Died in heavy traffic

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:06 pm

Any of you technical experts able to come up with suggestions for this?

Was stuck in stop-stop-stop-start-stop glasgow rushhour traffic the other night and had the engine just stall.

Was able to restart it and it would be fine for a few minutes before doing the same thing. It even died while moving once.

We stopped and let the engine cool down for 20 minutes at which point I was able to get it home and it's been fine since (although I've not been in traffic like that).

One thing I've noticed is that the hose from the air intake to the engine has split. Is it possible that the engine was just suffocating on its own exhaust and it's not anything too serious?

MacK · Post by **MacK** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:17 pm

No MIL light or anything?

Has the hose split before or after the air filter?

If after, i.e between the airfilter and the engine, get it fixed quick! Even if just wrapping tape round it.

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:25 pm

Umm, it's the hose from the side of the car to the box thing inside the boot

Hope that helps!

And no, the yellow engine warning light never came on and stayed on (sometimes after a stall it would linger, but would reset with the ignition).

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 2:32 pm

Strange, the engine won't suck up enough fumes to stall, it would have to be piped directly back into the airbox for that to happen.

Is there plenty of coolant?
Is the radiator hot? Also check your oil level.
Was the fuel level low?
When you unset the immobilizer and then turn on the ignition can you hear the fuel pump buzz for a few seconds?
Anything else significant occur at the time?
What temp was an the gauge?
Does the fan cut in and out?
S1 or S2?

Post by **Shug** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:08 pm

IACV possibly - with it getting hot....

Basically it's an ECU controlled valve that creates a wee air leak past the throttle body when idling. It sits on top of the plenum and can gunk up causing a fluffy idle and/or stalling...

Cleaning it would be my first choice of action. S1 or S2?

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:17 pm

Morre important: Rover K or Toyota engine?!?!

Post by **Shug** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:35 pm

RICHARDHUMBLE wrote:Morre important: Rover K or Toyota engine?!?!

Oh yeah, 'cos if it's a Yota, it'll probably need a new throttle body, TPS, coolant sensor, ECU or all of the above

/only slightly joking

Baggy · Post by **Baggy** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:42 pm

Tired Coils can show weakness as they heat up and improve again when cold.

Also flat battery can cause stall on S1 (if your alernator is fooked and it's only charging at higher engine speeds for example).

The above two problems are more on older cars tho...how old?

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:39 pm

Gosh lots of helpful questions to answer...

Is there plenty of coolant? It was maybe a little low
Is the radiator hot? Also check your oil level. radiator definitely gets hot as my bf commented on the steam in the rain fun the other day
Was the fuel level low? probably about a quarter of a tank left
When you unset the immobilizer and then turn on the ignition can you hear the fuel pump buzz for a few seconds? yes
Anything else significant occur at the time? Just before the stall the revs would drop to about 800ish for a second and pressing the throttle would do nothing, then it would stall. There seemed to be a high-pitched whine just before the stall (or maybe just after ), like the fuel pump being awkward, but not really sure
What temp was an the gauge? it went up to about 110 before the fan cut in and brought it down to under 100.
Does the fan cut in and out? fan works fine
S1 or S2? S1 111S (T reg) with the standard K series VVC engine

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 8:04 pm

OK, that eliminates the basics the fuel pump is runing and there is colant and oil.

How dirty do you want to get? Clean the IACV would be next bet. YOu will need some small torx bits to get it out and ideally carb cleaner.

Does anyone have a pic of its location? Just 1 plug and 2 screws on the top of the inlet manifold black cylinder probably the highest thing on the inlet manifold. Undo the screws and pull it out, it'll probably be caked in black soot, the carb cleaner will see to that.

When its clean put it back.

As for the coil packs I have no idea about how to test them.

HTH
Rich

robin · Post by **robin** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 9:25 pm

If it's not repeatable I would wait until it becomes repeatable and then solve it - kind of hard to just guess ...

Cheers,
Robin

Baggy · Post by **Baggy** » Sun Aug 12, 2007 10:51 pm

In hind sight I don't think the coil packs are the issue...I may have missled you...

I think they would show a missfire and lumpy running prior to ithe whole thing dieing on you.