The VL is dead

[sully]

Finally i feel the sting of not having a car.... for the first time in the ten years that we've had the car it has died. in my books thats an excellent innings... it seems to be just an electrical failure however... heres what happened: driving along the freeway, all of a sudden no warning at all the engine just stops. no struggling or choking it just stops, but i still have all the electrics ie power steering and brakes, so i pull over and try to start it again... turns over, but there's no spark. there's power at the ignition relay, but no power at the dizzy, check the connections and they seem to be fine, but still no start.... after about 10 mins of sitting there trying to imagine what it could be, just for the heck of it i try to start it one more time and it works like it was never broken. go figure... so i drive it home and go to bed for the night... this morning, get up to go to work, same problem... sparks gone again and this time it's not comming back... called racv he couldn't fix it but he organised a tow to the local(ish) auto electrician. btw both the racv guy and the towie were both top blokes can't speak of them highly enough...
anyone wanna take a guess at what's wrong?
sorry for the long post.... it just hurts so much not having a car, its never happened before.

josh

[bangers]

it'd have to be a faulty lead wouldn't it? you sure theres no spark at the dizzy?

[sully]

it'd have to be a faulty lead wouldn't it? you sure theres no spark at the dizzy?

no nothing... the leads have been onthere for a while but the racv guy traced the cabling as far under the engine as he could (which was a long way before the dizzy ) and there was no charge... it would seem its just abroken wire between the dizzy & the relay... will find out on monday though

[harry3]

I dont know the answer but older holdens were knowt to break copper wires that were vibrated from the engine due to the copper being brittle and eventually breaking due to metal fatigue

[sully]

I dont know the answer but older holdens were knowt to break copper wires that were vibrated from the engine due to the copper being brittle and eventually breaking due to metal fatigue

entirely likely...

[jNINE]

Crank Angle Sensor perhaps? It's a typical VL thing.

[MarzVP]

Have similar thing happen with my VP my mate (mechanic) reckons it might be the ignition plate my cover on the wires to the plate is non existant.

[Trevor 062]

I'd be thinking the CAS..too

[vlv8vic]

coil? i mean no spark screams screwed coil or main lead.

[anfsvl]

ey i onli got my hands on a vl like 4 months ago i got told the Crank Angle Sensor was busted turns out the mechanic told me if it turns ova n sparks tht aint it so my guess is tht is it....or if its not i had tht problem locted down on the distrubter cap the main lead pull it of n wit fine sand paper file the inside of the main hole of the cap n plug her bak in if tht aint it i dunno

[wilkovl]

Crank angle sensor id say mate

[vp ss 5 cogs]

crank sensors are touchy on one of my vls i washed the engine and couldnt
get the thing started again spent half the day on it then put whole dizzy which was dry in the hot water cupboard over night after a brief stint in the
oven next morning car was great this lasted about a year



dont get caught putting engine parts in the oven

[sully]

can't remember exactly what he said but its something to do with the distributor and the wiring around it... cost me 350 bucks.. prob getting ripped off but i need the car...

dont get caught putting engine parts in the oven

huh?

[anfsvl]

bro i told ya use sum sand paper rool it up n sand the inside of the distrubuter cap onli the center plugh hole if tht dont work get a new lead from the start to the distrbuter...i got a spare if u want it

[albino1986]

personally i would think your crank angle sensor plug, if the plug itself is not going to well all it takes is a little bump and the car will just stop my car was missing hard at certain revs in each gear, replaced the CAS plug works fine now

40 bucks for the plug n 20 for labour

if its your whole CAS pm darkstorm at www.calaisturbo.com.au
he has full CAS kits for like 160 delivered

[sully]

it ended up beign the distributor bearing, distributor, and the cas, and 350 bucks... dunno if that was a bit steep but i needed my car...

[vlv8vic]

sounds ok mate. jobs right now anyway

[norticus]

a few months ago now, i had the same sort of problem. driving down a busy road in sydney, car jus stops. wont start again. nrma guy comes round starts prodding at different things with a lil electrical device (my knowledge of cars is limited) and then got it started. went to the auto electrician found out i needed a new crank angle sensor and the plug that goes with it. cost me around $300 as well, so either u didnt get ripped off, or we both did. that problem is fine now, its the other problems that are annoying me now.

[Stewart1000]

yeah vlv8vic's probably right, it might be the coil pack but yeah it could be something wrong with the ignition too

[sully]

hey guys have noticed after the car was fixed, it seems to be getting about 100k's less to a tank... the car runs on gas, and usually gets about 350 to 400ks but now about 250... would this be a result of the work done or just a coincidence and something else is stuffed...