Why won't my car start?

[Station]

OK, it's back to the (fucking) MGF and why it takes about 10 minutes to start in the morning. I've tried asking on the MGRover forum, but they don't seem to be knowledgable beyond 'change for Bosch spark plugs and 150 quid magnacor HT leads', and asking on here I expect you've all had experience with some terrible cars so far!

Once it's going, it starts on the key, but in the morning after being sat overnight it's a nightmare to start. It needs the battery charging up halfway through to continue the efforts. Taking the plugs out a few times on the way, they're wet with fuel - and drying them out sometimes makes a difference, but they're probably covered in fuel by the time I put them back in. Sometimes unplugging the injectors (the wiring loom), it'll splutter and try to start, but no fuel. It seems to be overfuelling ... ? The car runs awful under load, which it has done about a week after MOT'ing it (after changing the engine).

I've so far changed -=everything=- apart from the lambda sensor and the ECU.

Obviously, spending two hours starting the car in the morning isn't acceptable, and apart from driving the shed off a cliff, I don't have any other choice but to try and get it running somehow.

After about ten minutes of turning the engine over, it'll eventually start.

HELP!

[Rocket88]

Are you getting a decent spark at the plugs? Might be worth investing on one of those see through in line HT lead testing thingies that clip on at the end of the HT lead, and then to the plug. Also, try tow starting it from cold, and see what happens.

[M'coli]

Does narrowing the plug gap help?

[mk1_4dr]

Timing out? escRot behaved like this when it wasn't set up properly, a little twist of the dissy and it fired up umpteen times more readily.

 

Thats a wild guess though...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

^^^^You can't twist the dizzy in these things.

 

My 220 behaved like that till I changed the plugs n leads out of 'sheer desperation', after which it was like a new car. However i guess you have done that already?

[Station]

I've changed the plugs three times so far, also changed the leads the same amount (including an ebay special where all the terminals came free from the wire when you pulled them off the spark plug - class!). You'd think I'd find the problem by now, even went as far as changing the engine wiring loom last night. What's the gap on the spark plug for these?

[Rusty Pelican]

Had exactly this on my Imp , took a year to find it , and it was --------------------------------------------------------- The coil , not sure what the MGF has ( or coil pack etc ) but thats my 2 pence worth

[Station]

I've swapped the coil over - exactly the same symptoms on both.

There's a healthy (ie a lot) amount of that white limescaley looking stuff on the points on the distributor cap. I scraped them off with the end of a screwdriver and it seemed to 'want' to start (it started). I stopped the car after a minute of running, and tried again and it just is determined to not want to start, it's a very lumpy stupid hesitation before starting, and the usually farting out of the inlet.

The white scaley stuff was cleaned off a couple of weeks ago, it shouldn't come back that quickly surely?

[theorganist]

I had the same problem on the R14.

 

I changed the air filter and it started straight away!!

[Station]

Wish it was that simple - argh!

[Barry Cade]

Try the throttle position witch- you should hear it click as you open the throttle slightly- IIRC it is adjustable.Also check the idle air control valve- these can stick. How does it idle when its running?

[barefoot]

Have you checked/adjusted the grungle pins?

[pogweasel]

I really think you should put this one out of it's misery. It clearly has no interest in living.

[Pete-M]

Plug it in and ask it what the bloody problem is.

 

Also, if it's overfuelling its nuts off... how come you've changed everything but the lambda sensor?

 

Wasn't this an MG HGF recently? How much oil and coolant did it spew through the exhaust?

 

Keep it simple. Suck, squeeze, bang, blow. If there's air, compression and a good strong spark then it's gonna be fuel related, etc. To make it really simple, they fitted an OBD system which any Land Rover specialist worth it's salt will have.

[Des]

I looked at a modern VW a while ago, similar symptoms, was overfuelling to buggery, there was a dodgy temperature sensor making jive talk to the ecu about it being frosty when it was sweaty balls hot. Has it got a rotor arm, they can leak the spark to earth, you can check this by holding the coil lead near the centre of the rotor and spinning over, should give you a good jolt rather than make a spark.

[Station]

Grundle pins fully checked for grundleness, they're fine!

Coolant leaking from the front of the block only, compression is fine, and K-seal cured that. It clearly does not want to continue living.

I don't actually know if it's overfuelling, it's been on OBD and nothing came up. But the tester did provide a couple of half arsed grunts and lit up a fag in my car. Clearly a pro. I said the middle section was leaking and he claimed that's why it was doing it.

There's a couple of factors against because I'm going away soon and not spending another pence on it until after wards.

[Rod/b]

Where are you based? And is it a VVC?

[dieselnutjob]

if you are anywhere near London you are welcome to put my Bosch KTS on it

it says it supports

Mems MPI 1.9

Mems 2J

[Station]

I'm ACROSS THE MEEEERSEEEY from Liverpool, it's a simple MPi non-VVC jobby.

 

I checked the distributor cap yesterday and scraped the white deposits off the terminals - I don't know if I said this in my previous postings.

 

Turned the key 16 hours after it had ran and it started first time ... why are there humongous deposits being left on the terminals? Is the gap between the rotor and the points too large? Interweb says it's corrosion from humidity/oxygen, but it has to be more than that, especially after cleaning them less than two weeks ago.

[ashmicro]

Possibly the wrong rotor arm and/or cap. PM me your registration number, and I'll check it on the Rover system

[Station]

It's Xxxxxx Thanks!!

 

Was driving back home today, btw did I tell you it's terrible to drive? Anyways, it cuts out at a junction, at this point it's really playing up, no power under any load. And then a huge hiss. I thought the head gasket had somehow blown (surely not!), but on checking, it had blown a pipe on the inlet off. This leads me to believe there's some massive build-up of pressure. I once blanked off a dump valve port on an engine, and it had blown off the 'blank' thing, so this must be fairly immense. I've replaced the cat - the backbox is a second hand replacement - could this be blocked?

[ashmicro]

Part #s for MGF, chassis number ending in 812

 

Cap-distributor NJD10010

Rotor arm NJE100070

Screw for rotor arm JZV1042

 

(MGR part numbers)

 

Cross ref for rotor arm is LUCAS 47661S

 

Any decent motor factors should be able to cross reference the MGR part numbers to Lucas/Intermotor/Fuelparts etc.

[Rod/b]

Sticking valve(s)?

[Rod/b]

Actually, balls to it. Scrap the fucker.