UKPOC forums

Morning all. Had a lovely surprise this morning when my probe wouldn't start. It's a '94 2.5 (early model?). Used it last night and started ok.

It cranks but won't fire. Haven't had a chance to investigate yet, but just fishing for tips. I have noticed that over the last few weeks it has taken longer and longer for it to fire up when cranking, esp from cold. I wondered if perhaps it's the fuel pump as I've noticed that unlike on most other cars there's no noticeable running/priming of the fuel system when ignition is turned on before firing. Is this normal? Or is it just very quiet?

I also wondered if perhaps the distributor is breaking down? They look a bit expensive to replace though! The crank pos sensor I've heard can be a common issue but am fairly confident it isn't this as recently had that plug off and cleaned it up when doing the timing belt.

There has also occasionally been some hesitation/stutter under harder acceleration, but is very inconsistent and haven't managed to figure out what's causing it.

Morning,
I would start with see if any fuel is coming through from the tank, you will have to disconnect a pipe in the engine bay to check, probabaly best to follow the pipe from the fuel filter. Just have an open container to catch the fuel, rather than it going everywhere.

As for the Dizzy, it could be, as yours is an early one, there is one on EBAy for about £80 new, or about £20-30 more form RockAuto delivered.

I thought that I had a faulty CPS once, but it turned out not to be that, but it's always a possiblity, and a pain to change.

Do you still have the immobiliser fitted, with the fob, if so, then maybe it's time to remove it?

Does read like a distributor failure.
Be careful when testing for a spark.
NEVER , NEVER , NEVER, . leave a spark plug lead disconnected .
An open lead will kill the transistors in the circuitry in an instant.

Thanks guys. Gunna get into it today and see if I can figure it out. Had a quick look last night and I have fuel, and when turning over very occasionally it sounds like it briefly fires maybe one cylinder.

Thanks for the tip about checking for the spark, I probably would have pulled a lead and done exactly that. I'll grab a spark tester today.

To be honest, I didn't even realise this car had an immobiliser. I have the fob somewhere but have never needed it. And have the fuse pulled on central locking as it was draining battery. I just use a plain key. Does this mean the immobiliser has been disconnected already or is it worth checking that out as well?

Moby has been bypassed already if using a plain key
CPS plug would allow car to breifly start and cut out
Have you tried a jump start as battery maybe FUBAR

Yeah, checked the battery and also swapped out for a known good one. CPS plug was absolutely fine as well.

I swapped distributor for an old one of unknown condition with no joy...swapped it back and it started as if nothing had ever happened! I did check the timing and no 1 cylinder seemed to be flashing the light fairly erratically, though it sound like it was running fine by ear. Very odd. I'm thinking I should buy a new complete distributor, cap and rotor to be on the safe side.

Good news it started again, cap and rotors a good idea wot are the terminals like
in the cap and the center bush to the rotor arm like

This is sounding suspiciously like the LHD issue, it will run like a dream for as while then just refuse to go, I have often stripped out the dizzy and put it back unchanged for it to start up and run perfectly. it is currently with an autospark who couldn't diagnose anything, but it's all gone quiet. I will find out whether he's torched it in frustration or not

simps wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 19, 2023 1:52 pm

This is sounding suspiciously like the LHD issue, it will run like a dream for as while then just refuse to go, I have often stripped out the dizzy and put it back unchanged for it to start up and run perfectly. it is currently with an autospark who couldn't diagnose anything, but it's all gone quiet. I will find out whether he's torched it in frustration or not

My Rio did a similar thing with 2 Dizzy's, it was fine while it was cold, but once it had warmed up it would stop and not start again. It stumped me big time, as it was a new but untested dizzy. I got a new one and it was sorted.

I have a stack of used dizzy's but they all really need checking and repairing, but the cost of repair doesn't make it worth while.

it's not even that predictable, it will run nicely and do relatively long journeys for a number of days or even weeks and then just not start again, it never conks out once started