Got home from work last night and parked behind a mate, instead of moving cars around he took mine to get some dinner, didnt get to the end of the street before it started coughing and died, pushed it home, pulled out a spark plug and found it had no spark, checked the leads and coils wires, seemed to be fine in limited light, went to checkd the main fuse (checking simplest things first) and remembered that you have to take the undertray off to get to them so i left it.

Went out this morning to check them, pulled out the engine fuse and it was fine, put the key in and the f**k started.

The only other problem i have had lately is when i have the fan on full (wont work on any other setting) the stereo up(runs 1 half decent sized amp and small sub) and headlights on the volts will drop at idle, noticed today that the fan belt is loose and worn so im guessing that is the cause of that problem.

When the car died the battery and starter were working perfectly turning the engine over but it just wouldnt fire!

Anyone had this problem before??

ho

quick question ?? wot sort of XF is it ?? ie carby electronic ingnition, carby est ignition or EFI system


cya

its carby unsure of dizzy type but it does have the est comp under the passenger side kick panel if that helps.

I replaced the alternator yesterday in an attempt to fix the voltage drop, that didnt work, atleast its not making any extra noise's now, i also replaced the coil and spark plugs, when i tested it last night it would run fine for a few minutes and then want to stall, as soon as i gave it a rev it went back to normal for a few more minutes, this morning it started fine and idled fine, got a few k's few my house and pulled up at a stop sign, before i even got to a full stop it stalled without warning, started first go thankfully, drove it with both feet all the way to work, didnt have any problems on the way home.

is the carby full of crap? maybe give it a clean out, that might help out a lil at least with the stalling maybe? i had a housemate who had an efi xf fairmont wagon. cleaned the throttle body out with cleaner carb, and the thing never stalled again when slowing it down to stop (made her very happy )

with the voltage, i would have suggested that the regulator on the alternator is shot, but if you replaced it and its still doing the same thing?

the voltage drop im putting down to possibly a dodgy earth, or maybe a need a 1 ferrad capacitor for the stereo.......

It has been mentioned elsewhere that the module on the dizzy is a common problem, will look into that as well.

hi

power drop mmmmmmmmmmmmm generally relates to a bad earth dirty battery terminals and so on , use a mutlimeter and determine if you do have a power drop.

CHECK BASICS FIRST

check all leads for open circuit or corroded ends, distributor cap for cracks corrossion and inside posts condition, rotor button for cap to rotor clearance. a open circuit lead will cause a draw of high current to jump the gaps all the way to the spark plug and this will be over 30000 volts high current flowing throw the EST module will fry it over a long period of time.

the ignition system is the est ignition system if you have a ecu ( EST MODULE , bosch unit ) in the passenger side kick panel.

The distributer houses a hall affect sensor ( can be faulty ?? ) have you checked it?

map sensor ? make sure manifold fitting is not blocked and there are no vacumm leaks - is use by the EST module to sense engine load and advance ignition timing

on the carburator there is a TPS ( throttle position sensor ) its either on/off
nothing fancy make sure base idle is adjusted correctly

idle mixture screw is in the base of the carby, it may be still factory sealed you may have to pull the plug away to access it , and adjust the idle being a XF im assuming it has 200,000 km plus on the clock and engine might be a little tied and the mixture may need adjusting its easy to adjust if you need details just let me know

see how you go can give you more details if need to teast proceedures of the system

as a last resort alot of people bypass the EST system and install a normal electronic distributor with a built in module on the side of the dissy

just a thought

cya

its your ignition modual oht the side of the dizzy, its happened to me on all my xe's xf's. it can show up heaps of ways like running fine then just stopping dead, not starting at all the running, backfiring. im 99.9999% postive its that, but i did leave myself a 00,0001% cahnce of being wrong lol

i replaced the map sensor and est today, couldnt find a decent dizzy with a module, they had all been raped, was stuffing around tonight and decided to pull the old est apart, 2 of the pins ( looking at the back of the plug the one that is on the top row and far left and the one on the top row and second from the right) were melted and corroided so bad that they were broken, is this a common problem and if so can anyone tell me what these terminals do or have a wiring diagram for an est?

The replacing of the map sensor and est didnt change how it idles tho, infact i disconnected the map sensor all together and it did nothing.

well theres your answere,,the map sensor,,it tells the est what the manifold pressure is,,if it aint working then the idle will f**k up,,reolace it and see what happens

If you read the my previous post it says that i did replace it, and the est and it made no difference, therefore it is highly unlikely that the map sensor or est is the problem.

my bad,,,but was the map sensor new or 2nd hand...it's damn confusing tho

both the est and map sensor were second hand off different cars.

which bit is confusing?

the no spark:::well try a new map sensor,,cause if by disconnecting it made no difference to the idel then theres something wrong with it,,just see what happens i spose

The no spark issue magicly fixed its self by the next morning, still has a rough idle tho so i am trying to fix that and at the same time hopefully fixing whatever made it die in the first place.