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1987 760 only starts once a day! :-(

Hi people

Hope this hasn't come up before and I missed it....

Last week we bought an '87 760 wagon (turbo, although the turbo bit doesn't work... ahem, anyway....) for $650. On Saturday it died :-( major overheating, leading to me noticing the rubber grommet that the temperature gauge lives in had either blown out / popped out / was never there, and so adding 7 gallons of coolant made no effect, except to make the floor green!

Anyway, got a rubber grommet form a local repair shop and fitted it. Coolant added this afternoon and the reservoir seems to be holding it nicely.

Now to the reason for my post.... the car will only start once a day (this is all since Saturday - it's Wednesday evening now - before the weekend from hell it started fine every time, just needed some gas in Park in order to idle "unaccompanied"). I'm assuming that perhaps it needs to be practically "ice cold" (ie lots of rest between starts) in order to start? Even a half mile trip makes it not want to restart.

Today we bought the Haynes manual so I'm thinking of checking the spark plugs and (I think they're called) HF somethings?

Natch you can probably tell I'm not a techie (well, with cars anyway! Give me a broken computer or a broken guitar and I'm fine! lol), so what do you learned people think? Check the sparky stuff? Or maybe there's another reason why it needs to be well rested? We went back about 90 minutes after it ran and it still wouldn't start. The ignition is doing its chigga-chigga-chigga thing but the engine just won't start.

Any and all help (but PLEASE not "scrap it" cos we're really broke! We really want to get this thing running!) is appreciated.

Many thanks in advance

Dave

Reply to
dave422x
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Have you checked to see if it has a spark? How about fuel? You'll have to do some poking around before anyone can be of much help. Could be a lot of different things. Also if the turbo doesn't work I'm surprised it's even driveable, is the turbo siezed? If so you're throwing away a ton on extra gas for the low compression engine running without a turbo.

Reply to
James Sweet

I'd think that it's probably bad news. I've heard of this happening when the head warps, water get forced into the cylinder, drowning the spark. After drying out, the car starts. See how much pressure builds up in the cooling system after a couple of minutes.

Reply to
Mike F

Reply to
Dale James

here's today's update....

drove the car from yesterday's dying location (about half a mile) back home.

started fine, needed some revs at first to stop stalling though. this was happening last week before the overheating episode too.

as soon as i pulled over outside the house i heard a hissing sound coming from under the bonnet/hood. got out of the car & saw coolant running from under the engine. closer inspection leads me to believe it's coming *not* from the reservoir or the radiator area at all (the rubber grommet recently fitted is still in place) but from the back of the engine, underneath the distributor. the reservoir is empty (i added about 4 litres 24 hours ago and the car has done literally no more than a mile and a half since then).

naturally i've not checked the spark plugs yet as there's an obvious coolant leak. any ideas where i should look? the doesn't seem to be any wetness towards the front of the car.

oh, by the way did i mention that the AC doesn't work and the blower doesn't blow? is that related perhaps?

again, many thanks in advance, and thanks for the replies so far

dave

Reply to
dave422x

Sorry James, to reply to your message:

- i've not checked the spark plugs yet

- there's over half a tank of fuel

- don't know *why* the turbo doesn't work, i just understand that it doesn't :-/

the previous owner apparently drove this car every day to and from work, and also from atlanta down to columbus GA every weekend with no problems. all he said was to keep an eye on the fluid levels. on saturday we did about 50 miles and the thing died. granted we didn't check the levels (d'oh), but the two dipsticks are showing good levels, it's just the coolant that's disappearing / flowing to the nearest drain.

Reply to
dave422x

The only thing in back that could leak is the heater pipe/hoses so check those first. If they're ok then you've got a blown head gasket and/or warped cylinder head. If that's the case then it's a good time to rebuild or replace the turbo as well since you'll have it out.

Reply to
James Sweet

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