the brake clean and she runs! Starts on the button every time now still have the super hard to get to injector to clean so think it's running on 3 but I can sort that in due time!

Before anyone moans about brake clean through an injector it fixed my problem and with the petrol being run through the injector so soon it's not sitting there eating away at anything, Just to be clear I would NOT advise anyone to do the same in case it does cause any problems.

Thanks everyone who has helped! I think we've created a good thread here that other people will be able to use in the future! That first start was one of the more satisfying things I have experienced! Now on to sorting all the other s**t out that's wrong with the car!

[Penelope Stopit]

Great news