no worries mate. Good that the wagon is back running on the road where it belongs

looked really sweet when i was around yesterday.

The Saga Continues Part 1

OK, Day 4
Sunday

Car is fine, don't seem to be any problems.

Day 5
Monday

The boss informsme when I get home from work that the car was hard to start that morning but when it was warm it seemed OK. Right, we know that the timing was advanced a bit, maybe to much. I will check it in the morning before I go to work.

Day 6
Tuesday

Ok check the start and it takes about 4 trys to get her to fire and when she does its a bit rough, settles down and idles OK, goes OK. Alright we will check the timing when we fix the Fuel Guage tomorrow arvo at CMS.

Day 7
Wednesday

Meet the Boss at Joes at 6pm and she takes my car home. WE jack up the car from the left side and remove the fuel sender & pump. Renold and Jase find that the arm is bent a bit and that the contact tab has been bent in, Jase bends them to the right spot and we are away. Check the reading and all seems fine. Right we fit the pump back up and the tank reads 1/2 full, good. Now to check the timing. Make a minor adjustment and bang, no start. Jase has a look and the plug is loose on the TFI, adjust timing and all seems good. Pack up and go to leave, reverse car out, into drive a she dies, start and again she dies. Here we go again.........AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH. Joe gets involved and we check a few things, removed the O2 sensor to see if the Cat has collapsed, no all is good. We get her going but there is a miss and she breaks down at revs above 3000. Joes check a couple more things and is sure that it is an electrical missfire. Probably the coil. OK Head on home and drives well as long as you stay below 2700rpm. When I get home I let the Boss know and she asks if it will be OK and I tell her it should be fine for little trips but stay local till I can get the coil checked just in case.

The Saga Continues Part 2

Day 7
Wednesday Evening.

Give Benj a call and he has a spare coil that I can use to test, he says he will bring it Friday night so I invite him over for Saturday Morning to lend a hand

Day 8
Thursday Morning.

Boss gets up and no start, s**t here we go again, Stuff it, leave her alone till Saturday and if we can't get here going with a new coil she is going into Joes on a tilt tray and can stay there till its fixed, (I am realy getting p****d off now). That night I start checking Ebay for EF Fairmont Wagons, coil pack, no bloody Dizzy.

Day 9
Friday

I don't even look at the bloody thing. Ben brings the coil with him and says he will be over about 10:30.

The Saga Continues Part 3

Day 10
Saturday Morning

Get up after getting home late from Liverpool, 1:30am Saturday morning, thanks Brett, Wade & Chris, when will I learn.

Pop the bonnet and pull out the air intake, try to get to the coil, can reach the High Tension lead but i can only just touch the plug for the wires, this is going to be great, will have to jack up the car and come in from underneath. OK while I am waiting for Ben to see if he has any better luck I pull apart an old EL Loom that I had in the trailer to go to the tip to pull out the coil wiring as I am going to relocate the bloody thing if we get her going.

Ben arrives at about 10:30 and we get into it, Ben shoves his hand up there and pop off comes the plug, bloody smart a***, plug in the spare coil and get the keys, small prayer, Funny really I'm not religeous in any way at all but can't hurt, , tun the key to reds and to start and she fires first hit. Good throttle and no breakdown, you beauty. Move the car out to a better spot to work on and head down to Bursons to get a new coil. When we get there they have 2, and ACA brand and Bosch, I will take the Bosch but they have changed the design and the High Tension outlet and the wiring plug are on the same end, but the good news is there is an extension lead with the pack as the original wiring won't reach. Beauty now we won't have to try and join the wiring under the engine, just plug it in.

Get home and we look where to mount the coil;

1) near the Airbox on the strut tower, good but just short a bit of space.

2) Between the rocker cover and BBM, good, can use the lift lug to make a mount, wait a minute, check the vents on the bonnet, right where the bonnet vent is is where the coil will mount, just what I need on a wet day

3) Mount in the Airbox, Joke,hang on have a close look, may not be a bad idea, will keep the coil cool.

4) Mount off the top bolt on the AC Compressor Perfect all we have to do is open the hole on the mount supplied with the coil and we are there. Existing High Tension lead fits. We do a cut and shut on the extension lead for the coil wiring, solder the joints and heatshrink them and wrap the lot in insulation tape. Plug her in and she is perfect

Car now has heaps of power as well as improved fuel economy, down from 16.1 to 12.4 Litres per 100km and this was just in the arfternoon drive to Cateract Dam and back.

Thanks again to Joe and Renold and Jase for Wednesday and special thanks to Benj and Luke for their help on Saturday.

THE b**ch IS BACK

thats good news paul..
hmm i might have to check out your mounting position for the coil..
sounds good...

