Cranking...

Hi people, just a quick one, it seems my car has started to act differently when cranking, its always stsrted tbe same regardless of air temp or engine temp, cranks for a few seconds then fires. Last few times since last night now, it cranks, fires (but not enough to keep it running), keeps cranking and then fires a second later. Any ideas? If people suspect cam sensor, just dont want it stranded as I dont have a spare. Engine seems to run fine, although I havent gave the beans because of local driving..

Cheers
Mark

Just started tbe car, I know think the car is trying to start rathrr than struggle, its just tried firing almost on the key which is unheard of, so could I have a leaky injector which is filling the cylinder?

Cheers
Mark

After abit of research, I found similar troubles although not mine so took a punt on a coolant sensor, remembered I had a Corsa that the same trouble. Hopefully its the sensor...

Cheers

I have a crank sensor used but new. If you want to try it out, its an easy swap in. I dont think it would give those symptoms though,. USually an intermittyent cutout when running or fail to start would be expected. reckon your coolant sensor guess is a good place to start. Could also be a fuel pump on its way out, blocked fuel filter or dodgy regulator ( rare)
Check the fuel pressure!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by silverswedemachine

Hi people, just a quick one, it seems my car has started to act differently when cranking, its always stsrted tbe same regardless of air temp or engine temp, cranks for a few seconds then fires. Last few times since last night now, it cranks, fires (but not enough to keep it running), keeps cranking and then fires a second later. Any ideas? If people suspect cam sensor, just dont want it stranded as I dont have a spare. Engine seems to run fine, although I havent gave the beans because of local driving..

Cheers
Mark

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by silverswedemachine

Just started tbe car, I know think the car is trying to start rathrr than struggle, its just tried firing almost on the key which is unheard of, so could I have a leaky injector which is filling the cylinder?

Cheers
Mark

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by silverswedemachine

After abit of research, I found similar troubles although not mine so took a punt on a coolant sensor, remembered I had a Corsa that the same trouble. Hopefully its the sensor...

Cheers

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As I've said, many times before, trying to diagnose faults on a forum without Fault codes as a starting point is both useless and a waste of time/money.

There are a hundred and one things it could be given the symptoms you've described, bear in mind that is your interpretation of the symptoms and no doubt not accurate.

My advise to you is simple. Take your car to a GOOD garage and have the diagnostics interrogated. You may not have any fault codes, so in that case, live readings will be invaluable and a necessity in diagnosing the cause of your symptoms.
At the moment your making the No1 mistake and that is 'diagnosing the symptoms not the fault'!
If you continue, you'll not only waste your time but your money.

If you have good diagnostics but don't know how to use them or properly interpret the faults then you'll be piss ing in the wind, though my guess is you don't?
Asking people here to throw suggestions at the thread will only cause confusion and ultimately result with you wasting yet more time/money. You may 'accidently' fix your car's fault and not realise what you've done.....and that is even worse because when it goes wrong again, you won't know what you did the first time to fix or mask the issue.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for helping someone out when they have a problem but this, IMHO is not the way to do it. :wink:

Not been on for a while, just seen the reply, thanks but no thanks.. I thought the whole point of a forum is to help fix, if I had a diagnostic code reader, would I need come on here and waste my time and yours, which you think I am doing??? I have been fixing cars for many years, never needed fault codes, ill admit to not to knowing everything like some people, and as for taking my car to a garage, simply not my style. I would never go to a garage, I have faith in my self to fix these things, and as for fixing the car, yes it was the temp sensor, good job I didnt try the other 100 things it could have been, haha...

cheers

Mark

Good answer, though I doubt you’ll have been so smug if it wasn’t the temp sensor.
You may not need a code reader on a 15-20 year old car, but on a modern day car, it’s virtually impossible to fix them without good diagnostics. It’s not all about the fault codes, live readings and actuating solenoids etc all help to diagnose faults.
From a garage perspective it would be unworkable and not cost effective.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fixing your own car but there’s a fine line between fixing it and fixing it correctly and throwing money at it and hoping for the best.
Truth be told, you never actually diagnosed the fault, you took a punt and it, luckily for you, payed off. If that was a £200 temp sensor you wouldn’t be laughing as those type of parts are non refundable/returnable once opened or fitted.

So, if you did have diagnostics or at the very least, a code reader, you wouldn’t be wasting anyone’s time as it gives those with the knowledge the ability to actually try and help you, after all, you came to the forum with a problem not knowing the answer.

Gotta say, the guy gave you good advice - if you cannot see whats broke, but you have a prob, get the codes read first, then come on here and get good advice about how to fix.
How else can you be sure you dont have two or more problems with the car. It costs no more to give you a list of 6 error codes than just the one.
You have been given good advice, dont throw it back at the person who took his time to respond to you. You could just offend him and make him feel like never helping ANY of us again. Nobody is perfect but on this forum hopefully nobody is throwing their toys out of the pram. Just sensed a little chippiness in a couple of posts. I have gained a lot from listening in and it is always good the hear when soebody posts back the final solution to the initial problem reported, so thanks for sharing that.
Glad it all worked out well - chin up:>)