consultant125
New Member
- Posts
- 1
Hi all,
Thought I might run this little issue by you all and see what you think because I am at the end of my proverbial tether! The problem is simply this:
I'm driving down the motorway on a fairly long journey (Bolton to Birmingham and back again). Suddenly, without warning I lose power. My initial thought is that the timing belt snapped because that's exactly what happened with a Corsa I used to own. However, I have electrics and the stereo is still humming away to itself.
At this point, I pushed the clutch in and signalled for the hard shoulder. The engine revs died and that was that. No amount of gas would keep it running. Everything else was fine. Blowers blowing. Music playing. Lights and indicators fine.
I lift the clutch and the engine is once again attached to the wheels, so it turns over but still no power. Drop the clutch again and the engine immediately stalls. Gas still has zero effect.
I ended up stuck on the hard shoulder and the car wouldn't start. The AA came and towed me away an hour later. They pulled it off their truck on the services car park and it starts first time. Naturally, I feel like an idiot. I carry on my journey.
Forty miles later, the same problem hits. I again do the clutch in / clutch out thing. No power. Electrics are fine. Grind to a halt on hard shoulder. Ring the AA and they are on their way. I left it ten minutes and then it starts first time. I cancelled the AA and continue on my journey. The problem happens again and I leave it for fifteen minutes. It starts fine. This keeps happening all the way home resulting in a maximum two hour journey taking me ten hours. I was not a happy bunny.
Several days later it did the same thing on a shorter journey, stranding me for most of the night on another motorway. This time the AA picked it up because it wasn't going to restart. My mechanic came round and towed it to his garage. He bump started it on the way and it runs fine from then on.
So, what's the problem? I have no idea. It's running fine now. I thought it might have been bad fuel because it was literally like the car didn't have fuel. I filled up in Birmingham at a BP station. Maybe it was that?
I took it to my mechanic and he had it for a whole day. He couldn't find anything wrong with it. He stuck it on his ramps and ran the engine for hours without a single stall. He checked the electronic log in the engine by plugging it into his computer and all it had on it was a single misfire. He cleared the log. He removed the fuel pump and checked all that because he said this car was known for a rubber seal breaking loose in the fuel pump. He couldn't find anything wrong and the car positively stunk of petrol for days!
By this time, I had run the tank dry. The problem didn't happen again and when I next filled it, I assumed it was a bad petrol problem. That is, until the other day (months later!). I'm driving to Blackpool, from Bolton. I hit the M55 doing 90mph trying to catch a rather attractive blonde in a Merc turbo sporty thing. There was no way that was going to happen, so I backed off to 70mph and thirty seconds later, I lose power. Clutch in, Clutch out. No power. Engine stalls. Hard shoulder. Damn.
This time, I had a mate with me and he buys and sells cars. Although he's not a mechanic, he kinda knows roughly what he's doing. He pulled the bonnet. I said, 'this is exactly what happened last year on the Birmingham trip!' He took out the air filter and said, 'Right, you need a new one of these.' I said, 'Just leave it fifteen minutes and it will start!' Then he checked the fuse box on the top of the engine and he spun the fan. At this point, we noticed the fan wasn't spinning and to my knowledge, had never spun. My mate found this amusing. Eventually, we got it started and away we went. It broke down again before we reached Blackpool. On the way back, it survived the motorway and only broke down once I came off the motorway. Then it wouldn't start. I left it an hour and tried to restart it. Eventually I got a tow at 5.30am. On the way home I bump started it and it's again running like clockwork.
So, how am I supposed to deal with this? I can't rely on the car, yet I need to - I shoot wedding videos! I cannot afford to break down! I can't take it back to my mechanic because he can never find anything wrong with it and cannot recreate the issue.
I took it to another mates house and he also thought maybe it was a temperature problem because the radiator fan never comes on. We tested the fan by connecting it to the battery. It spun. We then used a Rover 200 Haynes manual to kind of work out where the temperature sensor is on the engine. When we disconnect it, the fan spins up, so it's fairly logical to assume that the temperature sensor breaks the circuit to trigger the fan and all the electrics are fine. A no point in my entire life have I ever seen the temperature gauge go above the exact middle. It's rock solid.
I really don't know what else to do. The wife says, buy a Freelander 2! Anyone got any cheaper ideas?
Some theories we bandied about:
- The temperature goes too high and the ECU shuts the engine down.
- The temperature goes too high because the sensor is stuck (hence the fan never comes on) and the ECU shuts the engine down.
- The engine does something weird with emmissions when running hot or for long journeys and the ECU shuts the engine down.
- The ECU can actually shut the engine down.
- The ECU is confused.
- I need a much bigger hammer.
Other insanely normal questions:
- Oil is good.
- Water is good.
- Fuel is good.
- Windscreen wipers are not great.
- Interior sometimes smells a bit like engine.
- The head gasket is lovely and there is no water in the oil.
- It's done 60K miles.
- I actually really like the car.
- The TC light sometimes comes on when braking.
- I don't know what the TC thing does because it still wheelspins!
The car:
X reg Freelander 1.8 petrol. In gold. With a cool Sony Bluetooth stereo that goes very well with my iPhone!
Thanks very much in advance.
