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The Doom Blue 1990 Mk3 Cavalier 1.8L- 999 Michael Buerk


MrSteve

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Sounds like you've got sod all getting to the ignition amp.

 

Does it have a tacho? If so, does it move at all when you try to start it?

If not I would be starting to look at all the places the old alarm was hooked in because those Scorpion ones were set up to kill the ignition and fuel pump, from memory.

Ignition feed from the switch powers up the ignition amplifier module, I believe that feed was switched by the immobilizer, rather than the pulse signal from the ignition computer. If the pulse signal were cut then I'd expect an erratic but strong spark at the king lead and the car to occasionally try to fire.

 

Crummy yellow spark suggests the power feed to the ignition amp/coil setup (where the tach, if fitted, gets its signal from).

 

Someone on here should have a manual, one of the pins on one of the plugs of the amplifier module will be switched live, I would start there with a volt meter.

 

Phil

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Not sure. I replaced the plastic/rubber ring around the base of the gear stick, but that made no difference.  It actually changes gear fine from cold, but then within a mile or so it gets obstructive. It's only done 63k miles and I was thinking it's probably on the original gearbox oil which might be as thin as piss now and then gets even thinner as it warms. It's not noisy, so it's not all bad!

 

If new oil doesn't cure it then Haynes says I can reset the gear linkage position.

 

 

 

 

 

Try resetting it first. Its a simple job using a 13mm spanner and a 6mm drill bit to lock the selector in position.

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OK...I had yet another fiddle with the Cav this afternoon...

 

First thing I did was try crank sensor no.3 that postie dropped off yesterday. Turned it over- no joy. Removed said sensor.

 

Refitted crank sensor no.2. Turned it over- nothing.

 

Then I remembered that I had unplugged the ignition amp earlier today to check the LT voltage...muppet. Plugged it back in.

 

Turned it over yet again- still nothing.

 

Then I remembered that I had taken off the king lead earlier to measure it- it's a metre long, should be nearer 30cm.

 

Connected that back up then thought I would have one final go before giving up for the day.

 

Turned the key, cranked it over- nothing. Then I thought I'd keep cranking it until I flattened the battery- nothing to lose!

 

So I cranked it over...5 seconds...10...15...20...starting to crank a bit slower now...25 seconds...engine now making weird noises like the engine is occasionally reversing direction...30 seconds...then suddenly it fired up on all 4 cylinders. It was properly alive!

 

Except I noticed the EML was now on, so re-checked under the bonnet and noticed I had forgotten to plug the MAP sensor back in after checking the supply voltage the other day. Engine now running even better.

 

Thinking it was a fluke, I switched off the ignition, and then tried starting it again. It started again- like normal, with the usual sub-2 seconds of cranking.

 

What. The. Hell. Just. Happened!?

 

I then put the air filter housing back on, tightened the battery clamp and dropped the bonnet.

 

Throwing caution to the wind, I have now booked its MOT for Thursday, giving me Wednesday to go over it and check the front brakes again.

 

:-D

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The engine management light on our old 1992 1.8 carb fed cav used to be random.

Given there is a carb, with a shite autochock, no Cat, no sensors in the exhaust, no knock sensors, I didnt really understand what it could tell you.

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Vulgalour- I might risk getting the right length king lead from the coil. The Cav can't take umbrage at that, surely?

 

New POD- I don't understand how the EML was triggered by the MAP sensor not being connected, yet didn't light up after cranking it over with the crank sensor unplugged. Just odd.

 

Plus to get fault codes to flash up you only have to bridge 2 pins at the diagnostic socket and switch the ignition on- and it never logged any fault codes. Must be that qualz Intel '80 chip.

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Vulgalour- I might risk getting the right length king lead from the coil. The Cav can't take umbrage at that, surely?

 

New POD- I don't understand how the EML was triggered by the MAP sensor not being connected, yet didn't light up after cranking it over with the crank sensor unplugged. Just odd.

 

Plus to get fault codes to flash up you only have to bridge 2 pins at the diagnostic socket and switch the ignition on- and it never logged any fault codes. Must be that qualz Intel '80 chip.

 

 

It's carb fed ? If the emissions are right they are right. Remove bulb from cluster? The EML will flash on and off for fun. I don't believe it has a brain big enough to store fault codes. 

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I hate it when things resolve without finding the cause. makes me worry that it will happen again without warning.

 

I have a soft spot for these old Cavaliers. I had one identical to this in colour and trim but was the 1.4 variety.

The waterpump went in a mcDonalds drive through somewhere in Warwickshire so we towed it to a nearby cousin with a workshop and had a new pump and cambelt fitted within an hour. Good times

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It's carb fed ? If the emissions are right they are right. Remove bulb from cluster? The EML will flash on and off for fun. I don't believe it has a brain big enough to store fault codes. 

