Car is coughing !!! Wont start !!!

[soapbox]

Washed the car today (its been sat in the garage all week whilst I've been in Belgium). I pushed it out of the garage (down hill) to wash it, but have to drive it (uphill) back.

Anyway, it snowed whilst I was washing it, and generally it was pretty nasty and cold. Went to start her up to get her back in the garage and she stalled. Now refuses to start at all. The engine is turning over, but it wont fire.

Is this just a case of cold/damp leave it alone for a while? anyone have any clues?

Thanks

[targarama]

Sounds like it's flooded to me. See my recent posts ...

[soapbox]

which one??

[soapbox]

ok -seen the posts. Does sound like flooding. I can't see the relays you are talking about. Do you have a picture you can post?

Thanks

[GreenV8S]

In mild cases it'll clear itself if you leave it for ten minutes and try again. More severe cases can be cleared by disconnecting the fuel pump and cranking it until it catches, once it starts to fire reconnect the pump briefly to keep it alive, eventually it should catch on all cylinders. This is an acquired skill though and you'll probably need a support vehicle to provide the battery power.

The most reliable solution involves getting your hands dirty: take the plugs out. Ideally fit new ones (NGK B7ECS, 0.8mm gap). If that's completely impossible for some reason, hold the old ones in a flame to dry them out then clean the electrodes with a wire brush, and put them back in while they're still warm.

Flooding problems may indicate that the plugs are dirty anyway, so replacing the plugs is likely to stop it happening again (for a while, anyway) as well as getting you back on the road this time.

[soapbox]

Thanks for the advise.

I really dont know my way around an engine so removing the fuel pump relays seems to be the easiest solution for the novice, but I can't see them. Just looks like one big mess of wires to me. Any clues?

[Big Al.]

The relays are in the footwell, they are alli and they got RED X's across the top if that's any help.

[M@H]

Big Al. said:

The relays are in the footwell, they are alli and they got RED X's across the top if that's any help.

..here they are in the foreground l/h/s.

Cheers,
Matt

>> Edited by M@H on Monday 28th February 08:50

[soapbox]

Thanks Matt- that helps a lot.

I'll give it a go this evening and see how I get on

Cheers

[M@H]

..the blue connector block is the Fuel Pump IIRC.

[aaandy]

Does sound like a simply case of flooding. Problem at the moment is that it is so bloody cold, leaving for a while and giving it another go may not help. Also dependent on how much life is left in your battery as it can clear itself.

Another option for switching off the fuel pump would be to disconnect the wires to the pump itself. Maybe easier and safer than pulling things apart in the footwell. Believe that is visible/accesible from the outside, up behind the left rear wheel. Should be able to slip of one of the connector blades and just slip it back on again.

[soapbox]

I followed orders and disconnected the fuel pump & ECU, cleaned and warmed the sparks and she burst into life again!!!!

I left her running for a while before going out for a spin, but my drive was cut short by a blizzard!

Anyway, thanks all for the advice and the tips - I really appreciate your help.

Cheers
Matt

[M@H]

[AAAndy]

Glad that you got it sorted.

If it is the first time that the car has been started for a day or so always worth leaving it running for 30secs and letting the idle settle before moving off.

If you try and move off immediately it can bog down which could result in it flooding as per what you experienced.

[sam_strachan]

I just managed to stall mine after only letting it warm up for 1 min (in the freezing cold) and reversing with power steering (nice one). Wouldn't start after that. So after swearing and looking at my new bible I came on here to check things out.

I'm pretty sure it just flooded because 20 mins later I managed to get it started. What puzzles me, though, is that the second time around I deliberately didn't use any throttle because I figured that was best... but because it still wouldn't catch (it kept almost going) I got frustrated and applied a little right foot. When I did it almost caught a little more. So I planted it and then it finally did catch.

Was this a fluke? Can anyone explain what might have happened? Surely I was more likely to be flooding the engine again or could I have turned it over so much that there was then a shortage of fuel? Is this just one of those things?

Anyway, then went for a very scary drive in what turned out to be a snow shower because I wanted to charge the battery up.