Hi all,
My wife's L-reg 1.1 HCS Fiesta is experiencing a re-occurence of an intermittent problem which has not happened for about 2 years (which is also about the same amount of time since I last serviced it).
I think that what is happening is that when I change the air filter, removing the filter casing is causing something intermittent to happen for a while. What used to happen is that the car would start OK and run for a couple of mintes. I'd just get around the corner and the engine would conk out. It would completely refuse to start again. If I left it for a few hours before trying then it would catch and run for a few seconds and then conk out. Subsequent cranking would get nowhere, it would catch for a couple of revolutions and then die.
After a few days of occasional fiddling I tried starting it with the air-box removed and it fired and ran! I replaced the air-box while the engine was running and all was well for another few weeks/months until it decided to conk out again. I developed a ritual when it conked out that I wiggled the wires and pipes at the back of the engine and then removed the air-box and bent it over to the side. The engine would always start and be OK for a while.
The problem went away for a couple of years until last week. The car was losing power climbing hills and I realised that it had been a while since it's last service so I changed the oil filter/air filter/plugs/oil. I took it for a test drive. The car was still low on power but did run OK.
The next time I took it out I got just around the corner and it conked out on me, exactly the same symptoms as the last time. This time, however, no amount of wire wiggling/air-box fiddling will persuade it to start.
I decided to check that fuel was making it into the carb so I removed the fuel pipe where it connects to the carb and got a cup to catch the fuel. The airbox was off at this time. On cranking the engine, a cup full of petrol was produced in about 10 seconds but, in addition, the engine started and ran normally for a few seconds! I replaced the fuel pipe (but left the air-box off) and cranked the engine... it wouldn't start. I noticed a brief flame shooting up out from the top of the carb! Next I removed the fuse for the fuel pump and removed the fuel hose and replaced the air-box. The engine started and ran normally for about 10 seconds until the fuel (I assume that there is a small reserve in the carb) ran out. I repeated this several times.
Does anyone have any idea what is happening here?
Thanks for any help
Mike