43 replies to this topic

[Rosssco]

Can you get a jump lead to the starter to see if it turns?

 
Yep, tried that. No change.

[AlfaAversion]

Can you volt drop the earth circuit and power circuit from your battery
Connect voltmeter to engine and to battery earth post crank the engine if you get above 1 v through your meter then it's trying to use that as the earth
Can also do it with the positive on back of starter to bat positive and crank
Meter must be in volts range and you'll need long leads or make up something .
Anything below .5v is good if it

[Rosssco]

Can you volt drop the earth circuit and power circuit from your battery
Connect voltmeter to engine and to battery earth post crank the engine if you get above 1 v through your meter then it's trying to use that as the earth
Can also do it with the positive on back of starter to bat positive and crank
Meter must be in volts range and you'll need long leads or make up something .
Anything below .5v is good if it

 

Cheers, although this sounds a bit too much like sparky stuff for me although my next port of call was to try some form of resistance checking various electrical connectors, primarily the starter circuit as the engine wont even crank..

[vocky]

you need to check if 12v is active on the small wire at the starter motor (solenoid coil) when the start button is pressed

 

If you have 12v then the starter solenoid should click, if the engine still fails to turn over then it's either the Negative cable between the chassis and engine, a battery terminal or the starter motor is duff

[Rosssco]

you need to check if 12v is active on the small wire at the starter motor (solenoid coil) when the start button is pressed
 
If you have 12v then the starter solenoid should click, if the engine still fails to turn over then it's either the Negative cable between the chassis and engine, a battery terminal or the starter motor is duff

 
I'll add it to my list of stuff to check Neil. Not sure why this wire would suddenly throw a wobbler, car was starting fine before I put the clam back on. I presume I can just stick my multimeter on the coil wire and earth?

 

There is a click when pushing the start button, but no more.

[vocky]

the starter solenoid is powered by the yellow relay, so quite important to check the relays and wiring in the boot if the rear clam has been removed or refitted

 

Brown/Red 2.5mm and Brown 2.5mm wires at yellow relay

 

Also worth checking the 4 pin main 12v power connector, near the oil cooler - Black plug and socket, the cables come from the chassis area (aka The Batman plug)

[Rosssco]

Thanks. More to check I guess. As before, I was starting fine with clam back on initially, only on the (very short) test drive did it start to splutter, miss, then die.. Something could have came loose on the move I guess..

 

I will check the (ominously titled) Batman plug..

[Rosssco]

Update time:

 

I bit the bullet and removed the rear clam for decent access.

 

I then proceeded to remove and clean the following with some connector cleaner and a small wire brush:

• Main battery terminals (with a bit of sand paper)
• X2 / X3 connectors (behind header tank)
• Gearbox main earth
• Chassis main earth
• Cam cover earth
• All injector plugs (was making a weird buzzing noise before..)
• ECU Connectors (I'd hooked up OBDT prior to this to check connection and fault codes. Nothing obvious)
• Large 4-pin plug located near chassis earth (this had a little corrosion build up, but nothing excessive)
• 3x boot relay plugs
• Replaced 1x dodgy-ish looking 20a fuse in boot

Anyhoo, connected the battery, and it runs..! So I'm kinda happy..

 

Happy it now runs (test drive still required!) but also not completely satisfied as there wasn't a single thing I was able to home in on to say 'it was that', which will leave a nagging thing in my heed about it happening again..

[Talk-torque]

We always try to do one thing and then test, so that the cause is identified, but it could be that a few things contributed to your problem. Whatever, glad you seem to have it sorted!

[Horace]

"dodgy-ish looking 20a fuse in boot"

 

What was dodgy about it?  Is your boot damp?

[Rosssco]

We always try to do one thing and then test, so that the cause is identified, but it could be that a few things contributed to your problem. Whatever, glad you seem to have it sorted!

 
Yep, that's def the engineers approach, but general pissed-off-ness took over from my normal engineers brain, and I just removed everything in one go!

[Rosssco]

"dodgy-ish looking 20a fuse in boot"
 
What was dodgy about it?  Is your boot damp?

 
It looked a bit 'cloudy' as it may have had some moisture in it (although no signs of damp in boot). Wasn't broken, but replaced anyway.

[Nev]

Injectors. Extract them all (in situ on the fuel rail), point them into 4 jam jars, turn the engine over and inspect.

 

GL, easy fix if it's an injector itself (as opposed to faulty wiring).

Edited by Nev, 12 January 2019 - 12:54 PM.

[Nev]

Is there someone local that you could swap the injectors over with perhaps?

[Mat Jackson]

I found I struggled with my relays when I removed and refitted them.
The spades were slightly corroded, so fine when fitted originally, but when refitted the corrosion barrier caused havoc!!!


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[Rosssco]

Is there someone local that you could swap the injectors over with perhaps?

 
Cheers, I'm gonna maybe buy some cheap used Z20LET injectors (easy to change on OBD-Tuner) and test to see if its an faulty injectors. For, my current injectors are 3 years old / 10k mile VXR Blue, so kinda hoped they were ok..

 

Got the car started again yesterday after fecking about with the relays again (big contender for the source). Bought a new grey (fuel) relay to try.

 

Interesting that when I did get it running, it idled fine, and revved ok, but a sharp throttle press (i.e. some engine load) caused a slight misfire.. This echos the original observation during my previous test drive where the car would misfire and stutter badly under much more than light load.

[vocky]

Try another throttle body and perhaps another MAP sensor

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[markanswrth]

I had a similar issue to yours and it turned out to be a single pin in the ecu that had corroded. Although it sounds like you have already checked this. 

[Rosssco]

Try another throttle body and perhaps another MAP sensor

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TB seems to work fine (you can hear it working with ign on and throttle pressed). MAP sensor was replaced for new (Bosch) about a year ago. Done not many miles since then.

[Rosssco]

I had a similar issue to yours and it turned out to be a single pin in the ecu that had corroded. Although it sounds like you have already checked this.

 
I've tried to clean all the connector out, but my luck with this car, could be as simple as a sh*tty pin..