My 33 just, well, died.

Steve H · 2003-06-29T18:46:38+00:00

Hacking it down the M40 today, making fair progress, all of a sudden the engine started to die. There were no nasty mechanical noises, no overheating, no oil warning light. Pulled onto the hard shoulder, called the RAC. Whilst waiting, I tried cranking it over, and the engine started to catch, but wouldn't fire and run. RAC bloke reckoned there was a spark at the crown lead, and also at the plug leads - but it was fairly weak at the plug leads. He pulled off the dizzy cap and reckoned there wasn't much wrong in there..... but more of this later. Then he pronounced 'it might have skipped a tooth' - not all that likely I'd have thought, as at least one bank of cylinders would have been showing signs of life if this was the case. Also, it's an interferance design (ISTR), so I think I'd have noticed if it had skipped. Anyway, back to the dizzy cap - I've pulled it off and looked at the cap and the arm..... the terminals in the cap look a bit blackened and 'furry', and the rotor arm is pretty badly erroded and blackened on one edge. I reckon this is the problem - am I likely to be right? Sorry it's so long, but I _really_ need to fix this as we're down to 1 car in 3 working (again). Cheers,

Jun 29, 2003 23 Replies

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Lurker 23 years ago

Alfa obviously had the presence of mind to use cam position sensors on both sides so the ECU could kill the spark on one side if a cam belt broke.

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Pete Smith 23 years ago

Will that _really_ make much difference if you're doing 80mph? My engine would be going round 60 times a second at that speed, so everything's knackered within a fraction of a second.

Pete.

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Lurker 23 years ago

Well at 4000 RPM for 10 seconds that is over 100 injections of raw fuel blown back into the manifold through a single stuck intake valve.

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<maarten 23 years ago

All cylinders on that particular timing belt.

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My 33 just, well, died.

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