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92 VQ 5.0 intermittent starting problems

c@l@is

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Gday everyone .. slight drama with my 92 VQ 5.0

Bought it back from sydney about this time in 2007 for a friend, now I have taken ownership of it (silly me), had a slight start issue back then, always took a minute to start it, winds over but wont fire.. this problem has got progressively worse over the last couple years. If I switch it off when its been running, it does not always start again. Today (from cold) I wound it over for a few seconds and it started, drove about 3 minutes to servo, switched it off, wouldnt start.. wind wind wind till battery flat, so I call the old man to come down with another ECU and some jumper leads, tried the other ecu, no different..

Finally I try pumping the accelerator while trying to start it & it started to fire, after a few seconds of pumping pedal while winding, it started (YAAAY) but was very fluttery, took a few seconds (maybe 10) to clear it out .. then it drove fine, have switched it off a few times today since this happened and its been starting fine since, BUT im scared of it LOL ..

The only other thing I can say I have noticed is, the fuel gauge is not right, like the senders been put in wrong by 1 set of bolt holes, it runs out of fuel with the trip compter saying 30 or 40K to go.. gauge reading 1/8th of a tank (just up from the red).. apart from this issue, I cant really fault the car, its been pretty good until this started to happen

Any help on this would be much appreciated .. I HATE people seeing me under the bonnet of my Holden to often, gives the lion a bad rep LOL ..
 

vncruzr

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mate could be a sensor issue. EG: throttle position, crank angle or might be the in gear cut out switch in the shifter if its an auto. either way do a code read and see what comes up. there are plenty of threads on how to do this and it is easy to do .
 

ScoHar

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mine seems to be the same, except it always ends up starting, when cold starts 1st pop, after being driven for the 1st time every day (or while hot) it takes ages to start.
 

c@l@is

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hmm thanks guys & gals.. naa not the neutral park switch lol, its winding over fine.. its NOT showing a fault code either.

i cant look past this issue with the fuel gauge being wrong.. im thinking maybe the bloke/clown that put the fuel pump in, hasnt connected that line that goes down to the splash bowl in bottom of the tank, and it just picks up what it can, including mass air locks, or something fuel tank related. cant look past the fact that it started when i pumped the pedal.. anyway, going to take tank out through the week and see if i cant spot the problem..

Will keep youall posted
 

jdodd

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i would suggest it could be an ignition module issue, i have also seen temp sender (for the ecu, above the water pump) failures which create a similar problem.
 

levymetal

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don't do that right now unless you need to... it could be ignition module as said above, they can get funny when hot (normally your car would just die though). if you have a friend with a 5ltr try that out, otherwise just run the car for a bit and turn it off. make sure it wont start, then check for a spark. no point ripping your tank out if there's no spark.
 

robohsv

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Gday everyone .. slight drama with my 92 VQ 5.0

Bought it back from sydney about this time in 2007 for a friend, now I have taken ownership of it (silly me), had a slight start issue back then, always took a minute to start it, winds over but wont fire.. this problem has got progressively worse over the last couple years. If I switch it off when its been running, it does not always start again. Today (from cold) I wound it over for a few seconds and it started, drove about 3 minutes to servo, switched it off, wouldnt start.. wind wind wind till battery flat, so I call the old man to come down with another ECU and some jumper leads, tried the other ecu, no different..

Finally I try pumping the accelerator while trying to start it & it started to fire, after a few seconds of pumping pedal while winding, it started (YAAAY) but was very fluttery, took a few seconds (maybe 10) to clear it out .. then it drove fine, have switched it off a few times today since this happened and its been starting fine since, BUT im scared of it LOL ..

The only other thing I can say I have noticed is, the fuel gauge is not right, like the senders been put in wrong by 1 set of bolt holes, it runs out of fuel with the trip compter saying 30 or 40K to go.. gauge reading 1/8th of a tank (just up from the red).. apart from this issue, I cant really fault the car, its been pretty good until this started to happen

Any help on this would be much appreciated .. I HATE people seeing me under the bonnet of my Holden to often, gives the lion a bad rep LOL ..


When i changed the fuel pump in this car it was fine for a week or so then went back to old ways.. also shat a couple fuel pumps
 

nickvn89

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hey mate i bett you any money get a new distibutor mate same thing happend to my vs v8 lol if its got a few klms on it
 

levymetal

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diggggggg. i doubt he would have lived with this for 4 months

but for anyone doing a search...
^^ if you got a new distributor and it fixed the problem, i would say it was the Hall Effect Sensor inside the dizzy that was causing the problem. you can replace them - but from what i can remember the dizzy is a bitch to get apart. so if you don't like stuffing around, and the hall is the problem, just get a new dizzy :p

but yeah check for spark first before you go replacing **** - if you have spark then the hall effect sensor won't be the problem.
 
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