Engine cuts out mysteriously, now won't start

[HJ2]

Was the FPR ruled out as a possible cause?

[madbilly]

Hi all,

Thanks for the part references David, they will definitely come in useful for future. Worth putting all this in the wiki?

HJ, I'm sure you would have it fixed in a jiffy! However they only wanted to take the car to a "real" garage, which is why I needed to find a friendly one to receive it near our new home. The FPR maybe a cause, I was only told that the cause was a faulty fuel pump, they couldn't tell me what was ruled out. Now that the car will be returned to me unrepaired I can try to test everything before I order any new parts. To be honest, apart from the cost, this is the outcome I am happiest with because it means I get to fix it myself!

ADAC told me that moving to the UK will cause cancellation of my membership so it sounds like they're clamping down on non-German residence of members.

Cheers

[madbilly]

Hi all,

Not got the Elan back yet. It was collected by the transporter Car Port last week and i think it might be somewhere in Germany now!

I was thinking about the cause again. The few times i was able to get it going again required me to keep the revs up. Final attempt it would only cough and splutter when trying to rev and would otherwise die. Does this make the pump or pressure regulator more likely than wiring or relay?

Cheers

[esprit888]

I’m fighting a very similar issue on my daughters GTI right now. We had a killer (literally) heat dome for 4 days at plus 40 Celsius and it died repeatedly on her way home. Narrowed it down to an overheated fuel pump relay which would fail only when temperatures were over 38. Heat is the enemy of all energize to run relays and the poor coil couldn’t handle it anymore at plus 40 ambient (some areas were 48.7 which is 120 Fahrenheit, toasty). A Relay would be a cheap and quick item to eliminate as your issue.

[madbilly]

Hi esprit888,

Thanks for sharing your experience, that sounds similar. I heard on the news that the last few days have been horrendously hot in BC, is that where you are? Record temperature for Canada I heard. The day I got the fault wasn't the hottest day of our trip, but the preceding days had definitely been hot - although only low 30s, nothing like your recent experience!

Anyway, plenty to test!

Cheers

[madbilly]

And the correct answer was....
....!
The immobiliser!

Yes, really.

Now it's started running on less than the full set of cylinders for some reason, so I need to fix that this weekend so I can get the car taken for an MOT, then I can send off the registration forms. I've also discovered that now I'm resident in the UK it's actually illegal for me to drive a foreign registered car here... which makes life very problematic.

Cheers

[Owen L]

Can I ask how you diagnosed the immobiliser as the issue and how you fixed it? Mine is having an intermittent wont start issue and i think its the immobiliser but only just starting to research symptoms and causes and fixes.

[madbilly]

Hi Owen,
Just by process of elimination, but it was a garage that did it, not me this time unfortunately.
Cheers

[Owen L]

No worries, thanks for getting back to me. I think my immobiliser is not getting through to the fuel pump consistently. there will be things i can check there im sure. have the wiring diagrams now, so will try to locate things like the isolation bridge on the car and inspect.

[madbilly]

Hi everyone,
Turns out it wasn't the immobiliser. I will rant about the useless bodgers who "diagnosed" this in another thread. The actual problem was the fuel pump relay, which I diagnosed by replacing with a working one from behind the instrument binnacle (the horns relay).
Cheers

[GeoffSmith]

Does the fuel pump relay click when the ignition is switched on? The fuel pump relay is a slim ‘micro relay’ and is used in most modern cars but I think there’s a spare (but used) under the binnacle?

Look here:

http://wikilec.com/view/Relays

[madbilly]

Indeed Geoff, the answer was there all along, if only I'd had more time to try and figure it out.
Cheers

[peteoddcar]

Lesson here for all - carry a couple of spare relays.
May I relate to a similar failure mode but an entirely different car.
Brother has a 1999 SLK - several intermittent breakdowns immobiliser and a dodgy key fob blamed, specialist garage had it for a week no fault found - not happy he decided to drive to mine for me to look at - absolutely fine.
So I looked on line no real help - K Relay might be dodgy so I with it hot and running I whacked the K Relay box and it stuttered - aha poor connection at the harness - clean tidy all good. Whacked it again perfect fixed
Had diner go to drive home nothin* - it was the pump relay on the K Relay Board - intermittent contact
K Relay abou5 £ 300 new surface mount relays x 5 from Farnell about £20
Fitted car been great since. The

[madbilly]

Yes, it's definitely worthwhile carrying having some spare relays around, I need to make sure I've got all the ones needed.
Cheers