SOLVED! Multiple random breakdowns..weak/no spark

[td04 turbo]

Check earths again, test battery/altanator maybe look more into starter motor/ solonoid just a wild guess had something similar on another car

[Amjad]

Thanks!

Earths were checked by Grant few weeks ago. Alternator recently replaced, and battery is good.

Tested for spark and there was no spark from coil to dizzy. But I've been told that if the rev counter doesn't jump when you crank the car, then you get no fuel or spark? The rev counter wasn't jumping.

Gonna check that injectors are working and if they aren't then it's been suggested ignitor/coil is at fault..

[Amjad]

Also tried my stock ecu in place of the Mine's one, and there was no change

This is a video of my idle the night before the car refused to start. I don't know whether it's related but it's the first time this happened since fitting the replacement distributor. Engine was cold and idle started dropping/getting lumpy.

The vibration is just my keys and whirring is my Walbro fuel pump. There was a 0.5-1s delay with me prodding throttle and car revving up.

I then drove the car and once warmed up it didn't happen again at traffic lights etc that night. Next day is when the car wouldn't start

https://youtu.be/qUtAIpnxcgU

[morgey]

Have you checked the tps voltage?

[H_D]

Have you checked the tps voltage?

X2 - tps may need adjusting

[Amjad]

I wouldn't know how to do that myself unfortunately

The TPS was changed about a year or so ago with a cleaned and newly calibrated unit, could this have played up already?

Do you guys think it's related to the starting issue at all?

[morgey]

With it being calibrated i wouldnt have thought so but, im a firm believer in things never going back together quite right lol.

It can be done with a voltage meter so isnt overly hard to do.

As for the starting issue, im not sure but i know newer cars can suffer from tps being out and causing non start issues but thats usually more permanent than intermittent

[Amjad]

The replacement ignitor and coil didn't do anything! Just got it started by wiggling the earth in the strut tower while cranking.

BUT drove to a mate's and turned car off, cleaned up earth and tried to start, nothing! Replaced it with a bigger earth off a running car and still nothing!

Tried a 2nd set of an ignitor and coil, still nothing!

Stuck for ideas now.

[Amjad]

Just for clarification, do the coil and ignitor earth by being bolted to the firewall? I tried them loose with just plugs connected.

[Amjad]

Never mind just tried it with fully bolted up and still nothing

Distributor was changed last week but timing wasn't checked. Car ran for a week without any major problem, I assume timing wasn't to blame for not starting yesterday and today?

[Amjad]

Tried running diagnostic with TE1 and E1 bridged, and EML doesn't flash at all

[Amjad]

So before I went to my mates it wouldn't start off a Glanza ignitor/coil I tried when I was home. I put mine back and then when I wiggled the earth on strut tower and cranked then it started.

Went to mate's, turned car off then cleaned up earth and tried to start but nothing. Then bigger earth from his car and nothing. Then tried ignitor and coil from his GT. Tried to check for spark from coil. Was getting none first few times we checked. Did diagnostic check and the EML light wouldn't even flash normally.

Tried for spark from coil one last time we got a very weak one. Put the king lead back on dizzy and it fired up eh!!

So the ignitor and coil off my mates GT is on the car now. But it'll probably conk out again

[Ep82gi]

Dose it ever cut out when driving or just a case of not starting?

[Amjad]

It's pretty much just the starting issue

[5e colin]

seems u changed everything so break in connector or wiring from dizzy to ecu and from ecu to igniter and coil check with a multimeter

i have also seen before where the plug is on the dizzy itselve it cracked and shorting out on eurth

let me know how you get on with this

[Amjad]

Cheers Colin, I'll be handing it over to someone who knows what they're doing as I think I've done about as much as I can

[starletezy]

I had the same problem last year random misfire and sometimes no spark or just a weak spark would break down one day and the other day would be fine I changed the complete ignition system fuelling systems sensors you name it after a couple of months of head scratching I looked under my dash to out find my heater matrix was leaking anti freeze into my ecu! so check your ecu and also if you have an fcd that can also issues if faulty aswell hope this helps good luck

[Amjad]

Ah no way! I didn't investigate the ecu side of things properly. But a mate mentioned that fcd wiring can cause similar issues. We had a quick look and the wiring didn't seem to look out of place, as the car was near stock when I picked it up.

It was also suggested to swap out my Mine's ECU for a stock one, and that didn't make a difference.

Thanks for the post though, that's something to think about! Hopefully I'll be dropping the car off to Grant to get looked at

[funny onion]

Gutted you're still having bother but interested to see the outcome of this

[5e colin]

"""" It was also suggested to swap out my Mine's ECU for a stock one, and that didn't make a difference. """"

al p&p ecus for our cars have the stock code system build in its not altered

[Amjad]

It was just in case the Mine's was damaged

Thanks Charlotte, it's so frustrating! Daily the racecar, they said

[Flaminsam]

I was going to say I had a few problems similar to this on my old gt. The resin in the coil pack cracked allowing the spark to discharge to earth through the mounting to the fire wall. Changed that and all was fine. Also when fitting the fuel pump I made a bit of an error by soldering the wires. Better off crimping them. Also if you can give the fuel pump a better earth. The standard earth point for the fuel pump is on the drivers side rear panel not far from the rear strut top. The fuel pump relay on a gt is above the glove box. It's green in colour if I remember right with five wires going to it. As has been said (and already changed) the engine temp sensor. A faulty signal to the Ecu can cause havoc. On that point check the pins on the plug to the coolant temp sensor. My friends glanza had a starting issue and turned out the wires were only "pushed" into the plug causing a bad circuit.

[Amjad]

Thanks Sam, I'm only just seeing your reply now I must have missed it earlier.

Car is currently stuck on my drive and I was meant to get it to Grant this week to check over but alas I can't get it started at all. I don't even know how I got it started the other day, it was completely by chance.

RE: Fuel pump wires Grant checked these over a few weeks ago when the car was there and said it was fine, I crimped and then heatshrank the connections. I'll clean up the earth for it too.

I'll double check the plug for the temp sensor too, thanks

[5e colin]

amjad another thing i just thought of i know you said you changed the coil but did you change the igniter unit to thats bolted to the coil ?? i have seen them break before

[Amjad]

I did Colin, took a complete working ignitor/coil unit off a mate's MK2 GT and bolted it onto my MK3.

It started earlier that morning on my original ignitor/coil, then got stuck at his place. We fitted his units and it would still not start. About an hour later we randomly got a weak spark and it started.

Got it back home and didn't drive it until the evening, started up first time and drove it Southampton as I'm back for uni. Parked up on drive Sunday night and haven't got it started since.