 

Yes- Pierburg job.

 

Gunson used to sell a fault code reader to flash up whichever of the 20 possible fault codes you could have on the carbed models.

 

PS Stop dissing my Intel '80 chip!  ;-) 

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A metre long HT lead? Blast from the past the make your own leads up. Fuck those off straight away. A set of proper leads for that will be pence.

 

I’m not teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here but are you sure it wasn’t gassed? I do remember those old varijet carbs could be a bit shit a la Ford VV. From memory they replaced those with the Pierburg units. It’s been about 10-15 years since I’ve had any dealings with Cavaliers, which is a shame as they were really nice motors.

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Aaaaand it's dead again.

 

Following yesterday's surprise delight at it starting, this morning I checked all the bulbs and one of the rear tail lights was out. I then thought I would start it up and run it for a bit. Dead- cranking over, but no sign of life again.

 

Grrr!

 

Now charging the battery up again to give it another long cranking session later today.

 

Looks like Vulgalour was right!

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New POD- I don't understand how the EML was triggered by the MAP sensor not being connected, yet didn't light up after cranking it over with the crank sensor unplugged. Just odd.

 

 

 

I wonder if it even knew it was being cranked without a signal from the crank sensor?

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Good luck with the MOT.

Doom blue mk3 Cavs always remind me of this chap. Fingers crossed she’s up and running for the test. Great cars, massively popular back in the day, and for good reason.

 

post-4721-0-13133900-1534936742_thumb.jpeg

 

And just because it’s so damn good...

 

https://youtu.be/CQsMFQZa8os

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K849ARD was a BMW press car! I wonder if they were all actors?

I started watching that recently, had to put it off as I couldn't believe what a bunch of twats they all were.

Surely none would have kept their jobs had the fleet managers seen it on the telly.

And was anyone really that obsessed with L, GL base etc.

 

I suspect that you may have hit the nail on the head with that.

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It's not flooding itself when left sitting is it?

 

The ignition system in this is pretty simple, so I'd probably proceed as follows.

 

Is the ignition system fed via a relay? If so check it. Or jumper it out for testing so you know it's getting a solid 12V. Especially if there's a bunch of positive feeds crimped together at the battery end. I've seen it where one of those fails before. In that case it left a car which would crank just fine, had working headlights, but was otherwise resolutely dead.

 

Check *EVERY* ground you can find. I'd stick a new earth strap engine-body and body-battery on a car of this age anyway... they're pennies and it's insurance against future problems.

 

You've got a wiring diagram, and it's a pretty simple system...so if you're still having problems it might be worth getting a meter out and just testing out each wire to ensure there are no breaks or high resistance connections involved. Especially the ground path from the coil - as no solid ground there will mean weak or no spark.

 

My gut feeling is that this is a dodgy ground...

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And was anyone really that obsessed with L, GL base etc.

.

 

bluddy right they were- somehow my step father managed to get a chavalier 1600L estate when he was "entitled" to a L model hunchbach or a base estate and soon after its arrival i remember the L badge "getting lost" in case someone noticed!

when that got replaced he had reached the dizzy heights of a mk3 SRi 130!

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Fitted the battery this morning and the bleeder started first time.

 

However, it was idling like crap and kept stalling- which it hasn't done before. Marvellous.

 

So off with the air intake and out with the can of carb cleaner (again). Revved the nuts off it, sprayed it into every carb orifice I could see and it eventually settled down.

 

Reassembled the air intake and took it for an italian tune-up on the local bypass before heading for the MOT test station.

 

It is now in their hands...!

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And was anyone really that obsessed with L, GL base etc.

Yes. The 80's and 90's company rep was absolutely desperate to have the best car possible, and fleet managers were desperate to keep the costs to a minimum. The whole reason why repmobiles had the model designation on the back was because of badge snobbery.

 

An old boss of mine was a sales team manager at the height of this absurdity and some of the stories he had to tell were just unbelievable. One of which was that when one of his senior sales staff left, he then had a car that was still on lease but not being used. He was just going to give it to the new guy, but there was utter outrage from all the existing staff, as it was a higher specification car than they had, and how dare it go to the new guy.

 

So *Everyone* in the sales team had to play swapsies with their cars, so that the highest specification car went to the most senior or best performing salesman, and the new guy got the shittest car they had on fleet, with everyone else being spread out in between.

 

Unbefuckingleavable.

 

Mind you, the same happend to a friend about 10 years ago. He was junior in the company, so "only" got a Fabia, but had to do a lot of miles, and the fabia is not very comfortable for someone 6'3". His boss, being more senior, had an Octavia, but doesn't actually drive that much and doesn't like large cars. So they swap, and they are both happy with it. Senior management then tells them that they're not allowed to do that and to swap back, as it means their vehicle doesn't represent their seniority in the company.

 

He left a short while later...

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