Maka
09-12-09, 05:46 PM
My nova is a 1992 1.4 merit i shell with an astra gte 18e fitted.
For the last few weeks I've had a fault occurring intermittently, the car will run fine for hours/days then suddenly the tacho will drop down to zero and the engine cuts out.
I'll pull over, try to start it and it will refuse to start. Then after minutes/hours/days i'll try to start it again and it will run spot on. Then the fault will occur again, sometimes straight away or sometimes not for days...
The rest of the electrics stay on fine. At first I thought it must have been a loose connection so I went through everything with a fine tooth comb and found nothing.
I was then advised that the coil might have been breaking down when it got hot. I replaced the coil with a brand new one and it ran spot on for a couple of days then sure enough, same problem.
Last night I was at the unit when it cut out again. I got a spare plug and tested for spark at the end of the HT lead, nothing. Then tried the coil feed lead to the distributor with a screwdriver, nothing.
I then started checking over it with the multimeter. The feed to the coil was showing 12v, the brain module underneath the coil was showing 12v, but still no spark.
I checked the hall sensor plug on the distributor and this too showed that it was working correctly.
I rang my mate who's quite knowledgable on 8v engines. He suggested that there might be a problem with the ECU. I swapped the ECU for a spare I had in the unit and it fired up straight away.
Happy to have solved my problem I packed my tools up and set off home for some tea and a long drive as I was able to enjoy my car again without worrying who could tow me home if need be, only to get half way down the road and she cut out again! :cry:
I've run out of ideas now. All the connections appear good, all the earths are tight and non-corroded.
Anyone any ideas on why I could be getting no spark at all even though theres 12v at the coil?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I really want to start enjoying my nova again instead of being sat at the side of the road scratching my head on a daily basis :(
Thanks in advance, Maka
For the last few weeks I've had a fault occurring intermittently, the car will run fine for hours/days then suddenly the tacho will drop down to zero and the engine cuts out.
I'll pull over, try to start it and it will refuse to start. Then after minutes/hours/days i'll try to start it again and it will run spot on. Then the fault will occur again, sometimes straight away or sometimes not for days...
The rest of the electrics stay on fine. At first I thought it must have been a loose connection so I went through everything with a fine tooth comb and found nothing.
I was then advised that the coil might have been breaking down when it got hot. I replaced the coil with a brand new one and it ran spot on for a couple of days then sure enough, same problem.
Last night I was at the unit when it cut out again. I got a spare plug and tested for spark at the end of the HT lead, nothing. Then tried the coil feed lead to the distributor with a screwdriver, nothing.
I then started checking over it with the multimeter. The feed to the coil was showing 12v, the brain module underneath the coil was showing 12v, but still no spark.
I checked the hall sensor plug on the distributor and this too showed that it was working correctly.
I rang my mate who's quite knowledgable on 8v engines. He suggested that there might be a problem with the ECU. I swapped the ECU for a spare I had in the unit and it fired up straight away.
Happy to have solved my problem I packed my tools up and set off home for some tea and a long drive as I was able to enjoy my car again without worrying who could tow me home if need be, only to get half way down the road and she cut out again! :cry:
I've run out of ideas now. All the connections appear good, all the earths are tight and non-corroded.
Anyone any ideas on why I could be getting no spark at all even though theres 12v at the coil?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I really want to start enjoying my nova again instead of being sat at the side of the road scratching my head on a daily basis :(
Thanks in advance, Maka