shesminetoo

Driving to work this morning and loving every minute of it, my heart skipped a beat as she suddenly lost power. Had to pull over in peak hour traffic, hazard lights flashing.

The car would idle, but the moment you press the accelerator pedal she just splutters and dies. When I start her again, she would drive about 30 yards and then cut out again. Did that a few times until I could get into a side road. Wiggled a few relays (suspecting DME naturally) and she fired up ran like a dream all the way into work. It felt like fuel starvation, but the fact that it went away that suddenly leads me to suspect electric fault. Another curious thing that happened just a few minutes prior to this, is that the fuel gauge suddenly showed empty with the fuel light coming on, whilst there definitely was at least half a tank of fuel left. As I drove on, the fuel needle gradually rose back to the half mark. Shortly after that the car started cutting out.

Could it be related to the dodgy ignition switch? I have to give it a few wiggles when I start the car to get all the electrics to come on everytime I start it. There seems to be a bad connection in the ignition switch. Probably due to wear. The PO must have had a heavy bunch of keys. I hope so, 'cause I'll have that checked out at the next service due in 4k kms. Or is this classic faulty DME behaviour? BTW, the car got a new Bosch fuel pump installed about 10k kms ago.

Any ideas?

Frans

Richard Curtis

before you do anything else, try this: disconnect the negative battery terminal (in fact, disconnect both battery terminals) and clean the terminals and the battery cable ends. Also clean the cable-to-body end (you'll need to remove the battery but that's a small thing; one bolt). Apparently -- and this is true in cold, damp weather -- corrosion can build up and prevent the easy flow to and fro of Mr. and Mrs. Electron and their many little Electrons. I had this happen to me last week and symptoms were similar to yours. Cleaning the electrical connections cured it. Plus, it was free.

shesminetoo

Thanks Richard, I'll try this tonight.

Jim Howley

I have also had this happen but my earth strap was not worth keeping, cost about £9 for a new one.

shesminetoo

I had a look down there and the strap/battery etc. looks very clean and in good condition. I undid the bolt and cleaned the connections. Not much to see, though when all was back together again It seemed OK and I couldn't replicate the igniton key problem. Time will tell as it always does with intermittent faults!

I'll keep you posted! Thanx again..