She's broken Down!!!
Discussion
It had to happen and finally it has.
My beloved S1 which I've had for just short of 3 years has finally let me down.
Happened on Thursday - It had been running a little rough on Wednesday which I put down to damp as it cleared after about 20 minutes of running and was fine after that. Then on Thursday morning she started fine as normal and ran me all of six or seven miles down the road to a local Sainsburys.
When I went to restart her after half an hour she wasn't having it. Lots and lots of energetic turning over but no sparking.
To cut a long storey short I got Mrs T's brother to come and pick me up with his trailer and then dumped the car at home.
I finally had some time today to look around in the engine bay. First stop was the dizzy cap which apart from being a bit damp inside had seen better days (like er..... where's the central contact gone?!). Thought I'd replace the rotor arm as well as that disintegrated when I took it off.
Got a dizzy cap no problems but after 50 miles of touring Plymouths motor factors could I find a rotor arm?
Should get one on Monday.
Serves me right really, every time I open the boot the dizzy cap is right there staring at me: it just hadn't occured to me that I'd still need to be inspecting one in the 21st century!
Had to go into the City centre today and popped into the extra chavvy branch of Halfords ........and got a rotor.
Came home popped the new stuff on and now she's restored to health and all for less than £20
I'll be putting new leads in as well Jon - I reckon they won't be far behind either.
My beloved S1 which I've had for just short of 3 years has finally let me down.
Happened on Thursday - It had been running a little rough on Wednesday which I put down to damp as it cleared after about 20 minutes of running and was fine after that. Then on Thursday morning she started fine as normal and ran me all of six or seven miles down the road to a local Sainsburys.
When I went to restart her after half an hour she wasn't having it. Lots and lots of energetic turning over but no sparking.
To cut a long storey short I got Mrs T's brother to come and pick me up with his trailer and then dumped the car at home.
I finally had some time today to look around in the engine bay. First stop was the dizzy cap which apart from being a bit damp inside had seen better days (like er..... where's the central contact gone?!). Thought I'd replace the rotor arm as well as that disintegrated when I took it off.
Got a dizzy cap no problems but after 50 miles of touring Plymouths motor factors could I find a rotor arm?
Should get one on Monday.
Serves me right really, every time I open the boot the dizzy cap is right there staring at me: it just hadn't occured to me that I'd still need to be inspecting one in the 21st century!
Had to go into the City centre today and popped into the extra chavvy branch of Halfords ........and got a rotor.
Came home popped the new stuff on and now she's restored to health and all for less than £20
I'll be putting new leads in as well Jon - I reckon they won't be far behind either.
Edited by TIPPER on Sunday 3rd August 20:35
Yeah, you up and running yet? Sounds like we're both down on our luck at the moment. Mines still in my garage awaiting the "independent engineer" to look at the damage in the morning. If the ins. co. agree the repair by Specialised and I can get the car up there on Thursday or Friday. Hopefully it's then ready for me to collect on 4 or 5 Sept ready for the "big trip" 
All well again.
I edited my original post yesterday but then thinking about it I wouldn't have noticed that either!
I had a stroke of luck and managed to pick up a rotor yesterday so put the new cap and rotor on and she fired straight up (I hadn't even recharged the battery!!).
Running fine again
Thanks for the tip about the HT leads - I'd already figured that they will probably be on their last if the dizzy and rotor have gone
Almost three years and 30k miles: less than £20.00 of breakdown costs (although I suppose it should really come under consumables so it doesn't count
). I don't reckon that's bad for a 10 year old 'Lots of Trouble' car!
I edited my original post yesterday but then thinking about it I wouldn't have noticed that either!
I had a stroke of luck and managed to pick up a rotor yesterday so put the new cap and rotor on and she fired straight up (I hadn't even recharged the battery!!).
Running fine again
Thanks for the tip about the HT leads - I'd already figured that they will probably be on their last if the dizzy and rotor have gone
Almost three years and 30k miles: less than £20.00 of breakdown costs (although I suppose it should really come under consumables so it doesn't count
). I don't reckon that's bad for a 10 year old 'Lots of Trouble' car!
Gassing Station | Elise/Exige/Europa/340R | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff