Hello everyone. I woud appreciate any help i could get regarding this matter.
My exige won�t start when cold. It gets too much fuel, so the plugs only fire randomly. All the plugs are new, leads new and there is a good spark when tested with unscrewed plugs. I suspected a faulty enginetempsensor, so i heated up the whole enginecompartment real good and voila, it started after maybe ten seconds of turning and ran perfectly.
So now i have changed the sensor an do you think it starts?
No way!
It also backfires sometimes. Has anyone got a clue?
Thankyou very much in advance.
Hi again.
Forgot to say the car has a 190-ecu of the newer type (i think) with no cat and with sportsexhaust.
Felix
It will backfire if its over fueling and not igniting all the fuel or if its misfiring so that may be a red herring - when you say it gets a good spark… are you absolutely certain that it is a good spark and is it sparking on ALL 4 cylinders?
I don’t think the engine temp sensor could stop it firing up so am pretty sure this ain’t your problem. Too much fuel won’t make it fire the plugs randomly… if they only fire randomly then it must be an electrical problem on the ignition somewhere.
Have you had the injectors checked?
Thanks Roxteddy for your answer.
I didn�t mean that the tempsensor would stop it firing up. I meant that if it was faulty it might think it needed more fuel / thinking it was colder than it really was. I can�t imagine it is an electrical problem, as it started and run perfectly when i heated up the engine.
You can hear that it ignites on maybe one or two cylinders, but after maybe 10-15 seconds running the starterengine is does not ignite at all (i guess because the plugs gets drowned in petrol.
What about if you heat the engine bay up again ? does it start everytime you do this? (BTW how do you heat it up??)…
Starting problems can be difficult to diagnose but the basics are
-
It needs fuel (so are ALL the plugs wet after you have tried for a while?)
-
It needs a spark (so are you SURE it sparks on ALL 4 plugs everytime? also the battery can spin the engine but not have enough juice to start the car - a few people have found this recently)
-
If its defo got fuel and spark then its a more complicated timing problem or missing parameters for the ECU to be happy. (Have you checked ALL the fuses?)
Check that the IACV is resetting itself - maybe its not opening / closing - or whatever the damn thing is supposed to do
And don’t forget to check the fuses behind the drivers seat!
Ian
Also check the fuel pressure, if the FPR is faulty and the pressure is high, too much fuel will be supplied through the injectors.
What about if you heat the engine bay up again ? does it start everytime you do this? (BTW how do you heat it up??)…
Starting problems can be difficult to diagnose but the basics are
It needs fuel (so are ALL the plugs wet after you have tried for a while?)
It needs a spark (so are you SURE it sparks on ALL 4 plugs everytime? also the battery can spin the engine but not have enough juice to start the car - a few people have found this recently)
If its defo got fuel and spark then its a more complicated timing problem or missing parameters for the ECU to be happy. (Have you checked ALL the fuses?)
I have only tried to heat the car up once. I put a 2 kw fan in the enginecompartment, a plastic cover over the whole car, and a 9 kw fan under that. I would say the whole car felt like a relly warm summer day when I started it.
I think all the plugs gets wet, but maybe I have to check that again. All fuses are checked.
I would have hoped for a simple fix, but I guess it is just to continue searching.
Thanks for your concern.
Also check the fuel pressure, if the FPR is faulty and the pressure is high, too much fuel will be supplied through the injectors.
Don�t think it could be the fuelpressure as it runs well wen it starts.
Don�t think it could be the fuelpressure as it runs well wen it starts.
Can’t be too much wrong then… ignition starting would seem the obvious place - can you jump start it okay?
I have only tried to heat the car up once. I put a 2 kw fan in the enginecompartment, a plastic cover over the whole car, and a 9 kw fan under that. I would say the whole car felt like a relly warm summer day when I started it.
I think all the plugs gets wet, but maybe I have to check that again. All fuses are checked.
I would have hoped for a simple fix, but I guess it is just to continue searching.
Thanks for your concern.
Sounds like it could be the old battery thing again, as you’re warming up the entire car (inc. battery) it’s have the extra power. There’s loads of stuff about this, do a search for “bosch silver”…
Gotta be worth a go for �30
HTH,
Mark
Sounds like it could be the old battery thing again, as you’re warming up the entire car (inc. battery) it’s have the extra power. There’s loads of stuff about this, do a search for “bosch silver”…
Gotta be worth a go for �30
HTH,
Mark [/quote]
My battery is quite new, and I have also tried using a batterycharger with boostfunction while trying to start the thing, so i�m afraid it can�t be that.
