#1458 has problems...

[Martin Gutkowski <webmaster@xxxx>]

Hi All,

I've had some fun with my car this past weekend! I was supposed to drive the car home to
Kent on Friday night to work on it at the Diesel Centre on Saturday. Now quickly some
background: A week ago last thursday, I drove it back from Kent to Reading (110 miles).
The following day, I took it to work (20 miles each way) I must have fired her up 8-9
times that day. On the Saturday, I drove her to Peterborough, (100 miles) and back, again
with several starts. By this time, I was noticing an increasingly difficult period
between when the car was stone cold, and when hot. I had Rich's (#2727) warm-up regulator
on my engine, so wasn't unduly worried, and had planned to swap them back on my trip home
this weekend.

I drove the car again for 20 minutes or so last Wednesday night - no problems starting,
but awful, awful spluttering, coughing, missing and general sulking as soon as the
cold-start stopped firing.

Anyway, come Friday night (10pm), loaded with my stuff - tools, clothes, fluids and a
full tank of petrol, would it start? Would it even fire? Com ON! One cylinder, please,
PLEASE!

NOPE.

So I rang the RAC - lied and told them it was a Renault 30 (stops the annoying
questions), and soon enough the chap turned up. I had also rang Rob Grady who gave me
several pointers (one big advantage of being 6hrs ahead of you guys - when I'm playing
with my car in the evening, you're still at work :-)

Without going into all the details - whether the RAC chap wanted tea or coffee and
suchlike - one of the things we did at my suggestion was to check the air-flow sensor was
moving freely. BINGO! it was a stiff as a board. Strange though, because given the fact
that in getting the car running we'd had to un-stick the plunger in the metering head, it
was stiff going up, but coming back down again afterwards...

Anyway, the RAC bloke gave up, and I went home in the Xantia with Rich's warm-up
regulator. To cut an ever-increasingly long story slightly shorter, Rich's warm-up reg
was so badly blocked, it almost prevented the air flow sensor from actually moving at
all...

Now, some questions!!!

1) One of Dave Howarth's suggestions to get the car running was to clean all the
connections to the resistors a the back of the engine bay. The two on the right were
fine, but the one that should live on the top left was un-plugged and melted (been that
way since I got it). I remember hearing something about this particular wire being a
danger to itself and the car, but what I wasn't prepared for was the engine stalling when
I tried to plug it in (or at least, there was a big spark and the engine revs plummeted,
so I took it off quickly!)... I can't figure out why it would do this based on the wiring
diagram - this wire apparently goes off to the starter motor somewhere... anyone help?

2) Even now the car's back up and running well, I still experience fantastic
accelleration - tyre squeal and everything.... for the first 45 seconds from stone cold.
Then the cold-start stops firing, and the car's back to running like an asthmatic badger
until it warms up, but even when up to temperature, it STILL doesn't perform anything
like as well as when it's cold. Think it needs the fuelling adjusting?

3) Is it normal for the oil pressure meter to jiggle like a ruler being twanged over the
edge of a desk? It sits there showing a healthy pressure but alternates between being
still and wobbling. I replaced the sender two weeks ago - the original didn't work.

I know as soon as I send this, I'll remember some more questins I've been meaning to ask,
but I've completely forgotten them now!

Before I sign off, just wanted to say a big thanks to Chris from the RAC, and Rob Grady,
for being... well... as he always is!

I also wanted to point out that even given the problems I'm having, this car has 2500
miles on it and cost me $7500 (and so far about $1500 in labour and parts, not including
the stuff I needed for driving on the left). Not all "cheap" cars are a big risk. It
needs lots of cosmetic work, but I can enjoy it in the meantime.

Martin
#1458
www.delorean.co.uk