stranded at a mates 180 miles from home. HELP

i have a v8 lpg converted classic k plate. which is now driving hubby, my mate and me nuts. we are stuck as to where to go next and need some advice.

firstly we drove from somerset and after about an hour we ended up getting a warning light on the dash ( ! ) and the car wouldnt run on petrol but would on gas the light would then disappear then we could get it to run on pertol again. this continued to the point that we loast all power and had to pull over. after 30 mins we managed to get it started again on petrol and get further 30mins down the road. and lost all power on both gas and petrol. then our battery died called out the RAC who eventually turned up. while we were waiting we noticed that the condenser fans were going constantly.

well to cut it short we got towed to our mates house arriving at 0530 only 5 hours late. but safe. After crashing for an hour we set about the motor again.
we tried to turn her over and she was trying to fire but wouldnt light. when she did eventually fired she died the minute you applied power.

today so far we have done the following:

1. changed the ht leads.
2. checked the distributor and spark. all is good there.
3. looked at the mass air flow sensor, all good there.
4. put a brand new battery on her.
5. looked at the ignition coil and it get hot but runs the gas system ok.
6. put god know how much carb cleaner through her. got a massive pop when running on gas from the plehnum chamber. which improved the running system.
7. check the ignition switch and wiring and that looks good.

so fellas here is now where we are. we are thinking it could be
1. the fuel relay failing sorry failed
2. fuel pump tits
3. blocked fuel filter.

your help would be greatly apperciaited.

Firstly I am impressed to a see a Lady on here talking so technically (not being sarcastic)

How was the temperature guage reading when it all wen pairshaped? those ac fans come on either when you have the AC on or even with the AC off when the engine gets too hot.

The gas system can be complex , as you are trying to get it home I would concetrate on getting it to run on petrol if you can. When it was working well did it run better on petrol or gas? as the spark timing is normally adjusted to favour one or the other.

On that note is sounds like the timing is off (it happened to me and was running that poorley on the driveway) I would chack that the clamp that holds the distributor body hasnt come loose and allowed the the distributor to turn and adjust the timing way off.

If its a problem of the fuel side as you suspect then I would say if there is fuel pumping out with the ignition on the the relay is ok, you can normally hear the click and buzz of the pump with the igntion on but engine off. The pump is located on the top of the tank under the boot floor acess panel.

However just because you can hear the pump doesnt mean it is providing enough pressure as they need quite alot to run the efi engines and I cant really say how you can test the pressure, I would get another pump to try. Saying that ofcourse if it wont run on gas either (when the engine was warm and you have enough gas in the tanks) then it probably isnt the petrol thats causing the problem.

Final thought would be ignition amplifier on dizzy body as this doesnt like getting to hot and you said the fans were on, but this wouldnt normally cause it run so badly when cooled down.

PS if the coil is getting too hot it could be that , they are fickle things-and its cheap place to start

i'd be changing the fuel filter first - why are peeps so keen to start ripping their vehicles apart before they've done the basics ?

Too tru , I had forgot that one! :doh:

Just bypass it and see if it runs!

Wouldnt explain it not running on gas when warm though

thankyou for your replies fellas.

well the boys have got the motor running on gas (completely bypassing the petrol side) but thye dont know what they have done to achieve this. the (!) light is still on and the minute you switch to petrol she dies.

we are looking tomorrow at changing the fuel filter, pulling the pump out the tank to see if its clean.

what with it being sunday i anit going to get any spares.

Do as Sean says and check filter first, if you have a sensor going off on the dash then its a blockage/fault in delivery..if its running on gas this confirms the fault lies in the petrol side..start with simple stuff and go from there. Have you flushed pipes?

nope they havent flushed the pipes. to behonest i have left the boys to it as there is only so much room around it. plus i kept getting told to go do some reading up. lol

the fuel filter is defo going to get changed tomorrow.

So it didnt die on gas when you were driving it then?

And it wouldnt restart on gas when you broke down then?

Good you have it running now though!

fett said:

So it didnt die on gas when you were driving it then?

And it wouldnt restart on gas when you broke down then?

Good you have it running now though!

Click to expand...

Yes it did.
nope i couldnt get it to start but then i couldnt get to the gas override switch last night.

thanks we dont know if its going to get us home. looks like we will be staying put until we have fixed it. xx

I just wouldnt want you to run it thinking its fixed and then be left at the side of the road again, I hope you get to the bottom of the cause of the problem.

If not I hope you get home first!

where are you ? An hour from Somerset, depending on the direction travelled there are a lot of knowledgeable peeps who are usually willing and able to lend a hand

singerking said:

thankyou for your replies fellas.

well the boys have got the motor running on gas (completely bypassing the petrol side) but thye dont know what they have done to achieve this. the (!) light is still on and the minute you switch to petrol she dies.

we are looking tomorrow at changing the fuel filter, pulling the pump out the tank to see if its clean.

what with it being sunday i anit going to get any spares.

Click to expand...

If I understand what you have posted, you have an EFI warning. You need to check all sensors - AFM, Throttle pot, Fuel & Coolant thermistors etc. BUT I suspect you may have a problem with the ECU. It will run on gas because that doesn't use the EFI ECU. If you can get an ECU on loan that would be a good place to start. In the alternative, unplug different parts of the EFI system and see which one makes no difference if you see what I mean.

Hope that helps ya.

lets start from the top engine warning lamp is on runs ok to a fashion on gas not petrol so you can eliminate the igntion and look at the fuel so as stated petrol pump or filter is the coman one. as for the fans running either you have overheated or the alternator is failing and that is causeing to low a voltage for the ecu to work.

disconnect the battery for 1/2 hour will clear any ecu faults but really you need the ecu fault read to see what is failing

fett said:

So it didnt die on gas when you were driving it then?

And it wouldnt restart on gas when you broke down then?

Good you have it running now though!

Click to expand...

They start on petrol then switch to gas. Some are automatic, others (like mine) are manual switching. But always start using petrol.

Khryztal said:

They start on petrol then switch to gas. Some are automatic, others (like mine) are manual switching. But always start using petrol.

Click to expand...

some of them can be fooled into starting on gas.. mine will if I start with full throttle.. ony advisable when the engine is warm or there's no other choice though.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.
well to cut it short fellas, we got it running ok after checking and changeing bits light wnet out it was great the next day put went to turn her over and the light was on again

well we have wired a switch in to get her to start on lpg straight away she runs ok on lpg just dont wanna run on petrol at all. managed to get her to my mates local landy specailist. and he had a look at her and confirmed what i thought it might be and that the ecu isnt talking to anything. he couldnt get his comuter to connect to it. well accourding to the paper work the car had a new ecu in 2007. we are now looking for a wiring snag. the bloke seams to think its ether the lpg wiring or there is a broken wire/ bad earth from the ecu into the engine.
this would agree with our diagnoiss which hwen my hubby leaned accross the bonnet to look at the pipes at the back of the engine block the light went out. only snag is hes not a small bloke lol

well tomorrow i am now going to have to look at the ecu wiring loom and see if i can find the break. i am hopeing that once i have found the break the fault is fixed and i dont need a new ecu.

oh forgot to mention that she did get us home too today on lpg with out any problems.

Glad it got you home!