Club 80-90 Forums

Hi, I'm new to the site and have joined due to an issue I'm having with my 1990 1.9 T25 transporter van.

I just bought 'old bluey' back in December 2015 from an older guy who had had her for many years. He mentioned in his "sales pitch" that in all the years he'd owned Bluey the only problem he'd experienced apart from the usual Mot headaches was the engine had cut out 2 or 3 times on him. His solution was to simply sit it out for 2-3 hours and then she'd started up fine again.

So back in January I was driving Glasgow to Edinburgh along the M8 on a fairly flat section of road and suddenly some warning lights on the dash lit up and at the same time the engine just seemed to cut out. I had breakdown cover so I got towed back to my house within 3 hours and tried to start it once the tow truck had unloaded bluey and sure enough it started up fine (like the previous owner had said!). Slightly worried by this event I decided to take bluey to a mechanic to see if he could see anything obvious. Apart from a loose / split air duct he said it was hard to diagnose a problem that wasn't there anymore. So I bought new ducting and replaced all the old stuff, the mechanic also gave it a service changed the oil, oil filter and did some work on the brakes which were binding on.

So 6 months passed without any problems and then the other day the same thing happened without warning again the engine cut out and pretty much all the dash warning lights lit up.

So the breakdown cover sent an engineer this time. He checked the plugs, distributer and coil pack and said he thought the coil pack was not giving the right readings on his meter and he wasn't seeing much if a spark of the plugs. I got towed straight to the garage I use for my car this time and by the time the mechanic got round checking the coil pack/distributer (the next day) bluey was starting up and running fine again. So again he said it could have been a number of things and it was hard to diagnose a problem that had effectively resolved itself.

So I'm thinking I should probably go ahead and change the coil pack given what the breakdown engineer said and see how it goes. My breakdown cover will be invalid soon unless I can prove I have satifactorily remedied the problem or at least been seen have.

I should probably add the ignition has at some point in the past had a Porsche immobiliser fitted which is key fob operated. Could this be part if the problem and would it just be wise to have it removed?

Happy to answer any further questions if anybody has any.

Thanks
Ross

Electrical resistance increases with heat. A coil could certainly be causing your issue. As you say start by replacing that. Beyond that I would recommend getting a can of good contact cleaner like servisol super 10 and open any connectors of components that could be causing this issue and clean them up. Start with the ecu. Do the ignition switch too.

Immobilisers
I don't trust 'em with 30 year old electrics.

I had similar symptoms, infrequent cutting out. If just after its stopped you can check for a spark that would determine if it's electrics. Mine ended up being a bad connection in the hall sensor. Wvm

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Have you checked the fuel line and filter? Have you tried restarting after a few minutes?

2 connection to definitely check first.
Behind the air filter are 2 wires secured to the engine bay. These are for the fuel pump. Disconnect, clean and check.
Second is on the front engine wall but to the left hand side. Probably grey and green. Same again.
In these two areas my wires were so corroded they fell apart in the hands.


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