Thanks anyway Mark.
wot about a jump start from another car? boost charger won’t deliver sufficient amps to start a car…
My money is on Battery or coils based on current info - unless i misunderstood what youve told us. If it defo runs fine when you get it going, (and i mean sweet, no complaints) then there can’t be much wrong ehh… ??
Have you done the heater thing again? You need to prove if this is repeatable IMHO.
It’s the battery - it’s always the battery.
battery, battery, battery, battery…
(Apart from when it’s a fuse. Hey Ian)
So now i have done some more testing.
Checked all fuses and relays (also behind the seat) and the look perfect with no corrosion at all.
Charged my (Quite new) battery over night, and tried jumpstarting with another car. No result.
Unscrewed all plugs. They were all wet, but no 3 a bit dryer and sootier. Seems reasonable as you can hear one or two cylinders igniting when you try to start.
Tried the spark on all four leads with different sparkplugs. It was quite bad IMO!! (I have had two local mechanics looking at the spark two weeks ago with me sitting in the car, and they said it was ok!?)
A strange thing was that I could see a very strong spark jumping from the rubberhole in the lead were you stick the plug in when I held it close to earth.
So, as the plugs and leads are new, could it be the coilpack? (Is that the name of the transformer from low to highvoltage?)
In that case, can the car start and run well with a bad coil? When it started when I heated the car up a week ago I never actually drove it, Just rolled out of the garage, had it running on tickover for five mins and reversed back in again. I think actually I thought that the throttleresponse was a bit bad, but apart from that it ran absolutely normal.
Does anyone now the caracteristics when a coilpack breaks down?
Or can it still be the battery? Dont think so myself as all the sparkplugs were unscrewed when I tested the spark which means practically all the energy in the battery goes to the spark and quite little to turn the engine around.
Throttle pot ? - has it got wet ? - some people have had that problem ( poor throttle response ? )
Try resetting the ECU - ign on - press accelerator 5 times fully - ign off - and start. ( for teh latest 190 ecu anyhow )
If you have sufficient spark and you have fuel the only other thing is does the ecu know where the crank is - crank sensor ?
Felix
you need some of these:
Extra Retardant Plugs-
Spark plugs are often misunderstood by most people. A spark plug’s name is quite literal. They are designed to plug the line - and suppress any spark that may come through. Of course, you know what happens if a spark finds an open fuel source!! That could get ugly! KaleCo extra retardant plugs block 99% of spark, and allow 95% of ignition molecules to pass through. That’s 25% more than the competition, and unlike the competition, KaleCo plugs never need cleaning.
A bit more seriously tho,… If you only ran it on idle for 5 mins or so its not a good enough test… you need to get the engine under load. So I suggest you do your heater thing (prove this is repeatable and just get the car started) andd then take it a run round the block… if this is okay then go further afield… are you in AA or RAC etc?? cause if it cuts out you need to make sure you can get home
he ssoted plug suggests richnes and the others being wet all add up to insignificant sparking.
Yes the coil pack is the LT/HT transformer.
If the ‘rubberhole’ you mention is the pluglead without a sparkplug installed and you get a good strong spark here but not when the plug is fitted - this suggests a potential problem with the coil (but it could also maybe be other things ) Also… its not good to run without plugs attached to the leads as this can damage the coilpack (basically the energy generated can’t be dissipated thru the plug which isn’t attahced!! ).
Get the car running, then take is a run to load it up - my guess is it will still misfire even tho’ idle is good. If this is true i’d be looking to replace the coilpack (they are expensive tho’ but search this site because there is an equivalent rover one). It can still idle smoothly with a poor coilpack.
The fact that you can’t jump-start it (i have to assume you were doing everything right when you tried) tends to suggest it is not the battery, as you have continually said.
coilpacks can exhibit failure modes which are temperature dependant. I think you have to categorically rule this item out, given what you have explianed to us… but i have to say… no guarantees…
Thankyou so much Roxteddy and everyone else so far.
I have tried to reset the ECU already.
I will try my heatingthing and see if it is repeatable. Actually I have been a bit unhappy with the performance of the car the whole autumn, but i thought i was just getting used to it. When I last summer changed to the 190 ECU i couldnt feel much difference in performance (exhaust changed earlier).
The car has been a bit strange, sometimes going down to maybe two cylinders (hardly sufficient to pull the car forwards at all) and it was easily fixed by switching the ignition off, and then start again. With the lumpyness of this engine you get used to, and accept, these small problems because of the nature of theese little fabulus cars.
Maybe it has been some probs with the coilpack allthe time?
It’s the battery - it’s always the battery.
battery, battery, battery, battery…
(Apart from when it’s a fuse. Hey Ian)
LOL! Yep!
I hope you get it fixed soon Felix.
Ian