stevej69

Member
Hi All,

bit of a plea here, stuck on the A30 between Bodmin and Helland with my P38 which just died on me. She's been fine all weekend, but died after hitting a pot hole.

Plenty of Fuel (LPG and Petrol), she cranks but wont fire. Waiting for the RAC provided they can find me, but thought i'd post a plea for help!

Happy to Pay BTW!

Cheers

Steve
 
Hi All,

bit of a plea here, stuck on the A30 between Bodmin and Helland with my P38 which just died on me. She's been fine all weekend, but died after hitting a pot hole.

Plenty of Fuel (LPG and Petrol), she cranks but wont fire. Waiting for the RAC provided they can find me, but thought i'd post a plea for help!

Happy to Pay BTW!

Cheers

Steve

Have you tried checking the electrical engine connections,might have just been jogged loose from the pot hole.
 
Quick update, reset the Inertia switch (no message on dash though) and she fired. Managed to get 5 miles down the road, and got a jolt another 2 miles down the A30 near Hawkes Tor and she's died again, showing Gearbox Fault and Alternator Fault (im assuming because it died whilst running). because of my proximity to the carriageway i cant get my hand in to reset the interia switch again (which i assume is knackered).
 
Quick update, reset the Inertia switch (no message on dash though) and she fired. Managed to get 5 miles down the road, and got a jolt another 2 miles down the A30 near Hawkes Tor and she's died again, showing Gearbox Fault and Alternator Fault (im assuming because it died whilst running). because of my proximity to the carriageway i cant get my hand in to reset the interia switch again (which i assume is knackered).

Are the battery connections tight,P38's need a good battery charge,to work correctly.
 
yes all good, right managed to reset the intertia switch again, swapped it back to petrol and she starts. No error on start, but gearbox error on shutdown. RAC en route (no idea if they'll be able to do anything, but dont really fancy it cutting out on the M5!

Can the inertia switch by bypassed? Its odd she did cough and resume before dying completely, i can only assume this is an electrical issue. I'm leaving it running to charge the battery, do you know if the Gearbox Fault needs to be cleared from the ECU or will it sort itself out?
 
Possibly, she starts fine after the fuel Cut off switch is reset. Just a quick update left the engine running whilst waiting for the Rac and gearbox and alternator fault warnings have cleared. In going to pin this one down to low battery after trying to start on the roadside before. Rac chap removed the trim in the drivers footwell to make the switch more accessible and pushed it hard to reset. Touch wood been running fine up to Exeter services where I am now apart from one "cough" where Iost power for a second and then all way well. I'm taking it easy hugging the hard shoulder where I can. I would guess that if the switch was faulty it could possibly cut ignition for a split second?? Maybe someone can suggest?

If required is it easy to bypass the switch? I note there are 3 wires can someone confirm which 2 to short? M thinking short term to get me home if needed...cheers everyone!
 
If you have a meter, check the voltage at the battery with the engine at 2K rpm. Should be at least 14.2V.
You may be right about the low battery and gearbox fault, but alternator fault message usually means exactly what it says.
 
The alternator fault only flagged when the engine died and I was coasting to the hard shoulder, I guess it would have flagged as not charging as the engine stalled? Will definitely check once I get home. Any ideas on the inertia switch?
 
The alternator fault only flagged when the engine died and I was coasting to the hard shoulder, I guess it would have flagged as not charging as the engine stalled? Will definitely check once I get home. Any ideas on the inertia switch?
Not known one fail so not sure. Engine stalling should not bring on the alternator fault message or the charge light, I guess low battery at the same time might as the BECM does strange things with low voltage.
You absolutely sure the inertia switch is tripping? Low volts will stall the engine, everything off for a short period and the battery may recover enough to get you going again.
 
Yeah definitely sure it's that, hit a pot hole and engine died shortly after. Would crank well (good and strong) but not fire. Found the cutoff switch and switched to petrol and she fired first time. Got about 5 miles down the road engine coughed and then died about 500 yards later, as I was coasting thee alternator and gb fault. Reset again and after remembering to switch to petrol again it fired to problem. Left of running for 30 mins whilst Rac showed up, all seems ok between a30 and Exeter apart from one cough but no stall.
 
i'm just guessing from a diagram, but it looks like (wo) white/orange is the juice and it switches to (wu) white/blue or (wp) white/purple

i'd guess wo to wu looks like normal operation.
 
