6 replies to this topic

[dancin stu]

Hi All,

 

My car has been SORN'ed for the past year, and hasn't been started for about 9 months due to various other life commitments, so figured the Christmas break would be a good chance to get it going. 

 

Prior to the long break without starting, I started it every month or so and let it idle for 10 minutes or so and it never gave me any dramas, starting relatively easily.

 

So, tried a couple of days ago, and the engine will barely crank, it sounds as it would when you have a very flat battery, things tried and investigated so far, all with no additional success:

 

1) Brand new battery

2) Jump starting

3) Remove and clean (wet and dry and servisol) both battery terminals

4) Pulled coil cover off: the plug hole near the EGR valve had some water in it, I removed this,and removed the spark plugs which showed no water in the bore. The cylinder head was new 3 years ago (cracked) and has only had circa 2000 miles put on it since with the plugs remaining in all the time. The header tank is also still full. 

5) Cranked with no plugs in. This showed that the engine is actually cranking (torch down onto the tops of the pistons)

 

Reading through the forum, there are a couple of threads with similar issues described:

 

a) http://www.vx220.org...er-very-slowly/

 

This suggests an iffy ground, would a jump lead between negative terminal and gearbox case be sufficient to replicate does anyone know?

 

 http://www.vx220.org...otor-is-broken/

 

Is there a guide for removing the starter? Couldn't see anything on the stickys. If not, is it an easy job

 

Also I thought maybe cranking by hand would be worth a shot but not sure how to do this, again, any advice on this

 

Any other thoughts greatly appreciated

 

Cheers

 

Stu

 

 

[jonnyboy]

Try powering starter directly

[jonnyboy]

PS yes dodgy ground 

[dancin stu]

Try powering starter directly

 

Cheers for the advice, how easy is this to do? Literally a case of ignition on, and apply 12V from an external source across the starter motor direct?

 

I had a poke around but couldn't see where you would access the starter from

 

Cheers

[The Batman]

​i would clean the battery terminals and test the battery for voltage to see what you get before messing around with the starter motor 

 

fyi remove undertray and you will see the starter motor

[dancin stu]

​i would clean the battery terminals and test the battery for voltage to see what you get before messing around with the starter motor 

 

fyi remove undertray and you will see the starter motor

 

On the meter it was > 12.4V, I didn't have enough hands to see what it was dropping to on cranking, but the instrument cluster was still functioning and the Stack didn't brown out on me

 

I think I'll have to have a poke around under the car tomorrow; frustratingly it's currently on gravel so could be a fun day trying to get under it.....!

 

Cheers

[vocky]

check the negative cables where they attach to the chassis - next to battery and next to gearbox