Here We Go Again Part 1

it is now Wednesday, all has been good and no problems with the wagon untill............................

9am today,

Boss rings me at work and tells me the car is dead again. She was going round a roundabout on her way to do some Xmas shopping and bang on engine. Total cut out with no warning at all. I head off to see what has happened, along the way thinking coil has failed. Arrive and grab a few tools from home and head down the road to the car. Pull the coil lead and no spark, easy this is now as it is right on the AC Compressor. Ok pull the coil and power lead and check, yes 12v supply, good. Looks like dead coil, pull her out and head to Bursons, they are going to love the sight of me LOL. Exchange the coil with no issues and head back and fit up. Crank her over and no go. Check the high tension lead and no spark. Got me stuffed.

Call Joe at CMS and he thinks it may be the TFI module. Says to drop by as he has a new dizzy which he will lend me to test the system. Pick up the Dizzy and head back to work, better do something today.

Arrive home at 6pm and decide to check to see if the Injectors have a pulse, no, no pulse, This is not good. Looks might it Might be the ECU. Give Green Machine a call to see what he is up and if he wants to lend a hand to change the TFI Module. He comes over and we do the module and makes no change. OK throw in anothe EL Fairmont ECU and make no difference. s**t. Troy then notices that the Smartlock light is flashing when we crank the car over. Bloody Smart Lock has failed. Now I need to track down a EL Fairmont BCM.

Maybe not, Fit ECU and leave ignition on for 60 mins, let the ECU learn to the smartlock, see what happens then.

Brett

^^^^^Yep, that's a fair idea, but, turn IGN on and count the flashes (two sets for each code) - let us know what they are.
If you're going to torch the car Paul - I'll want those keyfobs back .

this thing looks pretty tuff with the f6 front, still not sure bout the bonnet scoops but everything else looks awesome!....even the colour, nice one!

Maybe also you could fit a smartlock defeat module and fix it for once and for all.

Here We Go Again Part 2

Thursday

Ok, Fitted spare BCM, thanks Chris, set to reds with no accesories, waited 40mins for BCM to learn codes.
Hit the ignition and same story.

Current function:
1) With key off-Smartlock light flashes,
2) Key to accesories-Smartlock light off,
3) Key to reds-no Smartlock light,
4) Key to start-smartlock light flashes.

Correct function is:
1) With key off-Smartlock light flashes,
2) Key to accesories-Smartlock light off,
3) Key to reds-Smartlock light should come on for a few seconds and then go off
4) Key to start-No smartlock light.

The Car is fitted with an aftermarket alarm which we were told was disabled when we bought the car, we have never had any issues with the alarm at all and saw no reason to mess with it. Now I think I do.

Wires from the BCM up into the dash are 1 wire from main black plug, 1 wire from centre plug and 1 wire from 3rd plug. these lead up under the dash to the drivers side of the steering wheel. Not sur the colours as was getting dark and storm rolling in, Saturday I will pull the dash panels and see what is conected to what before pulling any wires but I think this is the issue.

Also disconnected the battery this morning, so has been off battery for at least 11 hrs. Didn't seem to make any difference but was worth a shot as I have heard of smart lock resetting itself. The trick for leaving the key on reds for 30mins to allow engine start didn't work either, this was in the manual.

Will see how we go Saturday and if it don't work I will hand it over to an Auto Elec on Monday but this will see us out of Sunday.

Last edited by SWC on Thu Dec 10, 2009 9:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

ECU does't need to learn smartlock, Fitted new ecu to the EF and started straight away.

Thought I better update this and let evryone know what has happened.

Well on Saturday we checked out the BCM and nothing worked, wouldn't learn the codes nothing. OK changed ignition barrel, tried code learn again, nothing.

Pulled out the alarm and found that no wires were cut, just spliced and the unit was used as a siren not as an imobaliser.

Talking with Benj and he suggested that the smartlock was leading us in the wrong direction.

OK Back to basics, lifted the spare wheel cover and as the boss to turn on the ignition, nothing, no fuel pump. Had asked her to check this earlier in the week while I was at work and she said she heard a noise. Should have check myself earlier. Flash of Thunder Bolt of lightning. ECU Relay!!!!!!!

Pulled the relay out of the stock car, changed her over and click. Set BCM to learn codes and away she went as per the manual. After about 40mins the locks cycled and smartlock was on solid red as per the manual. Turned the ignition off and then started her and away she fired. Problem solved. Reason I never checked the ECU relay was that I had changed it the previous week when we had the other issues.

Sunday pulled the alarm out and since then all has been great.

Hey, thought i'ld wake up this thread and see whats been happening?