Thanks Trax, thought we were doing well but its cut out twice more since exeter. I'm going to do some testing and leave it on Petrol for a bit. Dont think its LPG related, but its been running on LPG every time its cut out (plenty of fuel) and a reset of the cut off seems to fix the issue. I have however had 2 more blips before it dies and it appears the injector light comes on when it does.......oh this is a fun journey!
 
Thanks Trax, thought we were doing well but its cut out twice more since exeter. I'm going to do some testing and leave it on Petrol for a bit. Dont think its LPG related, but its been running on LPG every time its cut out (plenty of fuel) and a reset of the cut off seems to fix the issue. I have however had 2 more blips before it dies and it appears the injector light comes on when it does.......oh this is a fun journey!

be careful. don't overtake :)
 
Thanks to everyone who has responded, it was really re-assuring whilst sat in various laybys between Poole and Cornwall! Anyway back home safely now! I hope its ok, but just wanted to re-cap on the issues including whats happened on the last part of the journey to see if anyone could throw any light on it:

Ok so Left Cornwall and got about 5 miles, hit a big pot hole (Left Hand Side) and shortly after the engine cut out. The engine would crank but not fire. Called the RAC and sat for about 30 mins and looked for inspiration on the forum, found a link about the intertia switch and pressed it....hey presto is started.

Pulled off onto the A30 and was motoring along for about 2 miles when the engine coughed (revs dropped and popped back up), and all was well for a further mile until it died completely.

Pulled over and sat considering options. Hit the inertia switch again but it didnt start, realised the LPG was still engaged so turned it off and presto it started! As the engine stalled it threw an alternator Fault and Gearbox Error, however both of these cleared once i'd sat with the engine running for a while waiting for the RAC.

RAC rocked up and concurred this could be a faulty inertia sensor and advised me to continue carefully.

Journey continued another 40 miles to the nearest services, shut the engine down, came back to the car 30 minutes later, restarted with no issue....great.

Continued another 30 or so miles and the engine died without warning. Trying to crank the engine resulted in it turning over but not firing. Pressing the Intertia switch didnt solve the issue immediately, but several start attempts (on petrol) pressing the inertia switch between tries, the engine started.

i began to wonder if the issue was related to the LPG system, so i ran the final 50 miles on petrol, i got about 45 miles with no issues until i stopped at a roundabout and the engine died again! I followed my hasty restart procedure (bearing in mind i was blocking the road at this point!) and eventually it restarted.

Managed to get the final 5 miles with no issues and home. When parked up i let the engine idle which it did with no issues, rock solid, i swapped to LPG and blipped the throttle to 2k RPM to complete the changeover, again no issues. Very odd!

I should state the engine is abourt 15k miles old (it was a recon top hat engine) and has a multipoint Zavoli system fitted. It generally runs perfectly, not rough at all, changing between petrol and LPG (i run it mostly on LPG) happens with no issue at all.

I think during the last 150 miles i've deduced the following:

1) The fault doesnt seem to be related to the LPG System directly as the issue also happened on petrol mode.

2) The successful start using the inertia switch may be a red herring as there is no Inertial Switch message in the display. Also with the engine running, tapping the inertia switch (the trim panel has been removed) doesnt kill the engine.

Could this be a failing CPS? I've heard this can cause this sort of symptom and this isnt always logged as a fault code?

Sorry for the long waffly post, but any thought would be appreciated.
 
CPS is a possibility, check the connector. A look on diagnostic live data might be a good idea.
 
Thanks Datatek! Funnily enough I've just bought a Fault Code Reader, nothing fancy, just a Clarke one. Its picking up the following:

P0335a - Crank Position Sensor Circuit A
P1174
P1667

As the fault is intermittent and after hitting a pothole, I suppose this could be a loose connection I suppose? I started it this evening and it started first time, although I haven't driven it. I cant seem to find much about P1667 and P1174, any ideas?
 
Thanks Datatek! Funnily enough I've just bought a Fault Code Reader, nothing fancy, just a Clarke one. Its picking up the following:

P0335a - Crank Position Sensor Circuit A
P1174
P1667

As the fault is intermittent and after hitting a pothole, I suppose this could be a loose connection I suppose? I started it this evening and it started first time, although I haven't driven it. I cant seem to find much about P1667 and P1174, any ideas?

P1667 Engine anti-theft signal circuit low Serial link short circuit to earth

P1174 Land Rover Lambda control adaption fault bank 2
 
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