Club 80-90 Forums

Can any one help ? I have an unusual engine combination apparently in my Auto Sleeper Trident, it has caused quite a few headaches for garages I have tried. Having just had a service ready for a trip to France on the 20th of this month, two days later it stopped. The engine was turning but would not start, having left it for a while I tried again - nothing. A garage came out to tow it to the garage, at the time there seemed to be nothing wrong with it until it stopped for the mechanic also, there seemed to be no spark from the coil. Two days later it is still at the garage and running ok, the mechanic is reluctant to let me have it back because the fault is intermittant and he doesn't want it to cause me problems for my France trip. The ECU unit was replaced with a reconditioned unit about 12 months ago. If any one has any ideas it would be great as I am not mechanically minded at all. Many thanks Simon

DH engine code? High compression 1.9 destined for the N. American market?

Sounds just like her, Mark.

Pictures of the engine might help.

Only DH engine I saw had a Weber carb replacing the injection kit on it - less hassle, innit.

Sounds like classic TCI or hall sender giving its notice to me.

Many thanks for your time in giving me some ideas etc, the engine number is DG152702 (this was new in 2001). Sorry to sound stupid but what is the "TCI or HALL SENDER thats giving its notice". Really gratefull for any help, thank you, Simon

DG? With fuel injection? How odd. It sounds as if either a DH or DJ has been replaced with a DG motor (probably due to availability), but is still running with the injection kit on it .

What's the engine number on the V5 registration document? This should be the original number, unless it's been updated by the recon fitter.

IIRC hall sender's a part of the dizzi..... not to good on all these 'moving parts' engine systems......

c11babe wrote:Many thanks for your time in giving me some ideas etc, the engine number is DG152702 (this was new in 2001). Sorry to sound stupid but what is the "TCI or HALL SENDER thats giving its notice". Really gratefull for any help, thank you, Simon

Hall sender gives engine position signal to TCI, this then produces an output to the ignition coil to produce a spark. TCI's are very cheap becuase of how common they are (same unit on most vw's). I would replace TCI and try it. It is located on the left hand side of engine bay.

Collecting my camper tomorrow from the garage, it still hasn't had the same problem of not starting whilst at the garage not even after it has been used as a run about or left ticking over for two hours. They are going to fit a new coil tomorrow as a precautionary step as I don't want any problems whilst I am away, will keep you posted, many thanks for the support offered etc.

The engine number given is the engine code on the V5, it wasn't changed when the new engine went in - I don't know the reason for this but I know I did ask the VW garage at the time as I thought I would have had to inform DVLA etc.

Will use my camper as my daily driver for the next two weeks prior to my holiday just to make sure everything is ok, fingures crossed,

Cheers once again for all your help, look forward to any other information any one may have, Simon

silly and poss not the prob, but i had an engine which was sat around for a while and would not start,replaced everything still no spark.
turned out to be the earth to the dizzy.
just loosening then tightenrng the screw sorted it
check the silly things often overlooked,
plus keep all the old parts, they will be good for spares if the probs not fixed

Does remind me of some ignition problems I had with my Golf, which were finally traced to a bad earth.

Replace the strap that earths at the front of the gearbox - could well be the source of your problems.