Tried to start the Exige this weekend, and had a bit of a confusing time. Turned the ignition, pushed the immobiliser button which made the little red light go solid as per normal, and then fired her up, just to have the engine turn over…and over…and over…with no combusion. The engine was turning over fast and the battery was fine, but there was no stink of fuel, so I was thinking this is a fuel problem. What confused was that the fuel pump was priming every time I turned the key, and the fuses and and relays all looked ok, and the tank was full, so what was the problem?
Then got my mechanic neighbour across and looking at the Exige manual we tried to locate the inertia switch, which didn’t seem to be there per the picture? Anyway, gave up on that and then he took his spark reader pen and popped it into a distrib plug and asked me to fire the car up, and the car started perfectly?! Turned off started it again…perfect.
All we did was wheel the car out of the garage and put the reader in a single plug?
So what was this caused by? I don’t think it was spark related as there was NO smell of fuel during the 6 times I tried to start the car. Also I had already wriggled and pushed all the plug connectors to make sure there was good contact. Is this an immobiliser beginning its final death throws? Does the immobiliser cut fuel to the engine but leave spark intact? Would this explain it?
This has happened to me about 5 times over the last 8 years. Leave it for 10 minutes and it starts. Don’t know what the problem is but have put it down to ‘character’
Agreed … it one of the things I miss about the K series install …
What I mean is … Ive kept the Meta system with the Honda install and it starts on the button everytime … ruling out the imobiliser … so I think Simon is spot on
Thanks all…we’ll have to put it down to character then. …just for my understanding, do any of you know how the immobilser actually ‘immobilises’ the engine?
In the past people have mentioned the crank sensor might be at fault.
Mine has done this couple of times. Strangely, when I roll it out of the garage intending to try a jump start, it comes to rest in the road and fires up on the button, just like that!
Character . . . as I drive away listening to the crisp sound of the K, I forgive its every foible.
On a similar vein I have experieced the following on 3 occasions:
Start Exige, tickover seems high 2k revs, Exige goes great for approx 2 miles then appears to go into limp home mode - won’t pull at all - pull over, switch engine off, restart and its all fine again and off on my merry way without any further fuss
Thommo, If it is the crank sensor playing up, would I or would I not have had the smell of unburnt fuel? I guess what I’m asking is does the crank sensor impact spark only, or fuel as well?
I wouldn’t have thought the crank sensor was ‘directly’ associated with either the fuel or the sparks. It will simply be an input that the ECU uses to then trigger both the fuel and the sparks. It’s using the crank sesnor so that it knows “where” the engine is in its rotation.
Crank Sensor will stop the fuel. the ECU take the crank position to know when to inject for each cylinder. Some ECUs can get a limp home mode without a crank sensor, most of these use a cam sensor but I do not believe the K series has one of these so a Crank Sensor failure should stop the engine.
The Rover T series engine did used to have a problem where the crank sensor would work out of its hole despite being bolted in and stop the engine. If you removed the sensor, cleaned up the sensor and hole and bolted back in then everything would be fine. Never heard this problem on the K series though.
I have had my car fail to fire up twice. Both times I have armed and disarmed the alarm and it started first time. I have just put it down to a quirk of the car!
So if your sayin the crank sensor only deals with the fuel. How does the ECU know when to fire the spark?!?!?!
As you say the engine doesn’t have a cam sensor, the crank sensor is the only method the engine has to know where it is. Hence why the car runs wasted spark and batched injection. So the crank sensor is responsible for both the fuel and the spark.
“A crank sensor is a component used in an internal combustion engine to monitor the position or rotational speed of the crankshaft. This information is used by engine management systems to control ignition system timing and other engine parameters. Before electronic crank sensors were available, the distributor would have to be manually adjusted to a timing mark on the engine.”
[quote=SeanB]So if your sayin the crank sensor only deals with the fuel. How does the ECU know when to fire the spark?!?!?!
.[/quote]
[quote=SeanB]So if your sayin the crank sensor only deals with the fuel. How does the ECU know when to fire the spark?!?!?!
.[/quote]
We were talking about a lack of fuel hence my comments on injector timings. I did not say that the crank sensor did not provide the ignition timing. In fact on some management systems the crank sensor gives information on engine balance so that injectors pulse widths can be altered for equal burn.
Sorry for slow response to your query Carttman . . When mine failed to start there was no smell of fuel or as far as I could tell any being delivered to the cylinders, as I checked the plugs.
as per the original non-starting query… yep i’ve had it
best fix for me is
put into gear and crank on tbe starter… jolts the car obviously
then back to neutral and try again
if she doesnt fire this time i put jumpleads on
works very well for me
had the rac out who checked the crank sensor, used their jump kit and got no-where
i went back with another car… jolted the lotus’ then jumped it and drove home
The engine was turning over fast and the battery was fine, but there was no stink of fuel, so I was thinking this is a fuel problem. What confused was that the fuel pump was priming every time I turned the key, and the fuses and and relays all looked ok, and the tank was full, so what was the problem?
Turned off started it again…perfect.
…just for my understanding, do any of you know how the immobilser actually ‘immobilises’ the engine?
…and a big thanks to Wikipedia: