It just stopped. And then started. Now stopped!!!

[owelly]

Here's the story.
I've not used the car ('94 Ibiza 1.8 16v) for a month or so and it's MOT time. I took the car for a quick blast to make sure it still works.
it stuttered at a junction and then stopped. I tried it a few times and it started so i booted it to get home. It coughed a few times and stopped again so I got it towed home.
There is fuel to the injectors, a big spark at the plugs but the plugs are dry.
Any suggestions??

 

[owelly]

Come on folks. A nice quick easy-to-fix-for-free solution will be most welcome so I can sell the feckin thing before it bleeds me completely dry......

 

[jenk]

I had a spark but my coil was still to blame. Took the AA man ages to figure it out

 

[F2 Ed]

Ok fueling is good, spark is good....could be a sensor. I'd say coolant temp sensor. It sounds electrical to me
hmmm i will have a think mate lol

 

[F2 Ed]

hmmm ignition coil could be to blame. Was the 'shudder' you describe the engine miss fireing?

Although i'd expect no spark at the plug if the coil was to blame....

 

[jenk]

AA man said mine must have been an intermitant failure. Not giving the rite spark at the rite time or something along those lines. New coil was tested on it and it started first turn of the key

 

[EvilKinevil]

Would get coil checked first. Could be many things tho

 

[owelly]

I have just swapped the coil with the one off my Vento and the problem was still there. It sometimes fires and runs on one or two pots but soon dies. The temp sensor is buggered 'cos it used to run lumpy until it warmed up but surely the temp sensor only tells the ECU to throw more fuel around?
I'm getting seriously pi$$ed off with this car!!!
I may just tow it a couple of miles up the road and phone Brittania Breakdown and see if they can find anything!!
Cheers folks.

 

[Cupra Kid]

Dirt in the throttle body could cause rough running, but i would have thought it would run a little first, You say the cars been stood a while, the petrol may have gone off depending how long its been in the tank.

 

[owelly]

The car has only been parked up for three/four weeks and the car did get driven for 15 mins before it gave up. The throttle body got cleaned when it went to get the imobiliser reset (don't ask!!) but the imob is fine now.
I'm tempted to sell it as a non-runner and se what it's worth. Any guesses?

 

[Tom B]

Distributor? Leads? Plugs?

I had similar problems in my exes 106, changed TDC sensor, dizzy cap, leads & coil. In the end I threw in a new set of plugs and all the problems disappeared! Admittedly, things did get better when I changed new things, but it was never perfect!

 

[owelly]

I measured the spark from the coil and itwas 35mm. I then measured the spark from the plugleads and got a lovely juicey spark but only to 6mm. The spark was getting lost in the dizy. £5 for a new cap fixed it!!
Cheers for the help folks...

 

[Tom B]

Glad it got fixed, and cheaply!

 

[shanegticupra]

I Have a similar sort of problem so i think i might give this a try! where can i get a dizzy cap from? Is it just called a dizzy cap?! just incase it has another name and halfords/a garage not gonna know what it is?

 

[Tom B]

Distributor cap is its proper name, all factors sell them!

 

[Redz2486]

Well i had a similar problem, the car broke down in the middle of the city centre and it fired up again no problem, then it died again. So got it home, reckoned it was either the fuel pump or filter so i got a new filter. Changed it took it for a spin then seemed fine.

Only to pick it up the next day from my mums it died again. So my boyfriend swapped rounf the spark plugs, checked the fuel pump and everything was sound and going fine. Another day goes by, and i go to take it out, and it died AGAIN. This time i had to get it towed home.

By this time, it was time to go on holiday for 2 weeks. So i come back fart about with then on the way to work it dies again and it was definetly time to go into the garage. Mechanic phones to tell me that the air flow meter was fuked. Since the dizzy cap had been changed while i was away they only had the timing to sort on top of the air flow.

Through the whole time its been buggered it was missfiring also. Still not sorted 100% the mechanic said he could spend all day takin it apart and not find anything. So it got booked into Taylor's Auto Electrical.

They sorted the timing, corrected a few other problems. So far so good. The guy at Taylor's also recommended changing the spark plugs, leads, coil pack, and 2 sensors.

So after all that, most of the above being mentioned already in this post, uz lot have just took a weight off my sholders at the positive replys! And now the car can been sorted with a hope of everything going smoothly until it goes up for sale.

 

[shanegticupra]

Ha I really should of known that! well i took mine to the garage at the weekend and got the diagnostics read, it came up with a faulty coolant temp sensor, i changed that and its still exactly the same,

i then covered the dizzy cap in wd40 to see if it had a crack and was lettting in moisture, still didnt work.

next step is to change the dizzy cap, i know these are cheap but are they easy to fit? it looks easy, do i just have to remove the ht leads from the top then undo the 2 metal clips?

 

[Redz2486]

U need to remember where to put the leads back to, and also mark the timing as this will go out if u dont.

with the timing being out this is what was responsible with mine misfiring

 

[Stu_HR]

and also mark the timing as this will go out if u dont.

with the timing being out this is what was responsible with mine misfiring

Umm, how does just changing the cap alter the timing?

 

[Redz2486]

Umm, how does just changing the cap alter the timing?

It does if u dont replace it in exactly the postion it came off!!