Club 80-90 Forums

Hi folks. I'm in a bit of a hurry trying to sort this problem out cause I need to be able to get the van around over the next while to get it through its DOE (sort of like MOT) and this is proving to be a show-stopper. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Here's the gen so far...

Rebuilt injectors and fuel pump
New head gasket and good cylinder head
New timing belt and tensioner
Engine will start without a problem when cold
Runs ok when hot and ticks over grand but may be a bit underpowered
Up until recently was hard to start when hot but now won't start at all
Fuel filter was replaced a couple of thousand miles back but I let the fuel run low (not completely out) since
Starting motor is not great. Sometimes it will just click lamely and when it's turning it sounds sh!t but does spin the engine over alright

I am thinking it could be one of 3 things here. Blocked fuel filter, pump timing not 100% or voltage drop causing solenoid to close when starter is turning but what I cannot figure out is why these things would only affect the engine while hot. The guy who did the fuel pump also doesn't reckon the timing is too far out because it starts easily when cold. Anyone any insight here or any other possible causes?

Many thanks!

things expand when hot so things like contacts in the solenoid open up, a poor old tired starter motor can fail to pass current to the main coil hot yet start cold
when it won't start is it turning over freely but not catching and beltching out unburnt fuel ?

Yeah it's not even kicking, and in the past it would take some cranking then suddenly enough would kick into life but I dropped it down to a place to get some stuff done for the DOE and when they went to move it it wasn't having any of it. I might try running a wire straight from the battery to the solenoid and see if it fires up.

Typically enough it started without a bother when it was cold today and even when I got home after it warmed up it started grand so it's going to prove to be one of those hard to find problems. Got help me if I stall it some day! Once it starts its bullsh!t again I'll try running the lead straight to the solenoid and see if it will start. If that is the problem, what's the permanent fix for it??

Allright ross new solenoid valve not too expensive

Hi Paul hows things? I got the fuel pump rebuilt recently so I reckoned the valve would have been snagged then if there was a fault with it. I'm thinking more along the lines of too high a current drain from the starter or something to do with the vans wiring.

A common problem with 1.9s. Try disconnecting the wire to the glow plug temperature sensor first of all. This will enable the glow plugs to operate even with a hot engine. If it starts OK after a bit of glow, the permanent fix is to wire a 600 ohm resistor in the wire to the sensor. This will give you a short glow even with the engine hot, and with a cold engine, won't really make any noticeable difference at all.

Worth a try?

Colin

Sorry Colin, only seeing the reply now. The coolant temp sensor for the glow plugs is actually disconnected anyway cause the spade terminal broke off, so that's not the problem. Anyway in my mind, a hot engine shouldn't need glowplugs on if all is well. That would only mask an underlying problem. I tried running a wire straight from the battery to the fuel cutoff solenoid which made no difference. Over the past while though it seems to have sorted itself out but I'd love to know what caused it in case it starts happening again and I get stuck somewhere. God help me if I ever stall it somewhere!

Regarding the hot starting problem it has been suggested this could be low compression.