Failure to start when warm

Hi guys,

First post, three days as Hijet owner, AA out on second day but I still love it. (Have already fixed broken door barrel not opening the driver door and have since found your excellent guide to sealing the leaking sunroof in the back which is another job to do. Am also going to follow your detailed instructions for bleeding the coolant system as my fan is currently operated via a switch in the cab. So thanks very much for all the good stuff so far.)

I've got a camper modded MPV, 1998 1.3 EFI which doesn't like to start when she's warm (temp indicated at 1/3 on dash). She turns over but refuses to fire and I'm left with a slight smell of petrol and a feeling that the engine is flooded. (I can't turn it over too many times as the battery lasts no longer than a minute of abuse before giving up). Given half an hour to cool down, she starts first time and all is good, but I'd rather get to the source of this. I see others have had problems with idling speeds and cutting out and suspect this may be similar but not the same and AA suspected an idle/start valve fault. How do I investigate this?

Anyway, to compound this, AA also mentioned that there may be a live short on it somewhere (earth, body and alt all good) as I have 14.4 volts at alternator but I measure a 2 volt drop at the battery, so it may not be charging. It only gets 13 volts at the battery when revved. I'm not sure whether this low rate is normal for Hijets, but advice would be good (although I recognise this may be difficult on a van that has a lot of supplementary electrical work.)

Power cable in the battery tray is a common fault, they go all nasty and dry.

As for your starting problems, it's quite a broad collection of potential faults, which you may be suffering from many of them.

What I can say though is as your van has had the over ride fan switch bodge done to it, it says its been messed around with and will have been over heated a good few times. I'd also suspect it has been treated with rad weld or another coolant additive bodge.

Keep in mind that hijets are often owned by skin flint bodgers who don't sort things out properly.

If you want to keep a happy hijet relationship going I'd be tempted to do some serious maintenance and inspection work on it. I'd overhaul the coolant system with a new thermostat, water pump, rad caps, pressure test the system, wash out the coolant system, rewired the old fan system back up to how it should be, then if your still having problems you'll be doing the head gasket next. Also get the spark plugs out of it to see how they are, clean the throttle body as that may be gummed up causing your hot start issues, clean out the idle up cold start valve - and do the normal stuff like clean out the air filter, change the oil if its needed.

Might seem like a lot of work, but I bet its all long overdue.

The poor starting may be caused by the pair of coil packs too. Maybe?!

Hi I would try jump starting when warm as the comp goes up a bit when the enging is warm and if it will jump start and with the battery voltage etc I would suspect a dodgy battery that doesn't crank but also may be in the wiring as HJ said or a little of both.

HighlyJetted wrote:Keep in mind that hijets are often owned by skin flint bodgers who don't sort things out properly.?!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This.
Should be the first read item of Hijet ownership

But welcome, stick with it and you'll love it

Thanks guys, this is really useful. I intend to get her fully serviced and get to the root of the problems as we want to keep her. She has a long and chequered service history including a new engine in '05. Will start with the cooling system and work through. I'll keep you posted on what I find.

Cheers for welcome.

Can't help with your problem but welcome to the forum

Ok, update. Seems to be fixed. There was a loose wire next to the water pipe. When the pipe moved, the engine stalled. Secured the wire back to its home and no more problem. This live short was also the reason why the battery wasn't charging.

Bang tidy outcome mate! Glad you got sorted and thanks for posting back with your resolution.

Hi,

I've got the same problem described here - fails to start when warm (at least 30 mins driving), sounds/feels like engine choking - it chugs twice and then gives up. After a small wait and a few tries it does start. Cold starts are fine first time.

Read elsewhere that changing fuel filter might help this? As far as I can tell the FF has never been done. Why would this change from cold to warm though?

I have changed oil, air filter and oil filter. Fan is currently working when hot and controlled from thermostat. Engine sounds great when its running.

(Ref above post - I don't really understand how a loose wire would only be loose when warm? I've got a feeling this wont be my fix!)

sounds like an ignition/heat soak related issue. Check for good spark when it does this.IIRC resistance goes up with heat

Thanks. Might also explain how a wire without the best connection would be okay cold but not when hot due to resistance rising.

I'll have to carry a big chinese fan to waft at the starter when it happens then.

  

Check the battery wire of doom!

Recently been on a trip round cornwall - driving 5 hours a day and in some heat. Done over a thousand miles since last post and the problem hasn't happened again!

Thinking maybe I was turning to ingition too quickly - I had an old rascal van years ago and that had a fuel pump that needed 'charging' for a couple of seconds before ignition. I can hear a similar sort of faint whirr for a second on or two when turning on electrics before using ignition so guessing this is similar?