car starts then stalls

[Elton]

covered as well

 

It's on my Prefect, chesters. Poor old girl is 54 years old. She needs a bit of TLC.

 

HOPEFULLY, she'll have a roof over her soon.

[Andy_1984]

Could be debris from bottom of tank as you mention running it dangerously low

It could be sucking stuff onto the fuel filter and stopping the engine and when rested the debris falls back down so it would start for a few seconds before getting blocked again.

Ive never heard of the engine stopping because the battery was low , if theres enough power in the battery to turn the engine over to start it then thats good enough because the engine will carry on running even if you disconnected the battery.

Those volt readings from the battery suggest the alternator is charging the battery but not very well , it should be charging the battery between 13.5 to 14.5 really , but i still dont think the battery or alternator are the problem here .

Having said all this its very hard to diagnose without working on vehicle or at least knowing how old it is and what model it is.

 

 

tony i was thinking the exact same thing. do you reckon putting say 10l of fuel in will be enough to stop it sucking up debris ?

 

i have only put in 5l since the problem started and started looking for problems elsewhere. ill have to top the battery up above the plates and give it a charge overnight and will check the earths too

[chesters1]

you can fill the tank right up but the intake of the fuel pipe is almost resting on the tank bottom ,i'v had a few apart and never seen detritus in petrol tanks (beads of water yes) then again i have never seen a clean diesel one.my cars done 280 thou and theres not a bit of crap in the tank ,perhaps in "olden" days but i expect fuel is very clean today

there is a filter in the intake and perhaps a big inline can one but speaking to an RAC bloke he's never come across a blocked inline can type one ,small ones like the ones Elton and i were on about yes but never a big can one

if you have a small plastic inline filter look at it its easy to see if its blocked usually its filter screen is flat and black!

Edited March 3, 2011 by chesters1

[tony tinca]

tony i was thinking the exact same thing. do you reckon putting say 10l of fuel in will be enough to stop it sucking up debris ?

 

i have only put in 5l since the problem started and started looking for problems elsewhere. ill have to top the battery up above the plates and give it a charge overnight and will check the earths too

 

 

The more fuel you can put in the better so that you know for sure you can eliminate this as a cuase if it doesnt sort it out .

What car is this and how old ?

[Elton]

Three pages long and nobody has done the 'crap in the carburettor' gag yet!

[chesters1]

mines probably got the crappy-est carb is that close enough

[Andy_1984]

Ford focus estate 2002.

 

was converted to lpg 2 years ago by previous owner. the lpg doesnt kick in until the engine is warm enough so it runs on petrol first, 10 minutes later lpg pump starts doing its thing

[Elton]

Ford focus estate 2002.

 

was converted to lpg 2 years ago by previous owner. the lpg doesnt kick in until the engine is warm enough so it runs on petrol first, 10 minutes later lpg pump starts doing its thing

 

I know nothing about LPG cars, but from what you've just said it could also even be some kind of thermostat thing, with the car thinking it's ready for lpg when it's too cold.

[tony tinca]

Ford focus estate 2002.

 

was converted to lpg 2 years ago by previous owner. the lpg doesnt kick in until the engine is warm enough so it runs on petrol first, 10 minutes later lpg pump starts doing its thing

 

 

Ive been thinking about those codes and the fuse 41 and the reasons behind it and i think weve all gone off track with other possible faults , so going back to why those codes are showing

These codes show whenever there is a problem like a dodgy earth or dying battery and youve tested the battery and it isnt right even thou it will turn the engine over .

Have you checked the fuse 41? and if its blown replace , but a dodgy earth could cause it to blow again and show you those codes again.

The focus is prone to a bit of rust on the inner wing where the battery earth cables are , so you could start by undoing the earth and sand papering the connection clean and tightening back up . If this is the problem then the battery should charge up and the codes will be gone and everything will be ok.

If that doesnt work the next thing would be to replace the battery as this could be the problem like you said in the beggining.

I wouldnt rule out the fuel filter getting blocked how i said earlier , but i might have been jumping the gun when the problem is most likely to be in connection to those codes .

[Andy_1984]

checked fuse 41 and its fine.

i thought of that one too elton so i disabled the lpg system.

 

i checked for the earths before and it wasn't listed in my haynes but i think i might know now seeing you said inner wing. so will give that a try, there's one on either side of the engine bay near the suspension adjustment ?.

 

just need to charge the battery as i ran it flat in all my attempts to get it started. is it ok to top up a silver calcium batter with distilled water ?