What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[bub2006]

The belt squeal will be alternator belt being damp. I would hazard a guess to electrics too seeing as its just thrown toys out the pram

[pshome]

this made me grin....

 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news/man-who-used-penis-signature-7131666

 

bad news for a well known autshiter though...

[twosmoke300]

Vulgalour , whip the dizzy cap off and clean the posts up as well as on the rotor arm

[DeeJay]

I'm stumped as to why my Rover won't start.  Properly stumped.  It tries very hard but can only manage as much as half a cough before churning and churning again.  It was fine when I parked it up and it was fine all the while I've been driving it the past few months, it's managed to break itself sat on the drive at home doing nothing.

It's your fault, you fixed the boot leak.

You should know better than that.

[vulgalour]

Oh Gods, the Shite Balance has been upset!  It really is all my fault.

 

Twosmoke:  did that today and it needed doing but made no discernible difference.  There was a corroded deposit on all four posts and a bleb on the rotor arm, I'm actually surprised it had been running so well given the state of them!

 

Had a bit of advice from a good friend who knows more than is perhaps healthy about Rovers and MGs, especially the venerable K series.  Here's what we discussed.

 

Me: so... car won't start.  It'll try very hard and even flood, but it won't start beyond a half-cough

 

Adam: right, so, you turn the key, it fires for 1/2 second and cut, then  just turn over and over until, you reset the key where it will repeat the above?

 

Me: I can keep cranking and it will keep trying to fire.  It's like it can't quite manage it.  So it's not just the jiggah-jiggah, it actually does half-fire but not enough to idle.  No symptoms at all of any issues for the last six months.  It's idled happily, pootled happily, been willing to be thrashed happily.  It was very surprising that it wouldn't start today

 

Adam: right, well thats all positive, means everything is tryuing to work, now, have you taken the centre lead out the cap and seen if there is a good strongf spark

 

Me: I have not, because foolishly I had convinced myself it was solid state electronic ignition, which it obviously isn't.  By the time I thought to do that it was too dark to do anything.  So, one thing a few people have suggested is a possible weak spark

 

Adam: yes, and I'll tell you why, your engine has a rotor cap on the end of the cam, you have a single coil pack down the back of the engine, they can go wrong, you need to see how good the spark is from the centre lead, if it's piss poor, could be bad lead or crud on the coil pack, or it's failing, what is more likely, same as what happened to bossmans petrol freelander early this year... same thing, wouldn't start, but good strong spark from middle lead, fuck all from the leads out the cap, replaced the rotor arm and cap and it ran a dream, seeing as you have removed a load of crud from your,s I'd say you have a simmilar failure.  The fact that it keeps trying means it should be getting fuel, so crank sensor must be working or injectors wouldn't go

 

Me: It's definitely getting fuel, you can smell it and you can hear the injectors doing their thing

 

Adam: then it's poor spark, or... does when it turn over sound like it's getting good compression, or is it spinning over too freely like the plugs might be out

 

Me: it sounds like it has compression, it's turning over quite healthily, another part of what was frustrating.

 

Adam: ok, if you can, try and do a compression test if you get the kit, what can happen sometimes is the hydraulic lifters will jack out and hold the valves just off closed and that will make them not start, usually poor oil service history will lead to that, it is fixable without removing the head but you do have to pull the cams, but thats worse case. I do belive you have had a rotor arm or cap failure or both, try those and get a new set of leads, and check the plugs too, not uncommon for the leads to start going to earth on those either.  I presume you have had the plugs ut so it's not a flooding of the spark plug well with oil or water

 

Me: I haven't even had the plugs out, when I thought to do that it was too dark and cold as the car is sat on the drive at the moment and I can't wheel it into the garage because of Mike's Triumph

 

 

Short version:  Check for weak spark.  It's probably just old components that have given up after many miles and years of use and need replacing.  Shouldn't be too much of a headache.

