Probably best to go from the beginning...
I've had the car for about 2 months now and it's been great. It has always had a slightly rough idle (low compression on cyl. 2, mechanic said it might be a hydraulic tappet but runs fine when revved and I can live with a shaky idle). Sometimes it hunts between 500-1,500 rpm at idle, not very often but it's probably the idle air control device, which I cleaned today.
Anyway, a few days ago I ran out of petrol, we put some more fuel in and the car was fine after that. But yesterday, after an evening of driving, the car refused to start. Letting it cool down didn't change things. The RAC man turned up and checked the fuel flow through the pump/filter, which he said was fine. He also checked the ignition with an inline test light and didnt find any problems there. He eventually managed to get it started with some easy start straight into the air metering plate (if that's what it's called
) and giving it some throttle. It ran, but you needed to keep the revs up otherwise it would die, but after a while it settled down and would just about idle, and I drove it home like that.
So I went out this morning and it fired, but wouldn't run. It did that a few times, then wouldn't fire at all. I eventually managed to start it with the throttle open and it ran, but backfired a few times and wouldn't idle.
Thus far I have removed and cleaned the contacts of both the OVP (over voltage protection relay, a common problem on these) and the ECU, which I also tried to check for dry joints, although the OVP didn't want to come apart so I left that (the fuse was fine). No joy. So I bridged the terminals on the socket for the OVP as suggested in a workshop manual. No difference. I then put the OVP back. I don't think there's anything wrong with the fuel pump relay because you can hear the fuel pump running.
Any light you guys can shed on the matter would be hugely appreciated. Have a picture for reading all this...
Thanks in advance,
Will
I've had the car for about 2 months now and it's been great. It has always had a slightly rough idle (low compression on cyl. 2, mechanic said it might be a hydraulic tappet but runs fine when revved and I can live with a shaky idle). Sometimes it hunts between 500-1,500 rpm at idle, not very often but it's probably the idle air control device, which I cleaned today.
Anyway, a few days ago I ran out of petrol, we put some more fuel in and the car was fine after that. But yesterday, after an evening of driving, the car refused to start. Letting it cool down didn't change things. The RAC man turned up and checked the fuel flow through the pump/filter, which he said was fine. He also checked the ignition with an inline test light and didnt find any problems there. He eventually managed to get it started with some easy start straight into the air metering plate (if that's what it's called
) and giving it some throttle. It ran, but you needed to keep the revs up otherwise it would die, but after a while it settled down and would just about idle, and I drove it home like that.So I went out this morning and it fired, but wouldn't run. It did that a few times, then wouldn't fire at all. I eventually managed to start it with the throttle open and it ran, but backfired a few times and wouldn't idle.
Thus far I have removed and cleaned the contacts of both the OVP (over voltage protection relay, a common problem on these) and the ECU, which I also tried to check for dry joints, although the OVP didn't want to come apart so I left that (the fuse was fine). No joy. So I bridged the terminals on the socket for the OVP as suggested in a workshop manual. No difference. I then put the OVP back. I don't think there's anything wrong with the fuel pump relay because you can hear the fuel pump running.
Any light you guys can shed on the matter would be hugely appreciated. Have a picture for reading all this...
Thanks in advance,
Will
Quite an easy job to change them if you need to tho
