fiestaturbo.com

[andyhardy]

1) Went to Essex, met up with Andy B, picked up Escort clocks (for rev counter).

2) Went to chippy and got a £50 parking fine for being what must have been 5 minutes in the chippy.

3) Went to Grove Garage, tried out ignition amp and ECU on a Cossie 4x4. Ignition amp fine, ECU only firing 2 of the injectors, injector drivers for 2 and 3 had died, common problem with L8 ECU's apparently.

4)Scoured passionford forums and google for RS breakers with L8 ECU's - big thanks to Andy's Dad for use of his PC and internet and also to Andy for sorting us out with one in the area of Essex at such short notice.

5) Get ECU back to Andy's - swap baby board and main board over to existing case as the 'new' replacement ECU I bought at £200 from RS Spares place in Shoeburyness.

6) Get home from Essex, put new ECU and ignition amp into the car and fired it up - it worked... for about 10 minutes when it packed up half a mile from my house. I had to walk home and get a friend and my brother to come and help me push it the half mile home.

When is enough enough? I'm seriously f**cked off with the car now - I reckon I've either bought a duff ECU or the problem's related to something else as well.

If someone offers me a good price on the car I'd take it right now - but who wants a fudgekin crap car that doesn't move under it's own power?

CRAP!

Andy

[SimonT]

How much s**t can one guy have!

[AndyBlackFRST]

Andy.. I know what you mean with giving up.. but this needs to be sorted out.. the time, money and effort that has gone into this is crazy.

Keep your head up and this can be sorted

[sexy-aRSe]

s**t andy you don't have much luck do you

Hope you get it sorted

Keep ya chin up

Hope ya gave my car a stroke for me i miss it

[~Tony~]

hey mate, chin up i know its hard but you've put so much effort into the car its crazy to give up now

keep going

[mike_wall15]

Can you get your money back on the ECU?

Electrics suck

[Captain Tightpants]

What a bummer. Keep your chin up mate, it's all worth it in the end.

Are the ECU's repairable? Can you remove the transistors and test them? You could remove the two driver transistors from 1 & 4 on one ECU, and fit them to the other ecu in 2 & 3.

Just an idea,

Doesn't solve the problem as to why though.

Steve

[andyhardy]

Thanks guys - the nutter that calls himself Andy Barclay is coming to mine after he's finished work and we're attacking the loom with a multimeter and soldering iron. He has some good ideas to what it could be causing the problem.

Many thanks to him for his help, Mark and Marc at Grove Garage for letting me test the ECU and ignition amp and put up with my muppetry and a big hearty thanks to the traffic warden (CNUT!).

Faye - I did stroke your lovely cabby while I was there, I also dropped the standard blue injectors in the back passenger footwell for you if you're wondering where they are when you pick it up

Cheers,

Andy

[~Vix~]

Don't give up now, like AndyBlack, you've come to far with your car now, would be a waste not to finish it

[TIL13R]

Unlucky mate!

Dads having the same problems with his Cossie @ the mo he wonts to give up too! but u should see the smile on his face when he's bootin it about! when its running and i am sure u are the same too!

i can see you have put loads of time and money into this please please dont give up!

TIL13R

ps can i have a ride when its going!

[RS_Rawli]

chin up dude

[MAD_Adamski]

hey at least you got a engine and that to go wrong !! some of us aint even got a engine yet

so it aint that bad!!!

[Sphinx]

Anything thats not resulted in a twisted shell is repairable
Chin up, get it sorted and enjoy what will be a stunning fiesta RS

[Project]

Gutted mate, but heed everyone's support please!

There's NO CHANCE that injectors 2 & 3 could be wrong? High impedance, etc, is there...?

Andy's a good monkey - he'll help fix the prob no doubt

/al

[andyhardy]

Gutted mate, but heed everyone's support please!

There's NO CHANCE that injectors 2 & 3 could be wrong? High impedance, etc, is there...?

Andy's a good monkey - he'll help fix the prob no doubt

/al

I'm 100% sure that between myself, Gadget and Ahmed that the injectors are the correct 803s - I've double checked everything again myself.

