These are all great suggestions that make me want to
bring up something I've been meaning to say for a long
time. Most of us are working on our own cars for
various reasons, and one is to save cost. Many of you
are clever enough to come up with some very good
methods of diagnosis without needing expensive test
equipment; however, that equipment makes this kind of
work so much more accurate and easy, and today you can
buy really inexpensive equipment that will do all that
you need and make your life alot easier. Yes, I'm
lucky, I owned my own shop for 11 yrs. and have some
of
the best euipment around; but if you're not working on
tons of cars year after year, you don't need things to
be that tough. But the info they provide will take the
guesswork out of it, and just the non-returnable
purchase of one fairly expensive electronic part will
pay for the tool.You can buy a noid light for a couple
of dollars and plug it in an injector connector and if
it pulses while cranking, you then know you're getting
an injection signal, which alone rules out alot of
possibilities. What I really like though is a digital
multimeter that has full features like MS pulsewidth
(or I really love my Snap-On Vantage which gives pulse
width and graphs the injector signal, or my labscope,
but these are thousands and not worth it for the home
mechanic)because my own little method of diagnosing
no run or poor run is to back probe an injector
connector and crank or run if it will, read the
pulsewidth if it has one; and if it doesn't, you know
you have to look at all the things that would prevent
the PCM(ECU) from firing the injectors-power supply
and
grounds to the ECU, TDC sensor signal, bad PCM, poor
connections and wiring problems, etc. For most cars at
idle you'll see anywhere from 2ms to maybe 5ms or a
little more depending on temperature and cranking. If
you have a good pulse reading, then you know
everything
before the injectors is ok-all the sensors, the PCM,
powers and grounds, and your problem is probably going
to be simpler such as bad plugs, wires, fuel pressure,
vacuum leaks, a bad or dirty injector, etc. I find it
the quickest way to point you in the right direction
and save you alot of time in checking components that
are probably good. That's why the proper equipment is
worth having as it can save you alot of time and
money.
You can probably pick up a decent meter with all the
features you need for very little, especially if you
watch for sales. You don't need Snap-On or Fluke
quality for occasional work, but to spend $50.00 or
less for that kind of diagnostic power is well worth
it; and some come with pretty detailed instruction
manuals that tell you exactly how to check these
things. Another tip, to hear those injectors clicking
you can use a mechanic's stethoscope or a long
screwdriver with the blade end on the injector and the
handle end against the ear.
--- Pug NZ <pug-yahoo2@azorah.co.nz> wrote:
> Get someone to help with this (just makes it easier)
> so you can listen
> while they start the engine.
>
> Listen to see if you can hear the injectors when the
> engine is running.
> It is almost certainly a pulsed injection system,
> meaning that while the
> engine is idling, you can probably hear the
> injectors ticking. Once you
> have identified the injector noise, turn the car on,
> and listen for the
> injectors when starting. This will tell you how the
> injectors normally
> sound during startup. There may be a pause between
> starting to crank the
> engine, and the injectors starting to click, this is
> the ecu checking
> everything and getting the timing right before
> adding fuel.
>
> Next time the engine stops, try listening for the
> injectors when
> starting again.
> If they click as normal, and it doesn't start, you
> could try a bit of
> engine start ether. If this causes it to even try to
> fire then you know
> that the problem is with the fuel supply prior to
> the injectors. From
> what you have described though, this seems unlikely,
> as a fault prior to
> the injectors would probably cause the fuel pressure
> to drop, but not
> instantly fail.
> If they don't click, check for poor electrical
> connections. Connections
> to check are for power to ignition, injection and
> fuel relays and ecus,
> and also for connections between any sensors and the
> ecus. Find (or ask
> the garage to show you) the possible bad
> connections, (ie end of sensor
> cables, connector blocks, relays, ecus etc) and with
> the engine running
> try wiggling them in turn and listen for a blip,
> misfire, or engine
> stall. Note that the bad connection may be between
> the relay and
> terminals, between the two sides of the connector
> block, or between the
> wires and the terminals on the end (this being most
> probable based on my
> experience). A faulty connection can be very hard to
> find, as they
> usually work well when the car is running, but not
> being driven (again
> by experience). A faulty connection can basically
> stop the injectors
> from opening for a short time, and this is just like
> turning the engine
> on and off. By the way, the fault could be in either
> the positive or
> negative sides of the circuits (or both).
>
> With the alarm, have you tried turning it on and off
> with the ignition
> key in all of the possible positions? Does it have a
> valet switch or
> anything like that? Perhaps the remote battery is
> flat or the alarm has
> a wiring fault?
>
> Hope this helps,
> Kevin
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Steve Rodgers wrote:
>
> >Hi, I'm almost at the end of my tether trying to
> figure out this
> >problem - and if anyone here can help me out I
> would really appreciate it.
> >
> >I've got a 98 406 coupe - 3.0 v6 manual. great car.
> >
> >bought it 3 years ago, and there has been an
> intermittent problem
> >which has been getting progressively worse.
> >
> >basically, from time to time the car will stop
> pumping fuel for a very
> >small amount of time - say a few seconds. really
> quite violent stop -
> >as if the fuel pump has halted. then it comes back
> fine.
> >the car has had about 60 hours of diagnostics at
> caffyns peugeot, and
> >they can't find any faults.
> >
> >it gets worse though, the problem gets more
> frequent - e.g. every few
> >minutes instead of every few days. then the car
> just stops completely.
> >usually when I'm driving at full-pelt down the
> motorway, resulting in
> >a freewheel into the hard-shoulder.
> >
> >once it's stopped it will not restart - again as if
> the fuel pump has
> >gone. I get the orange engine-management problem
> light coming on.
> >
> >I disconnect the battery - by removing postive
> terminal - alarm goes
> >off. reconnect battery - alarm still goes off.
> alarm will not turn off
> >at all now - even with key.
> >but, the engine works again. eventually after about
> 10 mins the alarm
> >will stop its noise - really very anonying.
> >
> >the problem is that it's an intermittent problem
> and that I cannot get
> >the car to the garage whenever it does happen, and
> they cannot
> >reproduce it.
> >
> >the ECU doesn't store any faults.
> >
> >could this be a faulty ECU? - that's my gut
> feeling.
> >has anyone experienced or heard of anything similar
> to this before?
> >
> >regards
> >
> >steve
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>
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Received on Wed Sep 7 08:05:06 2005
