Saxo Help please
 

My 99 VTS died last night on the run from Southampton to Leeds. I was wondering if anyone knows these things well enough to give me some insight as to the possible problem.

Basically:

A week ago I jumped in after work and started the car OK. It ran for as long as it took to fit the face off stereo and then it died. It would turn over fine but not fire. After an hour it started OK and ran fine for a week.

Saturday it ran fine from Leeds to Southampton, no problems at all.

Last night I set off from Southampton and got as far as Silverstone when she started to misfire badly above 5000rpm before cutting out altogether on a particularly dark stretch of the A43. I phoned for recovery but before they'd arrived I'd managed to start it and limp to the nearest garage. After waiting an hour for the recovery truck it finally arrived. I explained that it'd started up and he suggested I give it another try. Well it started fine and ticked over perfectly. I took it for a blast up and down a stretch of the A43 while he filled his recovery truck with diesel and it was as good as ever so I bravely decided not to pay £2 a mile to leeds and headed off.

I got another 90 trouble free miles, absolutely no problems at all, before I had a single hiccup as I got near Trowell Services. I decided to play it safe and exited the M1 just as it coughed and died again. This time we waited 2 hours for recovery and in that time it would turn over, catch once occasionally, but not fire.

We finally got home at 1am and still it wouldn't start, so it's sat outside the gf's house now and I've pinched her car for work.

There were no engine warning lights, no temperature anomalies (oil or water), no smoke I saw, no nasty noises.

Any ideas guys?

Much appreciated in advance

Ray

Try www.saxosports.co.uk

Matt

Thanks Matt, but it's on there too and haven't had one answer there either.

This is talking generically, rather than Saxo specific, but:
With the running fine, then not, then fine again, sounds very much like electronics related to me. When mechanical things break, they tend to stay broken!

My first guess would be something like a cam or crank position sensor on its way out / having failed - with one of these completely dead, it would turn over, but not run as the ECU doesn't know where the engine is at - most sensors failing would cause rough running rather than no running.

Another possibility is problem with the ECU or the plugs/wiring. I once had a pug where all the injector wiring melted into a black runny mess - this caused intermittent problems for a few miles and then stopped the injectors opening at all, which prevented any engine activity (until I rebuilt the wiring harness).

Yeah, I'd definitely agree with the electronic problem theory. There always seems to be someone who knows of a 'weak link' with the various marques and models. I'm hoping someone's gonna know of something peculiar to VTS's and therefore elimate hours and hours of messing about. As with all modern cars, us DIY mechanics are being efficiently phased out by the manufacturers as technology advances.

sounds like some sort of sensor to me, (having a VTS, which has had several problems), maybe crank sensor? Post the link to the thread on saxo sports club and ill point people in its direction.

link to thread on saxosports.co.uk http://www.saxosports.co.uk/forum/SE.../SFE/posts.htm