I am heeding people's support as well - just really gutting after a long day like today thinking you've fixed a problem only to find yourself back at square one, please excuse my outbursts at the moment as I'm feeling quite 'emotional'!

Cheers,

Andy

[Xr_Dub]

CHIN UP STAR

[RS_Rawli]

might sound daft, but change the order of the injectors and retry, if the firing goes down on different ones then your looking at injectors surely/

[heeman10]

Good suggestion Crawlinson

andy - This is gay. It was all a bit like this when the TDI let go on me, a few symptoms but one major problem, it was so hard to get to the route of the problem, and very frustrating. The Caterham has caused problems for the first time my dad's owned it, turning over but not firing the injectors. The ECU's just been thoroughly tested and is fine, so it's wire hunt time for him! Cars are gay, SPECIALLY when they involve electrickery. You know it'll be something simple, and you have a few different components to swap and play around with, so I hope Andy can help sort it out. TRAFFIC WARDENS

[andyhardy]

Blimey - update and a half for you guys here!

Andy B - he's an absolutely mental nutter, and also a true gent. At 6am this morning after getting nearly 2 hours of sleep (I can't sleep when thinking about ECU, looms and why my bloody car won't start!) I get a phonecall 'Hello?' 'Hello Andy - wake up, I'm outside!'

Bleary eyed and feeling pretty crap I eventually open the door to Andy B - and the garage door is opened, FRST pushed back and the work commenced!

First thing we looked at is what was happening when the key is turned.

Andy B noticed that the CPS was too loose to be making a good signal from the crank pulley, so he started gently tightening the CPS clamp on the threaded bolt. As he started doing this the alternator bracket broke around the bolt's thread and so there was no chance of clamping the CPS into position - Bodge time!

We scratched heads for a minute and we both decided that something like Epoxy (ooh I said poxy! ) resin would be a good subsitute to clamping (alright - we were on a limited timespan project to see what was causing the problem with the car - not looking for a finished solution ) and so off to B&Q we went. Armed with Epoxy resin we couldn't resist stopping off at a greasy spoon for a fry up brunch.

Feeling refreshed we then set to glueing the CPS into position - gapping it using a hacksaw blade (hey - it's the right gauge). Checking that the pulley notches passed without touching we thought all would be fine, multimeter readings said ohmage and voltage was ok. Tried starting it - absolutely nothing. We decided that expert advice was needed so we contacted Mark at Grove Garage and he said that if we'd checked everything out, replaced the ECU with faulty injector drivers, checked ignition amp and checked CPS then it must be something faulty with the loom or extremely unlikely that the piggy back board with my chip had fecked up some how. He then very kindly offered to send me the pectel piggy back board to see if we could get the car starting, as they had one spare that was tested as working. I then said that would be great and put the phone down. Looking at Andy I could see he was hatching a plan and looked at his watch - 'How long does it take to get from here to Essex?'

'1 hr 45 mins' - to the Turbo-Weasel!



I called Mark to say not to worry about posting the Pectel board and off we went to Grove in Andy's turbo-diesel Fiesta - it's got some punch, shame about the soggy actuator ruining our fun a bit Gassing one of the Dartford toll bridge employees with diesel fumes when launching from the tolls was a funny experience!

We arrived at Grove Garage, Mark checked the ECU out on the Cossie 4x4 and the new ECU was proven as running fine, no injector driver issues Next thing was to try and find out what was happening, handed with diagrams for Cossie loom's and pin-out diagrams along with a cossie coil pack and pectel board for L8 ECU we left Grove Garage and stopped off at Tesco Lakeside so that Andy could buy some clothes to wear to work tonight as he was going straight from my house after finishing the work on my car! That's dedication to a cause!

