cough, cough and dead :(

[Ben Lessani]

This one has thrown me a little, I was driving around the other day, just about pulled up to the house and the engine stalled. It just about started again with enough power to drive the last 10 metres to get on the drive. The engine wasn't that warm, I'd barely done 8 miles.

I left it for a few hours, went to check it (to make sure it would start the next day for work) and it started fine.

Then, on my way home from the office, I got about 0.5 miles before it stalled at the lights. I started it back up with a little bit of fight and got about another 20 metres before it started struggling, to keep it ticking over at the next set of lights I had to hold the throttle at about 2krpm and it was coughing and popping.

I pulled off the lights and then the only thing just about keeping it going was it being in gear, so it would self-bump back into action. I got just far enough to pull over safely.

I had a poke around the engine bay and everything looked in order (no obvious vac leaks), I swapped the fuel relay for another - but it was still the same, there is a full tank of fuel, grounds to the head/gearbox/chassis are clean and tight, battery is full of juice, CO is spot on.

Its thrown me as its never had any engine trouble, so this is totally out the blue. It doesn't seem to be heat related, or in fact, anything related. Given its random-ness, I'm ruling out it jumping a tooth, I originally thought it was a loose ground shorting out.

If I try starting it, I have to hold the throttle wide-open and even then the revs are bouncing all over and it backfires until it stalls.

I'm going to check the aux. air valve at the weekend as it seems very air leaky!

Any thoughts ... ?

[raferackstraw]

fueling? maybe blocked filter?

[Wayne]

As above, fueling maybe

[mwep201081]

As above, fueling maybe

definitely....replace filter, if problem persists check fuel pump

[cняis]

mine did this, im using original 8v fuel pumps.

a couple of times it refused to start. left it for an hour or so. started fine.

then it started to run like a bag of crap on the way home one day, had to rev the ass out of it for it to move. turned out the lift pump wasnt working. new pump for £25 from GSF and its been good as gold ever since.

does the in tank pump fail to prime when you turn the ignition to pos 2? when it runs badly, can you hear the under-floor pump making a racket? if so i'd say in tank fuel pump 

[Ben Lessani]

... turned out the lift pump wasnt working. new pump for £25 from GSF and its been good as gold ever since ...

Hmmmmmm, I had a little problem a while back where the in-tank pump "fell off" the pick-up hose (where the rubber sleeve is). I'll double check it to see if it has done the same thing again. Failing that, I'll replace the fuel filter.

Thanks troops!

[clipperjay]

Your got spark to all leads though yeah?
If its not electric? I think like the others, gotta be fuel starvation you can always pull the fuel pipe and see if there is decent flow, but becareful its fuel after all, but you have experience so just fix it fella! 

[Ben Lessani]

I pulled the lift pump, it seems to be connected up ok (not fallen loose). Power is getting to both pumps, they are both whirring away.

Noise isn't exactly indicative of flow, so I bought a new fuel filter (which I will fit after work) and I'll test flow from each pump whilst I'm at it. I'll check spark too.

Stupid car.

[clipperjay]

Problem with pumps is they might be sticking intermitenly, and only when they start to warm up for awhile they start to fail?
I would run tests on the pumps for awhile before discounting its them?
Fuel filter yeah defo do that regardless you will be surprised the amount of sh!t that comes from petrol stations into your tank. I've split one open when I bought my Rallye, it had sand in it LOL!
 Remeber to check the pipes afterwards when running as leaks could occur when you disturb the old pipes in some cases I've just changed the fuel pipe whilst under there even if they haven't split.

[bundy]

you might have some damp in your distributor cap, had this on an old clio, only when the car was starting to get warm would it start to play up and a right pig to start again!!