8V Won't Start Since Shutting The Bonnet

[Russelltp 0]

Finally finished a head gasket change on my phase 1.5 1.9 and fired up the car with no issues for it to run for a few minutes while checking everything over like coolant pipes. Had a leak from the rad top hose to thermostat housing area and had to remove the afm to check it out and fix, again not a problem when restarting the car. When I dropped the bonnet onto it's secondary catch just so I could move the car on the driveway, the engine instantly died. It had been running for about 15 minutes by the point so was reasonably warm and didn't seem like it had stalled, more like it had just been switched off.

Opened the bonnet again and restarted the car without a problem, so tried closing it again and it promptly died and this time wouldn't restart at all.

 

On cranking, the fuel pump doesn't run and the rev counter needle stays firmly at 0 so I swapped the tachymetric relay for my spare good one, still nothing. Swapped ignition amp, again nothing. Checked wiring to dizzy pulse generator which was has continuity and swapped the dizzy for a spare. Still no go! Checked all wiring to the coil is properly connected and the afm is firmly connected, still nothing at all.

 

Anyone got any other ideas? The car has had times where it has done this before but never for very long, usually just long enough to start swapping out components and it will suddenly spring into life, put the original components back and it will continue to run fine for months.

 

Anyone got any ideas what else to check? Thinking possibly a broken wire somewhere.

[welshpug 1,657]

what happens when you open the bonnet?

[Russelltp 0]

Well the engine was still there First time around it happily restarted, second time nothing at all.

 

Edit: Just to add, there is no immobiliser and never has been, loom hasn't been butchered as far as i can see and no brown multi plug.

Edited December 5, 2011 by Russelltp

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Positive battery terminal isn't touching the under side of the bonnet is it?

[Pugs in Pieces 0]

first thing i thought was a short, either from the battery terminal or somehow the junction box thing on the slam panel.

[Russelltp 0]

The battery +ve is too low for the bonnet to touch on the battery I'm using . Good call on the junction box on the slam panel, I hadn't even thought about it and I can't remember what that splits off to.

 

If anyone anyone has any other suggestions they'd be really helpful so I can have a list of things to check over next weekend.

[Russelltp 0]

Have got the car running again this afternoon and it seemed to be related to unplugging the ECU and plugging it in again, but I have a misfire that may be related and the rev counter seems to "wander" when this happens. I noticed this at idle, but the misfire is there under normal driving. I need to take a look at the AFM connector in daylight as wobbling that also seemed to affect the running, it just got sprayed with contact cleaner for now.

 

So anyone got any further suggestions to check?

 

Secondly I've found when trying to trace my wiring loom for the tachymetric relay that the numbering on my some of my wires doesn't even remotely match the Haynes diagram numbers. The relay is mounted with the ECU on the drivers side under the dashboard which AFAIK is the usual place for phase 1.5 cars. Again anyone got any suggestions or earlier wiring diagrams.

[205007 12]

always thought rev counter wander was coil related, may explain misfire too

[Russelltp 0]

Seems that the problem fixed itself overnight. Started and warmed up with no problems and has just done 80 miles in heavy rain without the slightest hesitation. Odd old wiring faults that appear and vanish at will I think.