weird breakdown

[judgea]

Last night I was running my 87 turbo esprit hard (appr. 90-110mph over appr. 60 miles). As usual, car was running great. Suddenly, after accelerating & passing two motorists, engine stopped running. No unusual noise or anything--just quit. Lights never dimmed; prior to breakdown, all guages showed perfect oil pressure, voltage, temp., etc.(I check often). Coasted to side of road. Opened up engine bay, but no street lights & couldn't see a thing. Got back in & tried to restart 3 times. Started perfectly on 3d try. Took off & drove home fast & hard, no problems. Car started & ran beautiful today, as usual. ???? I know, I know, this could be one of a million things. However, has anyone had a similar experience AND KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT?. Thanks. Edit: I believe I let off the accelerator when it killed; I've heard something about the "economy" chip saving gas when letting off accelerator & sometimes causing engine stumbling. Could this be it? But engine didn't stumble, just quit??

>>> Edited by judgea on Sunday 18th April 05:25

[ultimasimon]

Not being an Esprit owner I couldn't comment on the specifics of your vehicle, but as for the symptoms when it broke down, I have had this happen to me after a sustained high-speed run. Two things spring to mind:

a) Is the tank venting properly? ie vapour lock in tank, caused by a blocked fuel cap or tank breather.
2) Clogged fuel filter / and or fuel starvation.

Both of the above normally 'present' themselves with continued high speed driving. When the car finally stops, the vacuum in the tank eventually subsides and normal running is maintained temporarily.

[gfun]

'Just quiting' would tend (imho) to be electrical.
which would also link to it re starting again once things had a chance to cool.

If it happens again checking for petrol smell when its been turning over would confirm (can you remember any petrol ish pong?)

[lotusguy]

judgea said:

Last night I was running my 87 turbo esprit hard (appr. 90-110mph over appr. 60 miles). As usual, car was running great. Suddenly, after accelerating & passing two motorists, engine stopped running. No unusual noise or anything--just quit. Lights never dimmed; prior to breakdown, all guages showed perfect oil pressure, voltage, temp., etc.(I check often). Coasted to side of road. Opened up engine bay, but no street lights & couldn't see a thing. Got back in & tried to restart 3 times. Started perfectly on 3d try. Took off & drove home fast & hard, no problems. Car started & ran beautiful today, as usual. ???? I know, I know, this could be one of a million things. However, has anyone had a similar experience AND KNOW WHAT CAUSED IT?. Thanks. Edit: I believe I let off the accelerator when it killed; I've heard something about the "economy" chip saving gas when letting off accelerator & sometimes causing engine stumbling. Could this be it? But engine didn't stumble, just quit?? >>> Edited by judgea on Sunday 18th April 05:25

judgea,

As you mentioned the list of possibilities is extreme. However, the basics of Fuel/Air/Spark, as have been mentioned, are good starting points. Since you were passing, lateral Gs also come into play, as does the relatively easy restart.

If I had to guess, I would suspect one of three things:

1. A faulty inertia switch. If faulty, strong lateral Gs could cause it to energize, however I tend to rule this out because it requires a manual reset, which you didn't do.

2. A sticky wastegate. Under max boost and high RPM, if the wastegate sticks and doesn't open smartly as designed, this can trigger the overboost switch on the Bosche K-jetronic cars to cut out the fuel pumps. Engine dies. After stopped, the boost pressure bleeds from the system, resets the overboost switch, and the car restarts just fine. Could be a faulty overboost switch, but if so it's less likely the switch would reset and car restart so easily.

3. Frayed/Broken Low-Tension wire inside the distributor. This is a notoriously weak area. This wire gets brittle over time and can break inside it's insulation, or fray by rubbing against the advance plate inside the distributor. The resultant loss of signal to the ignition amplifier prevents the coil from being discharged, preventing an ignition spark. Again, once the car is stopped, the distributor advance plate rotates back to it's initial point by spring pressure, the wire either ceases to ground (if frayed), or the wire inside the cable re-establishes contact with it's other 'half' (if broken) and the normal ignition circuit is restored, car restarts easily. This fault begins intermittently, but eventually fails altogether.

To my mind, these are the most likely culprits, but of course, it could be a myriad of other things or combinations of things as well. If I had to pick one from the list above, I think I'd go with #2. Check the wastegate for proper operation and note whether the condition recurs. Good Luck. Happy Motoring! ...Jim'85TE

[judgea]

Thanks everyone for the good advice. So far, car still running great.