Help ...

tdc sensor

This happened once to me, on a Pontiac, and it was a broken cambelt.

Just an idea.

I saw a Landrover Discovery fail in a similar way - approaching motorway services, it died as we pulled into the filling station forecourt. No nasty noises, luckily no damage to valves or pistons.

AA man had to ring for a bigger vehicle to take it away.

Dealer fixed it under warranty - it probably had 20k on the clock and the replacement schedule for the cambelt was 35k. Evidently the whole front engine casting was replaced, supposedly it was not stiff enough and the tensioner was moving out of line with the belt as the casting twisted, thereby causing premature wear on the belt.

This may have been about 1998 ...

Suggestions gratefully considered as noted above :) However, I suspect all of those would result in a fault code, and there aint one !! I suppose it's possible that there's also a fault in the diagnostic reporting system at the same time ... but I don't believe in coincidences. Our trusty mechanic chapppie is expected in the next hour so we will see what he can find.

Please keep us updated. My money is on crank sensor if it sounds normal turning over or cam belt if it is just whirring, but it may just be a lead fallen off somewhere. OBD crank sensor fault does not show up as a fault code on many cars, npne AFAIK say 'cam belt snapped', but they might say implausible signal from cam sensor or something along those lines. I spent hours fault finding something that ended in a vacuum circuit component once, a simple fault code like 'low vacuum' would have saved me several hours.

What scanner are you using? A dealer scanner or VCDS may reveal codes a generic one won't.

Try farting in the car with all the windows up.

'Twas the fuel pump. Cranking the engine while giving the fuel pump a hearty thump got results, but the engine would only run for a few seconds before stopping again. The replacement unit came complete with a sender for the fuel gauge so wasn't cheap, but I thought ?240 supplied and fitted was a fair price since that included two visits to my home - one to diagnose and one to repair the fault the next day.

Well found that man. Price sounds OK. So I wonder why you got pressurised fuel when you checked?

I have sometimes diagnosed similar fault by squirting in easy start or carb cleaner in the air duct and giving it a spin, if it starts momentarily it shows a lack of fuel.

I still have an old tin of Bradex 'Easy Start' (smells like the ether I use d to use in my old control-line model aeroplane), which I have used to make a similar diagnosis.

I still have an old tin of Bradex 'Easy Start' (smells like the ether I used to use in my old control-line model aeroplane), which I have used to make a similar diagnosis.

That's a great idea. Alternatively a bottle of Ether from Boots would do the trick.

The "squirt" was a bit feeble for a squirt but more than a dribble so I can only presume it was residual pressure in the system somehow .......

With injection, the correct fuel pressure is important. I dunno what it actually is on your engine, but will be more than about 40 psi. So you'd get a powerful squirt, not a dribble.