Vauxhall Vectra Not Starting

Wide open throttle, perhaps with the fuse pump fuse removed and a good strong battery. Long bursts on the starter not short ones.

If its being stubborn, you'll need to remove the plugs and dry them.

Tim..

It won't be the same problem... :)

'The fact that you run your own business is entirely irrelevant to this

thread. We are talking about an employee of a large company. If he was from the AA, their guys are being particularly shafted by their current employers ATM. '

Stuart wrote:

If the fact that I run my own business is irrelavent to this thread why did you ask me what business I was in?

What IS TOTALLY irrelavent to the thread is that the AA staff are being shafted by their company as you declared in your earlier posting.

What IS relavent is that a decent tradesman, from whatever trade, does a good job. It's called taking pride in your work which I, and my employees always do. I worked for a company many years ago who were trying to shaft their employees BUT it didn't stop me doing my work to the highest standard I was capable of.

As was said in a previous post, if a job's worth doing................................

PS I have a W reg BMW 323i, a V Reg Combo Van and a 55 reg VW Passat and whilst shifting them around the drive, none have EVER failed to restart on the button, even after moving less than 10 yards

Chris Whelan wrote:

I didn't! I asked you what *job* you did on the assumption that, like the majority of people, you were an employee.

The OP was implying that the breakdown guy was maybe not as good as he should be. My comment was therefore entirely relevant. Whether I think that is a proper way for the breakdown guy to act is neither here nor there.

I worked as an electrical technician for over 40 years. I like to think I applied the highest standards to my work. That attitude, at least in part, was engendered in me by those that taught me. I saw a subtle but continuous shift of attitude towards the end of my working life. There seems to be very little pride left in what people do at work now. I deprecate this whilst understanding the reasons for it.

Can I take a guess that, like me, you are not in the first flush of youth? Perhaps the difference is that I have adapted, although unwillingly, to the way others are in the 21st Century!

None of the vehicles you have are particularly prone to the "won't start after a short run" syndrome. Whether *you* think it happens or not, it is a common cause of non-starts that garages and breakdown services see many times a day.

I have owned Ford Zetec engined vehicles over the last 12 years. Every one of them suffered from this difficulty to the degree that I could reproduce it perhaps one start in ten if I needed to.

Chris

Maybe it's down to your technique..? The oil used by the dealership? I put this because the various and numerous Fiestas, Escorts, Focii and Mondeos I've driven with the Zetec-E engine have restarted without a hitch after being moved up and down the drive..?

I used to roll my cars out of the garage on a Sunday in order to check the oil etc. I then used to start up just long enough to get back into the garage - literally only a few seconds of running. If, later in the day, I went to get the car out of the garage it wouldn't start one time in ten.

I soon realised the reason, and let it run for 30 seconds or so. It doesn't happen now.

I DIY now.

OTOH, I've helped a number of neighbours, friends and relatives who have had this problem. AFAICR, all the cars involved have been Zetec engined, or Micras.

It clearly is a known characteristic of the Zetec because Ford have gone to the trouble of writing software to recover fromthe flooded engine syndrome!

Chris

Strange...

Hmm... that will be it then, when running an engine it would always have been in use for twenty seconds at the least...

Gotcha.

Not necessarily: all of Ford's injected (petrol) engines have a special procedure for starting when flooded. Come to think of it I seem to recall my Honda having something similar in the handbook.

Indeed. I said Zetec because that is what my personal experiences are from.

The special procedure is only possible because of a piece of code in the ECU software. The ECU senses the TPS at/near max, and cranking without running, so stops fuelling. When the TPS is at rest and cranking has stopped, fuelling is re-enabled. In fact, if you just kept cranking with your foot on the floor until the battery or starter motor died, it wouldn't start!

Chris

For the benefit of FutureGooglers:

To start a flooded Zetec (and any other injected Ford), put the accelerator right to the floor and crank it for 30 seconds on the starter. Don't pump the pedal, leave it flat on the floor. It won't try and start because having the pedal flat to the floor makes the ECU turn the injectors off.

Then stop cranking, let the accelerator off, and start it again with *no* throttle. Should be fine.

Yes, but just because the ECU has this special bit of code doesn't mean the donk does it, if you see what I mean.

The Ka's Endura-E and the Fiesta's Zetec-SE (now Duratec 16v) also has this feature.

Does having the foot flat to the floor turn the injectors off if the engine is running?

On the wildly dangerous assumption that this is a serious question, no, of course not!

Chris

Only when it gets to the rev limiter ;-)

Of course!

Reading this thread got me thinking 'that'd be a good governor'. It'd be a good governor, but a bit complex, I'm sure the two systems are unconnected.

-- Billy H