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OMG my new car stopped after 20 miles

Hi Lee

Mention of the ECU brought back memories of my Golf which had similar problems - run perfectly for a while & then cut out. It would then take minutes, hours or days to restart. It stumped my local mechanic & then the VAG dealer had it for 4 days trying to make it go wrong! In the end, after them changing £750 worth of immobiliser gubbins to no avail, the ECU was sent to a testing centre where it was pronounced beyond help. The new ECU has been in & working for over a year without a glitch. Cost me a grand in the end to get it sorted[:mad:]
 
ORIGINAL: Alex Postan

If he turns out to be a man of straw and you have to sell his plate to recoup your spondulix, what's the plate? Is it amusing or is it an awful NI 4 number plate worth £90?
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Hi Alex, i wish it was Nl 4 as that would be worth loads or is it refering to the irish NI then 4 digits, the plate is 3 letters 2 numbers which isnt to bad, if its ecu im sure the £1000 odd to replace the plate should cover it, cheers, Lee.
 
ORIGINAL: NXI20

Hi Lee

Mention of the ECU brought back memories of my Golf which had similar problems - run perfectly for a while & then cut out. It would then take minutes, hours or days to restart. It stumped my local mechanic & then the VAG dealer had it for 4 days trying to make it go wrong! In the end, after them changing £750 worth of immobiliser gubbins to no avail, the ECU was sent to a testing centre where it was pronounced beyond help. The new ECU has been in & working for over a year without a glitch. Cost me a grand in the end to get it sorted[:mad:]
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Hi NX120, its still unclear at this stage what the problem is mate but could well be ecu, all i want is to go out for half hour at least ! and not brake down after 20 !! its so wierd when i got to twg after just 2 miles the car sat there all ok for approx 5 to 10 mins while he plugged it in and did his stuff then i said i bet wont start if i turn it of, i turned it of then the mechanic was gob smacked when i was right, has only done a 1000 miles since a big service and full inspection costing £1500 from autofarm as well, they did leave a intake clip loose as well, if you cant do the job dont do it in the first place[:mad:] cheers, Lee.
 
I've just remembered I had a problem like this with an Audi Quattro years ago... IIRC it was eventually traced to a blocked breather in the fuel filler cap!!!!! Created a vacuum in the tank after a few miles, which the pump couldn't overcome - switching off allowed air to very slowly get back into the tank, then off I went again for another few miles!

Won't show up on diagnostic equipment either, as no electrical failure...
 
ORIGINAL: Bull996

So if its the vacuum as above could he try it with the fuel cap off?
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Ooooohhh... You've triggered something there... I seem to recall in the early days Over on Porsche Pete's Boxster Board, that people had problems with filler caps. The check engine light would come on and replacement of the cap cured that. I'm not sure that running without a cap will work - it will probably trigger the check engine light itself. But it might be worth investigating...
 

didn't get a engine warning light but, one problem driving with the fuel cap not fully done up is you get a very strong smell of petrol in the cabin..

won't tell you how i found this out it's way too embaressing[:-]
 
It would be a quick,chep way of checking if that was the issue though. I am sure he can cope with a few fumes for an hour..
 
ORIGINAL: Mark Bennett

Ooooohhh... You've triggered something there... I seem to recall in the early days Over on Porsche Pete's Boxster Board, that people had problems with filler caps. The check engine light would come on and replacement of the cap cured that. I'm not sure that running without a cap will work - it will probably trigger the check engine light itself. But it might be worth investigating...
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I've now just remembered I had this on my 996 - don't think it ever actually cut out, but it wasn't quite right and stunk of petrol. Had a new filler cap fitted and it was fully cured.
 
ORIGINAL: lee996

I dont remember any hiss when i put fuel in so i dont think its that, Lee.
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You wouldn't hear anything - the vacuum would only be temporary, but just enough to stop the fuel pump delivering enough fuel to the engine. You could only possibly hear anything if you immediately dashed out and opened the filler cap after the engine cut out.

The filler cap should have a one-way breather system fitted to it - allows air in, but keeps fumes out. If the one way valve sticks open - car will run OK but smell strongly of fuel, if the valve sticks shut, as fuel is used a vacuum is created in the tank and the car stops. Once the engine has stopped, so does the fuel pump, and fuel / air will seep back through the pump into the tank and therefore there will no longer be a vacuum after a few seconds / minutes! Could explain why the car restarts after a while too...

Is the correct filler cap fitted? If not, previous owner may have lost it and fitted an incorrect one with no breather system (many cars have the breather seperate to the filler cap and so just have a straightforward plastic cap - won't work on a Porsche with the tank in front of the driver!)
 
Hi, filler cap is fitted with no smell of petrol in the cabin or outside, when it stops again just to cover this i will undo the cap and see if it starts but with so many faults on the code reader its got more serious problems, went down to twg this morning and hes busy on other cars so looks like iv got to wait a while, cheers, Lee.
 
The fuel filler cap should seal the tank. There is a ventilation system that the manual describes:

"The fuel vapours from the fuel tank must not escape into the open air. For this reason, the ventilation line of the fuel[FONT=verdana,geneva"]tank is routed to an evaporative emission filter (or EVAP canister) that retains the fuel vapours. When driving, air is[FONT=verdana,geneva"][FONT=verdana,geneva"]drawn in through the EVAP canister and picks up the accumulated fuel vapours and feeds them to the combustion[FONT=verdana,geneva"][FONT=verdana,geneva"]process."[FONT=verdana,geneva"][FONT=verdana,geneva"] [FONT=verdana,geneva"]
2B3145C0AB8A4EEA9AE3DE27E679AF6E.jpg
 
I had a ford escort van years ago with my work, I would be going down the motorway and it would stop ( just lose power ) leave it a while it would be fine...

Any way the reason ... I was working for the water company and the van would have to go though floods to get to pumping stations ( Managment would not alow us a 4x4 as it would mean the workers had better vehicals than them even though the 4x4 was £4 amonth cheaper on the lease ) so the van would get flooded on serveral occations.. once over the headlights [&:]

What happened was the breather to the tank had rusted up and was blocked.. so the system could not be vented and the fuel pump was sucking in the fuel tank!!! it did this until it coudl do it not more and then the van would just stop... Release the fuel cap and it was fine again... The tank was sucked in so much I have no reserve!!!!!

We did get Transit vans next 1.6 petrol ones that where rubbish and as soon as there was any slight off roading ( which was part of the job ) the Transit would be bogged down in mud and would need a call out for a tow...

and we still didn't get 4x4's don't you love management!!! how many lost hrs sat waiting for a recovery Landrover!!
 
Do we know the outcome of this story???

I'd be interested to know what the problem was in the end and/or what happened to the car...
 
ORIGINAL: Watty

Do we know the outcome of this story???

I'd be interested to know what the problem was in the end and/or what happened to the car...
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Hi All, car finally lasting more than 20 mins, lol, well its actually cured, as mentioned porsche code reader found 3 errors but didnt log the one that caused most the trouble so whats the point in spending 10k on one i ask !! twg first changed faulty lamda but did say it wouldnt shut of the engine, then he checked all wiring, fuel pump, relays to injectors, dme etc, checked wiring in the engine, things were looking at dme failure but as a last resort ordered a crank sensor and has cured it, so why didnt the car recored this sensor faulty, so 2 sensors and about 10 hours labour cars finished, im just waiting for payment, thanks for all your help, Lee.
 
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