Kind regards,
Andrew.
www.carillonvideo.co.uk
Thought I might run this little issue by you all and see what you think because I am at the end of my proverbial tether! The problem is simply this:
I'm driving down the motorway on a fairly long journey (Bolton to Birmingham and back again). Suddenly, without warning I lose power. My initial thought is that the timing belt snapped because that's exactly what happened with a Corsa I used to own. However, I have electrics and the stereo is still humming away to itself.
At this point, I pushed the clutch in and signalled for the hard shoulder. The engine revs died and that was that. No amount of gas would keep it running. Everything else was fine. Blowers blowing. Music playing. Lights and indicators fine.
I lift the clutch and the engine is once again attached to the wheels, so it turns over but still no power. Drop the clutch again and the engine immediately stalls. Gas still has zero effect.
I ended up stuck on the hard shoulder and the car wouldn't start. The AA came and towed me away an hour later. They pulled it off their truck on the services car park and it starts first time. Naturally, I feel like an idiot. I carry on my journey.
Forty miles later, the same problem hits. I again do the clutch in / clutch out thing. No power. Electrics are fine. Grind to a halt on hard shoulder. Ring the AA and they are on their way. I left it ten minutes and then it starts first time. I cancelled the AA and continue on my journey. The problem happens again and I leave it for fifteen minutes. It starts fine. This keeps happening all the way home resulting in a maximum two hour journey taking me ten hours. I was not a happy bunny.
Several days later it did the same thing on a shorter journey, stranding me for most of the night on another motorway. This time the AA picked it up because it wasn't going to restart. My mechanic came round and towed it to his garage. He bump started it on the way and it runs fine from then on.
So, what's the problem? I have no idea. It's running fine now. I thought it might have been bad fuel because it was literally like the car didn't have fuel. I filled up in Birmingham at a BP station. Maybe it was that?
I took it to my mechanic and he had it for a whole day. He couldn't find anything wrong with it. He stuck it on his ramps and ran the engine for hours without a single stall. He checked the electronic log in the engine by plugging it into his computer and all it had on it was a single misfire. He cleared the log. He removed the fuel pump and checked all that because he said this car was known for a rubber seal breaking loose in the fuel pump. He couldn't find anything wrong and the car positively stunk of petrol for days!
By this time, I had run the tank dry. The problem didn't happen again and when I next filled it, I assumed it was a bad petrol problem. That is, until the other day (months later!). I'm driving to Blackpool, from Bolton. I hit the M55 doing 90mph trying to catch a rather attractive blonde in a Merc turbo sporty thing. There was no way that was going to happen, so I backed off to 70mph and thirty seconds later, I lose power. Clutch in, Clutch out. No power. Engine stalls. Hard shoulder. Damn.
This time, I had a mate with me and he buys and sells cars. Although he's not a mechanic, he kinda knows roughly what he's doing. He pulled the bonnet. I said, 'this is exactly what happened last year on the Birmingham trip!' He took out the air filter and said, 'Right, you need a new one of these.' I said, 'Just leave it fifteen minutes and it will start!' Then he checked the fuse box on the top of the engine and he spun the fan. At this point, we noticed the fan wasn't spinning and to my knowledge, had never spun. My mate found this amusing. Eventually, we got it started and away we went. It broke down again before we reached Blackpool. On the way back, it survived the motorway and only broke down once I came off the motorway. Then it wouldn't start. I left it an hour and tried to restart it. Eventually I got a tow at 5.30am. On the way home I bump started it and it's again running like clockwork.
So, how am I supposed to deal with this? I can't rely on the car, yet I need to - I shoot wedding videos! I cannot afford to break down! I can't take it back to my mechanic because he can never find anything wrong with it and cannot recreate the issue.
I took it to another mates house and he also thought maybe it was a temperature problem because the radiator fan never comes on. We tested the fan by connecting it to the battery. It spun. We then used a Rover 200 Haynes manual to kind of work out where the temperature sensor is on the engine. When we disconnect it, the fan spins up, so it's fairly logical to assume that the temperature sensor breaks the circuit to trigger the fan and all the electrics are fine. A no point in my entire life have I ever seen the temperature gauge go above the exact middle. It's rock solid.
I really don't know what else to do. The wife says, buy a Freelander 2! Anyone got any cheaper ideas?
Some theories we bandied about:
- The temperature goes too high and the ECU shuts the engine down.
- The temperature goes too high because the sensor is stuck (hence the fan never comes on) and the ECU shuts the engine down.
- The engine does something weird with emmissions when running hot or for long journeys and the ECU shuts the engine down.
- The ECU can actually shut the engine down.
- The ECU is confused.
- I need a much bigger hammer.
Other insanely normal questions:
- Oil is good.
- Water is good.
- Fuel is good.
- Windscreen wipers are not great.
- Interior sometimes smells a bit like engine.
- The head gasket is lovely and there is no water in the oil.
- It's done 60K miles.
- I actually really like the car.
- The TC light sometimes comes on when braking.
- I don't know what the TC thing does because it still wheelspins!
The car:
X reg Freelander 1.8 petrol. In gold. With a cool Sony Bluetooth stereo that goes very well with my iPhone!
Thanks very much in advance.
Kind regards,
Andrew.
www.carillonvideo.co.uk