We headed back, got home about 6pm and worked on the car until 9pm. Eventually with lots of testing of components, pin-outs and voltage readings etc. (and making our own coil-pack testing bulb system) and removing wiring, rerouting and tidying and cleaning engine bay and loom as well as interior wiring under the dash we got to the conclusion that it was something in the wiring causing the problem. When sorting out wiring with the ECU and Andy was playing about with the CPS in the engine bay, the fuel pump prime stopped it's cycle (as I'd left the ignition system on to see what happened). Andy had found that the the problem was that the vibration of the engine had moved the 'resin'd' CPS from it's original location and it was now hitting the crank pulley notches. This meant that the signal was all over the shop. When the CPS sat properly the fuel pump prime stopped and the ECU was obviously ready for firing. With some technical adjustments using a pair of pliers we managed to get the engine to turn over and even managed to get it to run boost after warming up for 10 minutes or so on the drive

However, the fun was short lived as the CPS is just not right and requires a new bracket so that is going to have to be sorted soon (this is an engine kinda half out dropped off the top mount job - so something for my mate Simon to tackle on his work-ramps! ).

So - we know what the problem is, the ECU is good and working properly, the car can hit boost when the CPS works and stays put and the car isn't as fubar'd as I thought it was!

Many thanks to Andy B - a true FT legend and also Mark and Marc at Grove for helping out every way they could to solve this arse of a problem!

Cheers,

Andy

[~Tony~]

good stuff guys. there is light at the end of the tunnel

[RS_Rawli]

round of applause for another FT member needed me thinks

[Ben_frst]

spot on matey glad to here its and easyish fix

next up my car your welcome to show up at mine and 6am and fix it

[Max M4X WW]

Cool update, Glad everything is getting somewhere. Least you know what it is, even it its not 100% fixed!

TDi beast sounds cool as well

[pauldudley]

jano at http://www.oddkiddcreations.co.uk.... is good at that sort of probs if u get stuck mate or bell him on 07050133596....

[dave_si]

This threads like a novel lol. Good stuff Andy, im pleased for ya

[t2rst]

nice one andy and andy im glad its going the right way now so i take it you will now be attending fitp


dave

[andyhardy]

Thanks guys!

Don't PM Andy B about Cossie management though, he won't be responsible for his actions!

[MotorcyclesFish]

blah blah blah whinge blah

That essay shortly to be released in paperback from Heinemann, RRP £7.99.

[andyhardy]

blah blah blah whinge blah

That essay shortly to be released in paperback from Heinemann, RRP £7.99.

- don't get the price wrong mate, there's an FT discount on the price of the hardback and a free signed copy for Andy B!

[heeman10]

Great, you got to the problem! Great show from Andy too, what a trooper. Glad you managed to feel a little bit of what the TDI can do, it was a blinder before it died!

[Andy.B]

llama it was a bit on the spur of the moment thing to do the running around like that but hay at least the problem lies with a lil £20 odd sensor plus you now know the whole ecu loom is sweet as we tested everything.

I think just get garry to get you another sensor bracket and u get your self a new sensor and it will all be cool, just gap the sensor a bit further away next time.

TDI has now finally done a full tank of fuel now with, Work to you, form you to grove back to you, then to work and then work to home then back to romford to put XP on Bros computer. Told ya it will last

Thanks guys!

Don't PM Andy B about Cossie management though, he won't be responsible for his actions!

Yeh i can just see it now........ reapeat of the OFAC / OFAB post

[heeman10]

Gooooooooo dieselllllllll! 8psi Andy? You checked your wrists recently?

[Andy.B]

lol round 10 psi as thats all it will hold on a good day, if any at times... really need a new actuator.

[andyhardy]

llama it was a bit on the spur of the moment thing to do the running around like that but hay at least the problem lies with a lil £20 odd sensor plus you now know the whole ecu loom is sweet as we tested everything.

I think just get garry to get you another sensor bracket and u get your self a new sensor and it will all be cool, just gap the sensor a bit further away next time.

TDI has now finally done a full tank of fuel now with, Work to you, form you to grove back to you, then to work and then work to home then back to romford to put XP on Bros computer. Told ya it will last

Thanks guys!

Don't PM Andy B about Cossie management though, he won't be responsible for his actions!

Yeh i can just see it now........ reapeat of the OFAC / OFAB post

Thanks mate - I'll speak to Gary about the bracket and get the CPS organised early this week.

Thanks again for all your help Andy, need anything or any help for your project, just let us know Even if it's just ferrying you around to get bits! heh heh

Cheers,

Andy

[Andy.B]

Good stuff mate u know it makes sence.