BX breakdown

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:18 pm

Right.

To cut a long story short, my BX16 conked out on the way back from Brighton yesterday, where I'd been visiting with the good Mr Stuart Hedges of this forum. I had to be trailered back to Guildford from Pease Pottage services on the A23

What happened was I pulled into the services for a quick loo break, then as I was driving slowly towards the carpark exit, the engine cut out - and I couldn't restart it. I pushed it into a space out of the way, then tried again.

I should note at this point I've never had any trouble with hot starting before.

With my foot flat to the floor, the engine fired... but then quickly died again. Then a couple of times I was able to start normally, but each time it would run normally for c. 10 seconds and then cut out. Even if I maintained 2000 revs, the rev counter would suddenly plummet to zero and the engine died *instantly*. Honestly, I've never seen the rev-counter drop so fast.

After that, I couldn't get it to fire again. The AA man came, and declared that there was no spark from the coil. The engine was just turning and turning, no hint of coming to life. He checked the coil connections... but couldn't see where the wires disappear to (some flywheel sensor??) to verify the connection down in "the innards".

The car was perfectly fine when I set off from Brighton!

The HT leads are new, sparkplugs and dizzycap/arm date from late last year. The only thing I've adjusted recently was the timing: I retarded it slightly last week to eliminate pinking - then realised I'd adjusted it a bit too far because I had trouble with cold starts (revs too low), and nipped it back a tad on Saturday morning, which cured that problem. Oh and I need to repair the carb hot air tube - two halfords hot air tubes duck taped together - because the duck tape join failed when I moved it out the way to adjust the dizzy the first time.

Any clues as to what's happened because I'm flummoxed here!!

Cheers,

Mark.

Stinkwheel · Post by **Stinkwheel** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:28 pm

my first guess would be coil breaking down as it gets hot but after that im not sure, i dont know a lot about the 16 engines.

tim leech · Post by **tim leech** » Mon May 14, 2007 2:46 pm

I would try another coil and see how that goes, had a similar problem with My rover, when it got hot it would cut out, as soon as it cooled it was ok again, new dizzy cap and rotor arm did the trick.

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:08 pm

Hmm, what if the fractured carb hot air tube was throwing out air from the exhaust hotspot directly towards the coil....

I dunno... I will investigate further tonight. The choke flap was definitely fully open BTW. I'll see if it will start now it's cold.

Mark.

saint gaz · Post by **saint gaz** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:12 pm

Sounds like the ignition module. From what happened to me. On mine its a small black box bolted to the side of the distributor. Not to sure what it does, but i know that when the electronics break down it will only run for a few seconds as it gets hot then cut out.
got mine from gsf for about £25

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:31 pm

Sorry to hear that mate! There's something about Pease Pottage - I broke down there in the CX once. Good luck sorting it out.

We finished dancing not long after you left, but there was plenty more singing.

Still waiting for an email from Laura

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » Mon May 14, 2007 3:34 pm

If it is the ignition module. you should have one somewhere, therewas one in the stuff you picked up here a long time ago. No coil though.

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Mon May 14, 2007 4:05 pm

Thanks Ken, I'd forgotten about that! I think that stuff is sitting in the back of the other BX.

BTW, the guy from Westbourne Recovery who brought me back last night was an absolute diamond, and his name was Ken

He said he'd had a GSA and a CX turbo in the past, and even came up the drive to look at my G once we got back to my house, and said he was v. impressed. I offered him a brew, and we just stood there talking about cars and other stuff for about 15 minutes (this was about 9:30 pm!). Top bloke - made my evening.

Mark.

P.S. Stu, fingers crossed

Doz · Post by **Doz** » Mon May 14, 2007 5:54 pm

saint gaz wrote:Sounds like the ignition module. From what happened to me. On mine its a small black box bolted to the side of the distributor. Not to sure what it does, but i know that when the electronics break down it will only run for a few seconds as it gets hot then cut out.
got mine from gsf for about £25

Seconded ... when you change it , clean the matings faces off , and put a blob of grease behind the module where it buts up against the dizzy. The reason you see the tacho drop so fast, is it is counting the ignition pulses from the amplifier, if the pulses go missing there's no spark, and nothing to count.

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Mon May 14, 2007 6:17 pm

MY vote would be with the ignition module too, in the first instance. I had to replace a couple on BX16s, almost the only instances I've ever had full--blown immobility in a BX. If you have a spare, as Ken says, then it's a decent bet. There may be a fixing-paste to apply, but as I wasn't repairing/maintaining cars at the time except in the most basic ways, I don't remember the precise symptoms. What I do recall is that a dead module makes your BX as lively as a dodo.

tom · Post by **tom** » Mon May 14, 2007 8:55 pm

It is a heat sink compound available in a syringe from Maplins. Use only a bare minimum, don't slather it on all over the back, a tiny smear of it will do.

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Wed May 16, 2007 5:26 pm

Looking at the Maplins website, is it the Heat Transfer Compound I need or the High Thermal Conductivity Heatsink Compound.... or are they basically the same thing?

Thanks,

Mark.

saint gaz · Post by **saint gaz** » Sat May 19, 2007 9:36 am

When i bought mine it came with a small sachet of silicone, like has been posted it advises a small smear on the surfaces.

AlanS · Post by **AlanS** » Sun May 20, 2007 12:38 am

Last time I had a problem like this, it turned out to be the wire to the ignition coil had an internal break right where it connected to the spade terminal at the coil. That was on a CX so kidding that wasn't fun to find, but eventually it died completely about 250 klms from home and in the desperation of pulling things off and putting them back on (at 1am on a Saturday night) I discovered it. This was after an auto electrician hoad "fixed" it on several occasions at a cost of mammoth proportions.
When you say the tacho dies fast, so did mine and so it should as it was just like someone had pulled the wire off.

Alan S

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Mon May 21, 2007 12:03 pm

Well Alan, that's gonna to be the next thing I check.

Latest is that I found Ken's bag o' bits that he gave me when I took the car up for him to look at way back (thanks Ken!), which included a distributor complete with ignition module. I cleaned it up and swapped it with the one on the car, connected everything up.... Nada. Not even a splutter.

Well, I found the source of an oil leak anyway, because the distributor O ring was pretty swollen, to the point that I had to prise the distributor away from its mounting point with a screwdriver! No wonder I'd had difficulty turning it while trying to set the timing.

So.... I cleaned up the LT wiring and connectors on the coil and module. Still nothing. So now I guess i'm down to checking every single wire for current. I don't fancy doing that in the rain

When I broke down, the AA man did the spark test with the spark plug nearest the alternator, and the coil HT terminal, and got nothing from either.

Inside of dizzy cap is nice and clean, rotor arm in good condition, all HT leads are securely attached...

I have a digital multimeter. Can anyone run me through some tests I can carry out with it? If it comes to it I may have to ask someone if they wouldn't mind coming round for a second opinion. I cannot afford to have it recovered to a garage. It already cost me £82 for the AA membership upgrade from "roadside & home start" to "relay" plus the recovery charge from Pease Pottage to Guildford.

Cheers,

Mark.