Hi, I am new to the forum, but already have a question for help. I have a 1999 V6 VT, Exec Series 2. It has approximately 160 thou on the clock, and has been serviced religiously. Recently I was driving and it lost power regained power, then died. I was turning a corner at 15km/hr. I pulled over and then turned the key and it started fine, this happened twice more, before I got it to the local mechanic. It was checked over and as always it did not play up for him. There were no codes in the computer. It was serviced, about a week before and the fuel filter was changed. The mechanic checked the fuel filter when I brought it back in, and he said that it looked fine. He had it for four days, luckily he did not charge me for it. Took it home and it went great for about six weeks. We put it down to dirty fuel as it all happened for one tank of fuel. Also the fuel depot had traffic cones around some of the bowser's as they were working on them, so we thought maybe there might have been contamination in the fuel we bought. Yesterday the wife was driving it on the highway at 100km/hr and it did the same thing again, she describes it as if it just loses power, then comes back then dies completely. So there is no actual surge in power before it dies, just a hiccup, then dead. After rolling to a stop, she then turned the key and it started fine, straight away. This happened again about 100m up the road, then drove 10km home with no problems. This current tank of fuel is from a different fuel outlet, different brand of fuel. As it dies there is no indication on the dash something is wrong, after it has died all the lights light up as if you put the key to ignition (lamp test), so you turn the key back to lock then back to ignition and it starts. As we have an 11 month old daughter the wife is now not happy about driving the car alone, and we don't have another car that can take a car seat. I am not the best when it comes to car mechanics, and I have surfed the net for a similar problem, but the only one I have found is on this forum, but the problem is that the car is hard to start after it stalls, and our car starts fine straight away, which makes me feel that it is a slightly different problem. So I was hoping to find some advice, to save me replacing parts “hit n miss” style until it is fixed. Cheers, Tone.
Sounds like a classic fuel pump symptom. It can't be any parts that are controlled by the ECU or a code will be logged. Just check all the coil and DFI connections, make sure they are all clean and pushed in snug.
I just checked with the wife as she took the car into the mechanics, for more info; they did not check the fuel pump, but did check the fuel filter. They checked the ignition leads and their resistance was fine, and all leads made good contact. I was hoping that no fault on the computer could narrow down the fault a bit. The wife asked, if it is the fuel pump, why does it start fine straight away? Also why is it not getting progressively worse? (Thanks for any info, as I am an electronics tech and have no idea about mechanical things.) Thanks Not_An_Abba_Fan, I have double checked the ignition leads with a multimeter myself. But how do you check the DFI (Direct Fuel Injection, is that right) connections, or do you mean the ignition leads (Spark plug leads)? Cheers.
Direct Fire Ignition. The best way to check it is to swap it for a known working one, as testing it will not tell you if you have an intermittent fault. It is the module under the coil pack. A fuel pump can can just stop and start again like that. As an electronics tech you will know how electrical windings work. All it takes is an interruption of the power supply for it to stop spinning, then when you restart the car it spins up fine again. All fuel tanks have water in them, the joys of condensation, and this water contaminates and corrodes the internals of the fuel pump causing this exact problem. Unfortunately the only way to solve the problem is to replace the pump and see if it fixes the problem. You can carry a multimeter around with you and test the continuity of the power through the pump next time it fails but you will have to pull over and not turn the key off to do this.
CAS is usually the common problem usually u can narrow this down by doin the water trick on it but my car was doin this a while ago now sounds pretty much the same symtoms. It turned out the 3 top looms on the drivers side up the top right hand corner they connect 2 the ecu inside the car. I was told its not so much a common problem but has been known 2 happen b4. 4 some reason water got in underneith and behind the tapped up wires behind the grey loom causing it 2 corrode. As they were corroding as time went by my car was doin the same things as urs until 1 day it decided it was 2 weak and snapped loosin all power 2 the car n it just wouldnt crank over nemore. All we had 2 do 2 fix this was cut the wires back clean away from the corrosion added some new wiring and that was it she fired up straight away havent had that problem since. At times the problem never seemed 2 get worse somtimes it felt like it fixed it self n wouldnt do it 4 months its worth a look.
CAS is ruled out by perfect hot starts - if CAS is done, hot stats won't happen, it'll just crank I'd be inclined to check wiring and fuel pump as suggested
