vl won't start

[madrx3boy]

hey guys. my 3litre na vl has just been sitting in the driveway for the past few weeks hasn't been moved or started, and i disconnected the battery straightaway coz i knew it wouldn't be driven for a while.

anyway, tried to start the other day,(battery connected and reading just under 12v which should be fine), i let the fuel pump prime, lights on the dash were on, then turned the key to start and nothing happened, starter motor made no noise at all, nothing.lights on dash stayed on and that was it.

i have checked the fuses under the bonnet. theyre all fine except there is no fuse for the low beams and the one for high beams looks like it melted. but all the lights work fine.

went to check the fuses to the right of steering column, removed the panel but theres what looks like a small ecu-shaped box there, cant see any fuses. it has wiring harnesses that run to wires in the dash and steering column by the looks of it.

does anyone have any idea why it won't start, and whats that box doing where there are supposed to be fuses?

on the weekend i'll pull that whole bit of the dash off and pull that box aside to see if theres fuses behind that, as it won't budge at the mo.

so yea if anyone knows anything please let me know, cheers

[STEALTHY™]

The fuses on a VL are on the passenger side in the engine bay. There are no fuses in the cabin at all.

Not sure why it wont start.
My VL hasn't been started for 3 months, went and fired it up today and kickec over straight away.

[madrx3boy]

i've got a max ellery's manual and it says theres fuses inside next to the steering column. so dunno what going on there. but do you have any idea what that metal box would be?

[STEALTHY™]

i've got a max ellery's manual and it says theres fuses inside next to the steering column. so dunno what going on there. but do you have any idea what that metal box would be?

Just checked it, the box looks like the ECU going by how many wires are coming out f it, but i'm not sure. Definiatly no fuses.

[madrx3boy]

yea thats weird.coz the (main) ecu is definately on the passengers side behind the kick panel whatever its called. so wouldn't know what the one by the steering wheel is for.

[STEALTHY™]

Yeah i thought it was on the left aswell. Not sure man, but with the 4 VLs i've puled apart, i've never seen any fuses under there.

[madrx3boy]

oh well i'll just pull out all the plugs from both the boxes make sure the contacts are clean. just seems a bit strange that it sat for 3 weeks without the battery connected and now wont do anything except the fuel pump.

[jatsvl]

the box is the auto trans control unit.
there are NO fuses inside the car for a vl 6cyl not sure about the v8's

[madrx3boy]

oh ok so that means mines not originally a manual.thats news to me

[STEALTHY™]

That explains that box then, mine is converted manual aswell. (Hence cruise control )

[madrx3boy]

haha ur lucky my cruise control is my right foot. was just reading another post, maybe it could be that the auto trans control unit is stuffed and it thinks the car is not in neutral so won't let it start? anyone know a way of bypassing this?

[madrx3boy]

also, can anyone tell me where to find the CAS (crank angle sensor)? a photo would help heaps cheers

[jatsvl]

cas is in your distributor under the metallic plate.
Just thought could the solenoid on the starter motor be stuck as the car has sat for a while?
for the bypassing of the trans unit you need to look into the auto to manual convertion a bit more.

[seans VL Calais]

down near the battery one of the relays there has two purple coloured wires goin to it and 2 other colours cant be bother goin and lookin at this time, cut the purple ones and join them together, thats the netrual safety switch relay, this is done on mine and mine was converted but you shouldnt need to do this if you have a manual ecu. only if your running an auto one

[madrx3boy]

seans VL Calais you're a legend! i went and had a look at the relays none of them looked like they had purple wires but got my dad to have a look and he showed me which ones it probly was...turns out they were purple but just realy faded. so i put a piece of wire between the two contacts and now it starts! so thanks heaps for that!

i think i have had da problem of it not wanting to start before (not even wanting to engage the solenoid in the starter motor or anything), but after a few tries with the key it worked. so at that stage would the relay have been on its last legs? and now its dead? what do you reckon?

[87redcar]

The starter motor on my VL also intermittently won't budge. It will fire up with a flick of the key if I jump start it. It wouldn't start today for the wife. She called AA road assist. THe guy tapped the starter motor with a hammer and away it went. He suggested that I have the starter motor looked at.

[jatsvl]

seans VL Calais you're a legend! i went and had a look at the relays none of them looked like they had purple wires but got my dad to have a look and he showed me which ones it probly was...turns out they were purple but just realy faded. so i put a piece of wire between the two contacts and now it starts! so thanks heaps for that!

i think i have had da problem of it not wanting to start before (not even wanting to engage the solenoid in the starter motor or anything), but after a few tries with the key it worked. so at that stage would the relay have been on its last legs? and now its dead? what do you reckon?

if the car was changed to manual it would never have started ever! without the purple wires conected, as that is the neutral safety switch for the automatic.

[seans VL Calais]

seans VL Calais you're a legend! i went and had a look at the relays none of them looked like they had purple wires but got my dad to have a look and he showed me which ones it probly was...turns out they were purple but just realy faded. so i put a piece of wire between the two contacts and now it starts! so thanks heaps for that!

i think i have had da problem of it not wanting to start before (not even wanting to engage the solenoid in the starter motor or anything), but after a few tries with the key it worked. so at that stage would the relay have been on its last legs? and now its dead? what do you reckon?

no worries mate glad i could help

[Panama]

maybe his neutral safety switch was rooted before, stuck in the open position, and now its given way and released its contact and is working properly. could easily happen

[jatsvl]

maybe his neutral safety switch was rooted before, stuck in the open position, and now its given way and released its contact and is working properly. could easily happen

I wonder if you read all the posts clearly?????........w!

[madrx3boy]

The starter motor on my VL also intermittently won't budge. It will fire up with a flick of the key if I jump start it. It wouldn't start today for the wife. She called AA road assist. THe guy tapped the starter motor with a hammer and away it went. He suggested that I have the starter motor looked at.

My parent's nissan pulsar had the same problem and it got so bad it had to be tapped everytime we wanted to start it.eventually it **** itself completely so we just replaced it with a 2nd hand one. but the problem is that the solenoid in it can sometimes 'stick'.tapping it helps knock it loose but once it does start to stick you can assume that its on its way out and only gonna get worse the longer you leave it.

If your mechanically (and electrically) minded you could pull it apart and clean it up a bit this should help. Or get an auto sparky to take a look at it

[MB_Boy]

The starter motor on my VL also intermittently won't budge. It will fire up with a flick of the key if I jump start it. It wouldn't start today for the wife. She called AA road assist. THe guy tapped the starter motor with a hammer and away it went. He suggested that I have the starter motor looked at.

Definately get your starter motor replaced! I thought mine was on the way out, sometimes would start no problems, sometimes would hesitate...then i parked my car at a shopping centre and it shat itself. Paid $225 for a recon and went n changed it myself in the middle of the carpark all good now!

[87redcar]

Replaced the bendix unit, brushes and planetary gear unit. All sweet now.

[DenchY]

a fully charged battery read 13.7 if its says 12 its flat lol.

[ladiesman212]

hey guys just converted my vl commodore to a manual also took whole motor and motor wiring loom out of another vl that i brought last week, i put the motor,box,manual computer and wiring loom into my old vl which was an auto , hooked it all up and everything seemed to be working. went to turn the key and nothing happened..... the starter wouldn't even make a noise , hooked a wire up going from the ignition to the starter motor and it now winds over but wont start. my dad also said it doesn't have any injector pulse which we are both stunned about. any ideas would be greatly appreciated ,thanks Jason.
p.s the motor was running perfectly until i swapped them over :S