9-5 Intermittent starting.

[wallsm]

Hi all.
My 9-5 20ltr lpt has recently developed the habit of refusing to start after a 2 to 3 mile spin.

Stop for coffee in the morning after 3 miles with the engine at full temperature, 5 min to get coffee, she wont start, all the lights are up and she turns, but no fire.

If I wait for 5-10 minutes she fires straight away.

Any ideas

Thanks in advance

Mark

[Saabman]

Crank Position Sensor 

[Drac]

The car takes care of you - lets you drink coffee first. Much safer than while driving... 

[wallsm]

Thanks Saabman, I went on the old forum to look it up and got the same result, however I forgot to mention that if I put jump leads on she fires, would low battery cause the problem also.

Drac, as for your advise on the coffee, I like to test the cupholder, so far it has dumped about 4 times on me.

Regards

Mark

[nine-fiver]

Battery, very likely. Get it checked out anyway. Or even do it yourself with a load tester. Failing that, put on the headlights to high beam before cranking and see what happens. If they dim right off and cranks slow, your battery needs a deep cycle off-car charge overnight, or even replacement. 3 years on a battery if you are lucky these days.

But the classic hot restart issue is going to be the Crank Sensor for sure.

[Drac]

If you replacing the battery get a Yuasa, Exide or Varta. They are generally top brands. Bosch is also not too bad.

[wallsm]

Today I discovered that my battery is of the refillable type.
1 cell very low and 2 low, the reduced voltage may be affecting the crank sensor, i live in hope.

Regards

Mark

[wallsm]

Hi Gents, just to finish up on this one, since I topped up the battery she has not failed to start, it makes sense that low voltage would lead to low impedance on the CPS, thanks for all your advice and knowledge.

Regards and thanks

Mark

[DRM]

Interesting alternative to my usual thoughts regarding the range switch or crank position sensor.

Well done on cracking it, some more knowledge for us all.

[phoenix]

it makes sense that low voltage would lead to low impedance on the CPS

It doesn't The impedance of the CPS is not affected by anything except engine temperature.

What is happening is that the voltage is dropping too low for the ECU to function.

[wallsm]

I hear what you are saying, however I had the classic non start when the engine was warm, curing the battery problem solved it.
I think the low voltage was a contributing factor to a dodgy CPS.


Thanks again for all your help, I'm now up to my goolies in ABS failure, it never ends.

Regards

Mark