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MG MGF Technical - Engine cuts out - WHY ?

R Reg. non VVC about 45000 miles - wifes car !
Hi, the car just cuts out for no apparant reason, sometimes just for an instant sometimes for hours.
Electronic check using diagnosts revealed no problems, main relay contacts cleaned , no loose wires.
Sometimes its an immediate cut out and cut back in again , other times it appears to be fuel starvation, ie fuel pump fault. The engine will run but for a few moments and will not respond to throttle , cuts out again at WOT.
A mechanic friend says the fuel filter can break up and block injectors, I will check that but it seems unlikely .
I have seen that dodguy rotor arms can cause engine cut outs , but they seem to be permanent cut outs.
As far as I know all ignition parts are the original ones from new.

Any suggestions ?????
Thanks alan
AP Jones

HT leads (and most electrial leads) can break down internally with no obvious external sign of wear. Could try a resistance check on HT and spark plug leads. Hard to diagnose intermittant failure if it doesn't fail exactly at the time you're looking for it unfortunately.
A M Cox

because it is sh--. sell the dam thing and get a LOTUS
W.J. REID

l*tus were fitted with the rover K series engines as well
same problems
AP Jones

You are not as smart as you think. not all lotus are fitted with the Fuc-ed up "K" series bit of sh--
W.J. REID

I never said all l*tus were fitted with K series engines did I ?
Them kitcars were fitted with whichever cheapest engine they could find at the time .
AP Jones

Lotus =

Lots of
Of
Trouble
Unlikely
To
Start.

Cheers from the Lotus Car Club.
A.J. Mackew

Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious is my personal favourite

Back to Alan's problems, I'd not rule out an ECU fault, perhaps heat related - does the cutting out ever occur when the engine is cold, or just when it's been running a while? Unless the fault actually occurs during testing of the ECU, it's likely to show as fully operational, meaning that swapping it is about the only way of conclusively ruling it out. All evidence seems to point to it being an electrical fault rather than a mechanical fault, the fact its not reporting errors in the ECU log doesn't actually mean much - it can only report conditions its been programmed/equipped to recognise, so if whatever it is that is happening isn't something Rover expected, no fault code so no fault reported.
bandit

got you all doing

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

hook out

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
W.J. REID

APJ, I am struggling with the same kind of thing with a 1.8 mpi car.
The car will start and idle but won't rev up, it just roars in the induction m/fold and dies.
Fuel pump primes, we have sparks and air.

Asking around the trade today the most useful suggestions born out of experience are;-
Clean the crankshaft sensor
Change the ignition coil ( they go frequently )
I have previously had a rotor arm which failed completely after 50 miles, on this car too, it's worth changing it if only to rule it out.

I shall do mine and post if there's an improvement.
Gramh

Hi,

Check that the IACV(idle air control valve),is working,it may be jammed shut, I had one that was stuck on tick over causing the engine to stall and then not start, after several attempts to turn the engine over, after about half an hour the engine started,I assume the IACV had become unstuck and reset itself.The IACV had become stuck by soot coming from the oil mist via the rocker pipe,I cleaned the valve with brake/carb cleaner.Another time it stuck ,I unscrewed the IACV from the manifold,I wedged a screwdriver in the IACV and pushed out the piston a little ,the result was that the engine started but the revs were very high at tickover but by doing this it got me home. A question for the experts,if the IACV fails,would it tell the MEMS 1.9 ECU to shut down the coil trigger to the coil?,because when my IACV failed I lost the HT from the coil,but obviously it returned because the engine started up.

Regards,

Simon
SCJ Connolly

M-ore
G-rief
Dick Pullar

This thread was discussed between 18/06/2008 and 30/06/2008

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