The Doctor's travels through time - The End - of chapter 1

[lesapandre]

Find a country pub with a log fire and hunker down. The weather is awful here in London. 

[DoctorRetro]

The good thing about this weather.... 

Free car wash! 

 

[DoctorRetro]

Back home now, traffic wasn't too bad. We seemed to avoid all the bad roads. There were incidents on the M1, A1M, M11, A14, Dartford Bridge and A13. There was a bit of a hold up where some unlucky sod had his classic yank cut out on the M25, but he looked like he was coaxing it back to life as we went past. 

The car has behaved perfectly, doing about 500 miles, and just notching over the 60,000 mark. And I don't feel like I've driven that many miles, so that says something about how comfortable it is.

 

[DoctorRetro]

£1.49 later and the bonnet stay now has a new catch, the cable tie holding it up previously had long since given up the ghost. 

 

[Jim Bell]

Cheap fixes are the best fixes. 

[Six-cylinder]

8 hours ago, TheDoctor said:

£1.49 later and the bonnet stay now has a new catch, the cable tie holding it up previously had long since given up the ghost. 

 

Why did I put up with a cable tie to hold the bonnet stay for the sake of £1.49!

[DoctorRetro]

[BL Bloke]

8 hours ago, TheDoctor said:

£1.49 later and the bonnet stay now has a new catch, the cable tie holding it up previously had long since given up the ghost. 

 

I need to get one of those for my Saxo.

 

[DoctorRetro]

AX has started randomly cutting out at junctions, usually when warm and after having driven at speed. 

It's been fuelling funny since I got it, hot starting is a pain. It always smells flooded when you come back to it after it has been sitting. 

Any thoughts? 

I sprayed around the carb with cleaner, but couldn't detect any air leaks. 

I might replace all vacuum pipes just to be safe. 

[DoctorRetro]

AX has started randomly cutting out at junctions, usually when warm and after having driven at speed. 

It's been fuelling funny since I got it, hot starting is a pain. It always smells flooded when you come back to it after it has been sitting. 

Any thoughts? 

I sprayed around the carb with cleaner, but couldn't detect any air leaks. 

I might replace all vacuum pipes just to be safe. 

[dozeydustman]

Could be one of many things.
 

try with the hoses first,

Does sound typical of ignition coil (I can’t remember if later TU have a coil & dizzy or distributorless ign) or high tension side of the ignition system starting to fail.

Could also be the fuel pump is overfuelling and flooding the carb.

Carb or fuel line has a leak which only manifests when hot.

I’d bank on the coil myself. If you can check the LT & HT resistances.

[dozeydustman]

Ball park for coil resistances, but check against an HBoL if you have one.

[DoctorRetro]

Urgh. 

I hate electrickery. 

[DoctorRetro]

This looks like fun*

I think I need the manual... 

 

[DoctorRetro]

In other non-news, if I hadn't noticed the line about the high clutch, I'd have been up in Chelmsford today, trying to thrust cash at the seller of this... 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fiat-Tipo-1995-Modern-Classic/153844527725

 

Because what is more rusty and less reliable than a 28 year old Citroën? 

[Wingz123]

Clutch wouldn't be too much to do on that

[DoctorRetro]

What is this part? 

I'm presuming some sort of fuel reservoir, bypassing it makes car feel like it's running better, no hesitation or cutting out. 

Maybe there's a blockage or something? 

Will leave it off for a few miles and see if problem reoccurs. 

Edit - Nope, red herring, see below... 

 

[DoctorRetro]

For fucks sake. 

Fault is 100% random

I can start the car 10 times in a row. Scenario 1 - it will start and run at 1100 rpm (I've turned it up to try to diagnose). Scenario 2 - it will start, splutter a bit and run at about 400 rpm, trying to stall. 

Either scenario it revs and drives fine, but with both it will fall back down to the above idling state when you let the accelerator off. 

You can sort of 'trick' it to sorting itself out, by pulling the choke out a bit, revving, then pushing it back in. 

That leads me to think something like a diaphragm is sticking maybe? 

[DoctorRetro]

 

 

[DoctorRetro]

 

 

[spartacus]

Take the coil of and check the underside for damage. The one on my mk 3 Golf was exactly the same as that visually and gave the symptoms you describe, on closer inspection it was obviously knackered.

[scdan4]

Does the choke mechanism shut off fully?

How shitty is the butterfly/ venturi/ float bowl?

What do the plugs look like?

How certain are you the carb/air filter are properly attached to the vehicle?

[somewhatfoolish]

  

33 minutes ago, TheDoctor said:

What is this part? 

 

It looks like a swirl pot or de-aerator kind of thing.

[DoctorRetro]

28 minutes ago, scdan4 said:

Does the choke mechanism shut off fully?

How shitty is the butterfly/ venturi/ float bowl?

What do the plugs look like?

How certain are you the carb/air filter are properly attached to the vehicle?

All disassembled and reattached, to my standard. 

Vacuum pipes replaced. 

I sortof know what I'm doing... 

[DoctorRetro]

29 minutes ago, spartacus said:

Take the coil of and check the underside for damage. The one on my mk 3 Golf was exactly the same as that visually and gave the symptoms you describe, on closer inspection it was obviously knackered.

The randomness of the fault does lent itself to an electrical issue. I haven't changed the leads since I got the car, I might do them and the coil together. 

Especially as two people have mentioned the coil now... 

[spartacus]

It took me a while to find it, it was worse in the wet obvs. The insulation had cracked on the underside.

I'm not saying it's definitely not fuel related, but when I was messing with older cars BITD, most 'fuelling' problems ended up being electrical!

[DoctorRetro]

Well, at least I don't have to worry about the AX being my only car while I fix it... 

[yes oui si]

2 minutes ago, TheDoctor said:

Well, at least I don't have to worry about the AX being my only car while I fix it... 

Yus. 

[loserone]

Roffle?

[DoctorRetro]

14 minutes ago, loserone said:

Roffle?

For the AX? Maybe. 

I'm going to do the coil and HT leads first then decide what to do. 

I might not gel with the Clio yet...