'94 Griff won't start

[itm]

I've got problems starting my 'Griff 500. It turns over and fires up fine, but stalls immediately. Not even pumping the gas seems to keep it alive. Does this sound like a fuel supply problem?

I've just had the stepper motor and starter pre-engage cleaned, so those two can presumably be ruled out.

[Northern_Paul]

I'm having similar probs at the moment - what I tend to do as a start is turn ignition on and listen for the fuel pump this should 'whine' for 2-3 secs and then stop.

If this isn't happening I might disconnect the battery and leave for 10 mins, re-connect same, and lock all doors, switch on alarm and again leave.

Switch them off, enter car, iginition on and listen for fuel pump again, if you don't hear this it just won't start.

If you've got the fuel pump, you got to re-visit your recent work - stepper motor etc.

[richard olsson]

I had exactly the same problem. When I disconnected the air flow meter, the engine didn´t stall anymore. Turned out to be water in the AFM-electronics.

[clarky5150]

Where do we start... If its been outside in all this weather one has to suspect water/electrical tomfoolery... Fuel cut off switch (if the fuel pump whirs then this is ok) Dependant on how many times youve tried starting her, could be flooded (pull out a plug and smell for fuel/look for damp) After that your into ECU/Injection/amplifier or no fuel pressure = pump/blocked filter etc. territory although if it was the dizzy amp it wouldnt even splutter.
Did the car run fine before the cleaning took place? If so try undoing everything you did in the first instance and reconnecting.

Hope this helps.

[itm]

Hmmm...alot of things to check out. Thanks for the feedback.

The car wasn't running entirely fine before - I was getting occasional sudden losses of power (described in another thread). These would often happen when cruising at high speed. Does this give any clues?

[Northern_Paul]

Looks like you want a mini service, I would suggest 2 areas - Fuel pump and filter - Plugs, leads, dissy cap and amplifier.

Try one section at a time but do them all as I'm sure you will eventually see some benefit - again this is a maintenance and the costs must be justified under maintenance.

As apposed to break/fix where you would replace one thing to rectify problem.

Once you know these areas are fine you have peace of mind and can eliminant these and move on in confidence, also if they don't rectify it you have a good set of spares for future traumas

[itm]

The plot thickens....I've just dropped the car off at the local garage (10 minutes away), and it stalled twice on the way. By the time I arrived there was steam pouring from the main hose to the radiator - it appeared to be coming from the clip, just to the right of the expansion tank. No water leakage, though. Up to now there has been no hint of overheating.

Is this just a coincidence, or could it have something to do with the persistent stalling when trying to start? Could it also be related to the sudden losses of power that I'd been experiencing? (which I'd previously suspected to be an electrical or fuel supply problem)?

[itm]

Latest news is that it looks like the fuel pump relay. A bit of a worry as it was only replaced a couple of years ago. Any guesses as to what might cause two failures in such a short space of time?

[GreenV8S]

If you have a poor contact in the relay socket, it will heat up. This will shorten the life of the relay.

[cruiser33]

It you continue to get problems give the bloke at the V8Centre.com a call. Based in High Wycombe. Knows his stuff and won;t rip you off.

[red griff 500]

itm said:

Latest news is that it looks like the fuel pump relay. A bit of a worry as it was only replaced a couple of years ago. Any guesses as to what might cause two failures in such a short space of time?

IMHO, Relays generally fail by the contacts burning out. This can be caused by two things;

1/ too much current passing through the contacts for the relay specification - check that the relay spec is up to the job.

2/ a lousy POTENTIAL DIFFERENCE to the relay coil causing the contacts to open and close hundreds of times per second (sounds like a bee buzzing if you listen carefully enough). This happened to my '94 500 cooling fan relays. The reason I say Potential Difference rather than voltage is because the problem could either be with the 12v supply, OR the 0v return to the coil. The potential difference across the coil should be very close to 12v, and if it's not, then it could be that the 12v may be low for some reason which needs discovering, or that the 0v return is too high (in my case this was the problem where the 0v was acually varying up to 7v, therefore the potential difference across the coil was 12v-7v=5v which is not enough to pull the relay contacts together correctly). I wired a proper 0v return to the system and it now works perfectly. Took me ages to work this one out!!

Good luck

Steve

[Northern_Paul]

red griff 500 said:

This happened to my '94 500 cooling fan relays. Steve

A bit of caution here - Red Griff 500 is correct in everything he says but the earth side of the Fuel Relay goes to the ECU - I noticed that the ECU switches the Fuel Relay OFF by putting 12V positive on the 'earth' side of the coil (giving no potential difference and switching OFF relay). Shorting this out to earth or making a better earth for Fuel Relay in this way won't work - but it would of worked in his example of cooling fans.