Engine Suddenley Stopped

[crazyhorse]

Hi all,

Opinions please.

Tonight I was driving home in rush hour out of Cardiff, Cursing along nicely at 60 and suddenly I lost all power and the engine stopped, I mounted the side and put my hazards on. Bugger. It was pretty scary.

I left it a while and tried it again, it started. Managed to get back on the dual carriageway and all was good.

10 mins later, same happend again, power in the engine went. Left it again, and it started. Drove home the final 10 miles with no worries. Any advice. As a footnote there was a big thunderstorm, with lightning, is it linked??? I know that sounds like a silly footnote

Thanks

d

87 Transporter 1.9 with LPG conversion.

[Paul Weeding]

Were you driving on lpg or petrol when it went down?

[crazyhorse]

Was going on LPG

[marlinowner]

Run on petrol for a bit to see if it does it again, if so probably problem somewhere in ignition electrics. If OK on petrol then maybe something like bad connection on the LPG flow solenoid.

[itchyfeet]

Big thunderstorm, was it very windy?
lpg can suffer from massive pressure changes from wind plus your speed being rammed down the engine vents affecting the delivery of gas, had it myself before, I no longer have any ducting on my airfilter.

[crazyhorse]

Big thunderstorm, was it very windy?
lpg can suffer from massive pressure changes from wind plus your speed being rammed down the engine vents affecting the delivery of gas, had it myself before, I no longer have any ducting on my airfilter.

Huge thunderstorm, very very windy

[itchyfeet]

Ok so as said try on petrol and gas see how it goes, if it doesn't do it again consider removing all the trunking to the airfilter.

[steve8090]

Trying it on petrol may not give you the root cause, by all means try the above and they are good suggestions, however LPG is harsh on the ignition system and it could be a sign that your coil if giving up, they will run until it overheats and breaks down, let it cool and its fine again for 1/2 hour or so, on petrol it may not show this trait. Next time it cuts out get out and have a feel at the coil body if its hot and almost too hot to touch then it is on its way out and you need to source one asap otherwise when it does go completely you'll be left stranded no matter what fuel you use.

[ghost123uk]

Just a thought (as this happened to me once) = check your cooling system levels etc. The LPG vapouriser needs a constant flow of hot coolant to prevent it freezing up (converting the LPG into a gas causes a big drop in temperature). If it is not getting it's supply of hot water it will freeze, the gas will stop and so will the engine. Then, when you let it stand, it un-freezes and works again for a while until it freezes up again. You can see if it is frozen up because the vapouriser will be covered in frosty ice. As I say, just a thought.

[Ian Hulley]

Ok so as said try on petrol and gas see how it goes, if it doesn't do it again consider removing all the trunking to the airfilter.

Strong wind from the driver's side rear did this on mine, as said remove air filter trunking and it happens no more.

Obviously Mr Shaw will know his onions on these

[kevtherev]

however LPG is harsh on the ignition system and it could be a sign that your coil if giving up, they will run until it overheats and breaks down,

Interesting Steve, I am on the same Bosch coil when you fitted the LPG several years ago, never an issue, coil is as cool as... does this happen over tens of years or is the LPG finding out a weak coil and killing it.

[steve8090]

No Kev, Bosch coils are the "daddies" of coils, you find that a good Bosch coil will alst for many years but aftermarket coils tend to be a bit hit and miss with the quality, they overheat and pop, I've even known it just on petrol, cheap silver coil bought from a motor factor made of chinese chocolate.
Remember ohms law from school, the hotter a circuit gets the more resistance there is hence the breakdown and then the miraculous start aftyer its cooled, more common than you think.

[itchyfeet]

I'm struggling to understand how the fuel type can have an affect on degrading the ignition coil.
My understanding it it will fire the spark plugs in the same way for any fuel so how does the ignition work any harder on lpg?
Or are you saying a bad coil will be more noticeable on lpg becuase lpg needs a stronger spark than petrol?

[steve8090]

Exactly right because of the lower calorific value of lpg it takes a fair bit of power to ignite it, this tends to load the coil because its working so much harder to ignite the lpg, cheap coil start to warm up and in any electrical circuit the hotter the unit the bigger the resistance, and because there is a constant voltage the inevitable happens and it breaks down. Lpg has always been known to be harder on ignition components, when we do our customers full services we always include a rotor arm as standard purely because of this phenominon a worn rotor arm will make the spark jump further and thus it loses its power, then you get your poor performance and strain on the ignition. Same with the spark plugs, yes many use multi points but think about it, a single point plug set at an optimum gap will produce a much more intense spark than a dissipated one over three prongs. This subject has been covered many times and by far cleverer men than me.

[itchyfeet]

this tends to load the coil because its working so much harder to ignite the lpg.

This is the statement I don't get Steve, how does it work harder? surely it works just as hard on petrol after all there is no system to adjust how hard it works, it doesn't know what fuel is in the combustion chamber.

I see a cheap coil or a bad coil is going to show up more on lpg but I don't see lpg does the damage.