I bought my car October last year 2004 1.8L S-VT (Radiant Ebony) Its done about 65k and has a full service history.I absolutely love it!
But lately the car has had starting issues and its very intermittent. Userly its perfect in the morning and starts straight away, its after I've driven it and left it for a couple of hours that its struggles to start. I was thinking it was the could be the coil packs? But this morning it struggled and i noticed the central locking light was flashing for a little while so now it might be the immobiliser?
I have haven't checked the battery but its a Bosch one and it looks very new. One thing to note is that i had to jump start it last weekend as i accident drained the batter when installing and setting up the new stereo i fitted. But took it for a long drive straight after to charge it. The issues were there before this happened tho.
it Cranks normally and tries to fire but doesn’t catch. Also sometimes its catches and then stalls. to getting to run i feather the throttle to get it going, it seems to work.
Could be coil packs then, I’d ignore the immobiliser light if it were an immobiliser fault it wouldn’t even try to fire. You don’t pump the throttle during cranking do you?
Okay that sounds expensive, I have the types that sit on top of the spark plugs and also have replace the two wires to aftermarket ones, Are there any test i can run to test them? I don’t pump the throttle when its its turning over, i only feather the throttle when its catches but it sometimes stalls after that.
There are no conclusive tests you can do on the coil packs really and I wouldn’t rush to change them without being sure unless you can get some cheap enough to not be worried if they don’t cure the fault. If you can get hold of an inductive HT tester that clips onto the plug leads that may confirm if each coil pack is firing or not. An inductive pick-up clamp from a timing light should be suitable.
Have you checked for OBD error codes? Easily done with a cheap plug in reader - no need to pay £40 - 50 at a garage.
Not convinced this is coil related to be honest. The units on the MK2.5 1.8 are reliable and if faulty would be more likely to fail when hot and under load than starting.
…another thought - no damp in the passenger footwell is there? - this is where all water that gets in the car ends up and unfortunately where Mazda decided to place the ECU.
Hi rhino666 I have checked the foot wells this morning and they are bone dry. I bought a OBD reader last year and when I pugged it in, it didn’t seem to power up but it worked on my other car fine.
Also when driving I have to keep the revs up sometimes when moving from stationary or it feels like its going to stall. But this is rarely
Hmm, just an off-the-wall remote possibility, but have you checked that the vacuum scavenge hose and manifold drilling are still clear? This is the short hose from the cam-cover going to the inlet manifold, on the vacuum side of the throttle body.
On our old Vectra the first symptom was the car stalling as it entered a roundabout with consequent total loss of power steering - panic stations for SWMBO, then followed by the running issues you report. We also fixed a friend’s Focus not so long ago with a similar problem. In each case a gentle ferreting with an unfolded paper clip served to clear the drilling.
I think I know what hose you’re talking about but not 100%. Is there there a image that some can possibly supply with indication on hoses please. Thanks in advance and thank you for all your replies.
Hmm, here are a couple of pictures that show the scavenge hose. It is the short black elbow hose going horizontally from the middle of the inlet Cam cover to inlet manifold elbow further forward.
Simples I know…was reading another forum thread about a non or intermittant starter on a Mk1. After a few responses to what the problem could be the owner found he had loose battery connection(s).
It’s always best to start with the simple, just a help with things, ignore if you have done this.
Glad to hear that there is no damp in the car - that is one expensive problem that can probably be ticked off the list. You did check underneath the carpet, didn’t you?
I think you are going to have to interrogate the diagnostics on your car.
There isn’t usually any problem with reading error codes on these cars AFAIK Daft question probably but have you plugged in the OBD reader and then turned your ignition on to the first position? If this still isn’t working I would try another borrowed cheap reader or two and as last resort take it to the cheapest place for an error code check.
If the diagnostic cannot be ready there may be a problem with the ECU.
Okay so this weekend seems to be a busy one, Cleaning the hose for a start. I’m interested about the Cam Angle sensor as I have never heard of this causing a issue before. The previous owner had the cambelt changed at 55k, would this effect the cam angle sensor at all?
The battery is a has a solid connection and yes I have checked under the carpets for damp and zero moisture.
I think it was the latter - camshaft position sensor. I took the car the Sam Goodwin’s in Nuneaton, thinking it was probably a coil pack. Steve immediately identified the problem correctly - never failed to start since.
I’ve known crank angle (just to the right of the crank pulley) and cam angle (at the back of the cam cover on the inlet side) sensors to give trouble before but not come accross the symptoms that you’re getting but it’s certainly possible that they are the cause. They usually bring up a fault code if you can manage to check for them. The ignition needs to be in position 2, ignition lights on.