[D Spares & Tyres]

Exactly same thing happened to my MGF the other day

 

I thought rotor arm too but when I finally got to the engine I found that MGFs don't have distributer caps and rotor arms.....

[twosmoke300]

Older ones do

[Pillock]

Exactly same thing happened to my MGF the other day

 

I thought rotor arm too but when I finally got to the engine I found that MGFs don't have distributer caps and rotor arms.....

Then I'm either a much better, or much worse mechanic than I thought as I managed to replace both on mine

[fordperv]

Received my Autoshite bottom trumps today, they look bloody brilliant

 

 

Cheers castros_bro

[D Spares & Tyres]

Well on mine the leads just go straight round the back of the engine somewhere.

 

Mines a VVC if that makes a difference?

 

I'll have a proper look another day

[vulgalour]

I'll be checking spark tomorrow to try and eliminate the issue.  If I just do the service items (plugs, leads, rotor arm, &c.) then it's about £50.  Double that if I need to replace the single coil pack.  The ignition set up on the Rover is a bit odd because it still has the fairly conventional coil, plug leads and plugs but also has a single coil pack instead of the old style points.  It does make sense to renew as much of it as possible regardless but I've just spent a big chunk on pretty things so I've got to pick and choose what I replace next.

[fred]

I like this Garage

 

 

 

 

 

[KruJoe]

...running like a 3 legged dog...

 

That's ace, I'm gonna write that one down.

[michael1703]

Have you tried starting it with a set of jump leads? You may think it's spinning fast enough to catch but it may be spinning fast enough but not have enough power left for the ignition.

 

You should take the plugs out and clean them as they've been flooded anyway, push them in to the leads and crank it and check for a spark.

[andy18s]

Received my Autoshite bottom trumps today, they look bloody brilliant

DSC_1832.JPG

 

DSC_1833.JPG

 

Cheers castros_bro

Mine arrived yesterday as well,very nicely put together.

The Mrs has been tasked with finding a suitable laminator for when I can cut them down to size

Many thanks Castro!

 

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[Aston Martin]

Day 2 of my class 2 training, I'm glad I'm in a shiny new Scania, as the manual man's that I see look miserable... Most are army training tbf, the Leconfield lot, use Hull as their battleground.

[explosive-cabbage]

 

Face you pull when you realise that car you have been using for 3 years did have central locking...

 

 

[MikeKnight]

Guess you could say that knowledge... turned your whole world upside down.

 

[Sloth in a bowl]

Cooking rabbit with beer (and other stuff) tonight, kitchen smells like a brewery, lovely.

[Louise2cv]

Cavcraft mascot in the Buckteer Sno Challenge thread. LOLS.

[FakeConcern]

Listening to new Mark Kozelek album!

[cms206]

Angyl my gaffer's 130k mile K-series R8 Tourer shits its rotor arm every 5k miles without fail. Symptoms are more or less as you describe. More irritatingly he can take the rotor arm out of that one and put it in the mega mile 250k mile 416 kettle and it'll run fine.

[vulgalour]

Happily, rotor arms are dirt cheap and easy to get.  Haven't investigated it today, been full of the ill.

[cms206]

Wor lad Will and the late 205 of doom on BBC Alba...

[dome]

Watching this now. Teuchter Top Gear. Brunette is pretty good tho...

[cms206]

Watching this now. Teuchter Top Gear. Brunette is pretty good tho...

I'm surprised how unshit it actually is. For viewers in The South we're currently watching a feature where the presenters (two young females and two... men) are doing some sort of autotest in a P-reg Golf and an 07-plate Ka. It's like AS:TV LIVE

[cms206]

Air an Rathad/On The Road studios...

[Sloth in a bowl]

availible to soft southern shiters at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcalba

 

Personally finding DIY le Donnie a cracking watch. I'm doing this wrong again.

[trigger]

I've just watched last week's epsiode thinking its Will's one, which it isn't. Its a pretty good program actually!

[michael1703]

Marc Marquez aged 8