A non starting CDT

[rsr75]

Originally Posted by matto

Any ideas please.
Whilst on holiday in cornwall my 75 cdt died on a steep hill,not very conveinient,anyway it turns over ok,electrics fine and no warnings given,fuel is squirted out from ejectors ok but it just wont fire up.
Called out the RAC and after 2 hours he had no idea what the problem is,plugged his computer in and everything is working fine even though it just wont start.
Had to have it towed home 300 miles and stuck in cornwall minus a car.
Any help would be most appreaciated.

Did U fin out what the problem was, I have a 75 that also refuses to start!!!!

Regards GG

[Keith]

RSR I have copied this to a new thread for better visibilty
What model of car do you have and what are the exact symptoms?

[rsr75]

Hi,

Have just bought a 2000 CDT Rover 75 that had some panel damage ( funnily enough my brother in law who is a panel beater found it..Hmmm ) Anyway, as soon as we got the car it was intermittently hard to start. At first we thought it was low in fuel & parked at an angle. After topping it up with a couple of litres & pushing to a flat surface it still wouldn’t start. We then removed a fuel line from the diesel filter and it started. I thought replacing the fuel filter would be a good idea & did so. At this stage I noticed that the drain holes were blocked, but had no idea of the consequences @##@!!!@@(&^$K!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway we moved into the shop and commenced repairs. Of course we used mig welders & spot panel dent removers. When we moved it off the bench, no start.

After enough cranks to drive a considerable distance and flatten several batteries, we decided to tow it a repair shop that specialized in diagnostic & electronic issues. His response after several hundred Euro was that the ECU was caput because he couldn’t access it. At this stage we thought the new spot dent remover must have arced the ECU. At this stage I also started looking on the Web and discovered problems with ECU swimmers……. Anyway we then sent this of to be repaired and it came back testing OK.

After refitting and more continued cranking I returned to the web, this time I noticed some discussions of starting issues with insufficiently charged batteries; ie the lights coming on when first cranking. Excellent thought, problem solved. So this morning I headed off with a fully charged battery and some anticipation of resolution……Hmm no different.

After analysing it seems to that there are intermittent unexplained happenings.

- Some times the under bonnet fuel pump is powered, other times not.
- The pump in the tank appears to go non stop ( I thought this was only for 3-4 seconds when the key was first turned on)
- Some times the engine management light appears, sometimes not.
- When it does appear, there is an exclamation mark in the middle.

At this stage we think we have a power supply issue, but until I get hold of some manuals or some kind soul to donate time and energy into my project it is parked unhappily draining in the rain.

Any suggestions and tips short of using a larger hammer or an unexplained fire would be more than welcome, in the meantime my family are hiding the matches.

Regards Geoff

[Phil]

If its been in a bump, have you tried the fuel cut off switch??

[TimO]

Just being lazy and not looking in Haynes, but where is the fuel cut off switch?

Cheers

Tim

[Keith]

Geoff where is the car?
It really needs to go on Testbook for starters

From your description the engine ecu or related electrics do sound suspect

The two diesel pumps one in the tank and one next to the battery are wired in parallel both are powered by the same relay in the passenger compartment fuse box they should come on together every time you turn on the ignition for a minute then will go off until you start the engine where they then run constantly if not then the engine ECU may be faulty

[Ross R75]

Have you tried replacing the crank position sensor and/or cam position sensor? These are usually the main culprits when a CDT fails to start. Blocked drain holes do not necessarily equal a flooded ECU.

[rsr75]

Hi,

Can the sensors be tested either in-situ or out of the car by either voltage to / from resitance across etc, the last thing I want to do is start replacing one bit at a time, it's an expensive exercise as previous owners have found out and not necessarily a successful one.

Also does anybody have a list of things to check, ie when the key is fist turned on:

- the pumps should power on for x seconds
- the glow plugs should power on for y seconds
- voltage should be available @ wires a,b,c going into the ecu, if not check relays 1,2,3

The sad thing is there appears to be several cars in this state and some have been resolved, but they never updated anyone on the exact resolution....

Anyway have a guy with a code reader coming today and if that fails it may be a trip to the dealer to plug into there system; I can feel my wallet beginning to hemorrhage already..

Thanx for the suggestions, will keep battling. Geoff G

[rsr75]

Had some guy with a big red box spend several hours scratching his head today, Everything seemed to check out except for an EMS error code, something about antitheft, however engine turns over and all seems that the engine should start. We also swapped the camshaft sensor but that didn't help. Fuel pressure was @ 3.2Bar which seems to be normal?

Tried the easy start in the intake, yes it fired on that, but not really sure what that proved other than we have compression?

Any more ideas?

Regards Geoff

[Rack]

I would have thought that diesel + turn over = start? it's not a petrol with no spark.