Cutting out

[Chambers]

I've recently bought a Griffith. When I've been driving it quite quickly it has a tendancy to cut out. This has happened when it has ben idling but also whilst travelling at around 90.

If I try and start it again immediately it'll turn over but not catch, after it has been standing for a few minutes it is fine again.

Also after it has been driven quite quickly it sometimes looses power and just chugs along.

Any thoughts?

[gjm]

........they all do that sir........!

No honestly ... i am only joking....sounds like it could be a number of things.
first have a look in the search facility, there is quite a lot under cutting out/stalling/idling etc (i should know i have these types of problems, my griff is currently being fixed by Tower View this very minute). lots of things to check/try.
1 - all earth electrical connections clean/good contacts
2 - all leads/distributor cap firmly on
3 - fuel starvation/vaporisation from engine heat
4 - mine turned out to be a faulty road speed sensor and faulty speedo playing havoc with the idle/road speed
5 - stpper motor - buy steve heaths book for info on this
6 - dirty or faulty injectors -expensive!
7 - put in some decent optimax fuel
8 - finally and probably a bit expensive - but should definately find the problem, go for a rolling road check up with Mark Adams and get the ecu chip sorted at the sametime

[Chambers]

Thanks for that.

I think I'll try the cheaper options first and then if they fail to solve the problem I'll head for the rolling road.

[julianhj]

Mine did that, then wouldn't start at all. The bloke from the RAC said there was a short somewhere. didn't get a proper discrption, as I had to go to work brefore he turned up (left car at parents house).

I still regularly get rough running/stalling when hot and in traffic - anyone got any tips?

Really must get round to buying Steve Heath's book...

[heliox]

quote:I've recently bought a Griffith. When I've been driving it quite quickly it has a tendancy to cut out. This has happened when it has ben idling but also whilst travelling at around 90.

If I try and start it again immediately it'll turn over but not catch, after it has been standing for a few minutes it is fine again.

Also after it has been driven quite quickly it sometimes looses power and just chugs along.

Any thoughts?

Chambers, my car showed very similar symptoms although intermitently for around two years.It was the most annoying of faults as it pointed to a variety of possible causes all of which were looked at but i was still unable to cure the fault.

The biggest clue was when i was driving to work one morning cruising in the fast lane when the engine died, as if out of fuel and lo and behold the fuel pump wasn't working.Five minutes later it started as if nothing was wrong.

To cut a very long story short,the fault turned out to be a dodgy wire conection in an electrical conector behind the dash which supplies the main feed to the fuel pump, hense the fueling symptoms. The cause was the back of the radio knocking against the conector on or over large bumps and moving the conector only very slightly but enough to break the contact and then the fuel pump would stop and the car would run out of juice or would loose power due to low fuel pressure.

This may not be whats wrong with yours but I thought that i'd share this one with you as it does seem a little similar.

best of luck with it

heliox

[optique]

I've had this problem twice, first time i replaced the fuse board on advice from tower view, this worked for the next 2 years fine. It then happened again and it was caused by a "green contact" on one of the relays. Tower view very helpfull about this, 2 main dealers both said don't bring car to us far to old (92).
Problem only occurs when the car is damp and hasn't been used for a week, once the problem does start, it won't go away.

[bogbeast]

quote:I've recently bought a Griffith. When I've been driving it quite quickly it has a tendancy to cut out. This has happened when it has ben idling but also whilst travelling at around 90.

If I try and start it again immediately it'll turn over but not catch, after it has been standing for a few minutes it is fine again.

Also after it has been driven quite quickly it sometimes looses power and just chugs along.

Any thoughts?

The same sort of thing happened to me. Just used cut out just as I started lifting off at speed (70-90). As I went to accelerate I found I had nothing there.

Cleaned stepper motor, problem went away.

[Dai Capp]

I had a simialr problem also...

First time the stepper motor was cleaned and that sorted it, second time there was a different problem.

Excuse my lack of "techno-speak" but there is a sensor that fixes just below the distributer cap and looks like a flying saucer (told there was going to be a lack of techno-speak). I think it's a pressure sensor but in any case it had quite literally come adrift. Cost £30 for David Geralds to reattach it and it has worked just fine. Mines a 1994 car so yours may be different.

Hope this helps.

DC + M500 CRS

[shpub]

It's called a vacuum advance and it advances the ignition timing as the engine revs.

Steve
www.tvrbooks.co.uk

[Dai Capp]

Just found my receipt and it is the vacuum advance. (How did you get that from my descrption!)

DC

[Leadfoot]

Mine fell off too & I know of a Chim owner who had the same prob. I thought I'd lunched the motor when it happened at a track day. Now I check it's secure each time I open the bonnet.
Incidentaly, if you loose the mounting screws - a Triton T80 electric shower has some inside which are the correct thread if a little too long, ,just trim to fit.
Just my useless tip of the day. It is true tho'.

[simont]

Exact same problem on my 500 Griff. last time I took the wiring harness with the relays on and gave it a good bang on the passenger footwell, more out of anger than anything else. Started straight after.

Ah ha I thought...

When I got home I took the tops off both the relays, fuel pump and ignition,(they are both the same so no worries about mixing them up) and cleaned the contacts with some white paper to get the crap off.

Been OK since

>> Edited by simont on Tuesday 20th August 14:43

[NoisyGriff]

I had a similar snag and it turned out to be one of 2 things:
There are 2 metal covered relays in the clump of wires that sit on the battery box (brilliant). One does something for the ECU, the other is the fuel pump relay. If the car cuts out, swap them around and if it starts immediately, it's the fuel pump relay.
If it needs to cool down first, it could be the ignition relay (black, matchbox sized thing attached to the side of the distributor). These tend to get hot with the engine and pass out.

Hope this helps.