I had some recent issues with the engine. Occasionally I would start the car cold, it would turn over and stall out. The second attempt would always restart the car without a problem. I don't know if that has any bearing on the following propblem that occurred this morning.

I hadn't driven the car for 3-4 days, which is unusual, but I could not get the car started. It would crank with a whirring noise, but not catch. Occasionally I would feel it want to catch a little bit.

I ended up shifting into Neutral and tried it again, without any change.

Then I tapped the gas, and it seemed like I was getting a little more effort so I started tapping the gas pedal rapidly and it started to catch more until it finally turned over.

I drove it down to my shop, just to make sure it would turn over again, and sure enough it did. Went to a two hour meeting, and it fired up no probelems.

What could be the cause of this problem?

I have changed the fuel filter only a few months back. Could it be the pump going bad?

 

It could be a flaky fuel pressure relief valve which is dropping your FP over a few unused days.

The guys, will chime in.

(BTW, I deleted the duplicate post in the X300 section, duplicates only serve to dilute things, and are a no no, in the forum rules).

 

It could be a number of things but I agree that "fuel delivery" sounds like a good place to begin. A fuel pressure test is in order, I'd say.

Cheers
DD

 

I appreciate you deleting the duplicate post. I apologize.

I will attempt to figure out a way to get the pressure reading from the fuel rail. I will report back when I get any data.

Thanks.

 

@Vee

Sorry to hear you are having problems. I agree fuel delivery sounds like a good place to start. I had a lot of fuel pressure issues on my '92 and to help my diagnosis I looked around at fuel pressure test kits, which seemed to be anything from 50USD upwards for a decent one.

I then found a prosport fuel pressure gauge and sender for the same price. Figuring that I could use this to monitor my fuel pressure real time while driving, I bought one and installed it. The fuel pressure sender is connected into the short hose on the back of the fuel rail. (Please use brand new fuel hose clamps, not jubilee clamps, and use fuel injection hose, etc, etc....)



This gauge was a great help in troubleshooting. Showed that my check valves were not working as I lost pressure as soon as I shut off the ignition (The gauge is powered of acc so it stays active when ignition is off) Showed me that my 15USD check valve fix (added a check valve up in the engine bay on the fuel hose that feeds the fuel rail) worked quite nicely and fixed my hard starting problems. Also showed me that my fuel pump was on the way out (fuel pressure would drop below 35psi when running, especially if the car had been running for a while and the pump was heating up) Showed me my pump had finally died one morning (no pressure after ignition prime, even though the pump still made its usual priming noise) And finally now shows me my new fuel pump from a later 6.0 litre V12 car is awesome with pressure never below 40psi.

I have the gauge inside the instrument cluster and I can take it out if required (It does look a bit out of place)

 

This is very interesting.

Is this a wireless device? Did you hardwire something to your dash?

 

@Vee

No, the gauge is electrical. There are 2 wires coming from the sender (signal and ground), you can just see them in the top of the picture (red and white) and the gauge has power, signal and another wire to pick up whether the dash lights are on (It changes from white to green when the lights are turned on). I have just velcro'd it in to the instrument cluster so I can remove it and go back to standard looks if required

You can see it in action here ! http://vimeo.com/17508203

 

Thank you!

I don't think I'm ready to make that modification to my dashboard, however I believe this information is extremely valuable.

I gotta hunt around for something a little more concealable.

How did you get the wires into your dash? I tried for a while to fish my satellite antenna through and I did it in a roundabout fashion.

 

@Vee

The wires are routed through the hood release cable hole which runs up through the left hand side of the car. A bit of a fishing expedition, agreed.