Engine Flooded (with petrol)

mondeo

Hiya,

Can someone advise me on this. This morning my little work horse a 1.3 97' lancer decided to flood itself. I started the car for a few seconds this morning then switched it off again(stupidly) to go back in to the house as I forgot something....

Then the bleeding thing would not fire back up again. Obviously it's flooded as I have been down this road before with this car about a yr ago. And as the last time I just cannot seem to deflood it myself. I paid a garage 160 euro last time to deflood the engine and I was raging as I should have been able to do that myself :mad:

I checked the obvious just incase : Distributor is sparking fine
Dried the plugs
Ignition cables are fine
Theres plenty of fuel getting in
Engine check light is ok


I tried cranking the engine over and over hoping it will clear itself and it doesn't. Depressing the accelerator while cranking made no differance.
There was a new TPS fitted a few months ago but even when that was gone the car still fired up fine.

What else can I try?

Thanks

monster1

When it happened to me, I took the spark plugs out and dried them, and turned the engine over without the spark plugs in, to clear the cylinders of petrol.
Worked for me if you want to try that.

Esel

mondeo wrote: »

Depressing the accelerator while cranking made no difference.

I know you said you tried this, but did you keep the pedal on the floor rather than pumping it? This used to be the way to start a flooded engine - not sure these days with fuel injection, temperature sensors etc.

THOMAS TYRRELL

first remove the spark plugs and dry-not with a rag, use a hair dryer/heat gun/put on your cooker. then swing over the engine with the plugs out of the engine. best to unplug the injector/s so as not to add more fuel to the cylinders. then refit the dried plugs, plug in injector and it should start.
if it dosent then flooding isint your problem

tom

mondeo

THOMAS TYRRELL wrote: »

first remove the spark plugs and dry-not with a rag, use a hair dryer/heat gun/put on your cooker. then swing over the engine with the plugs out of the engine. best to unplug the injector/s so as not to add more fuel to the cylinders. then refit the dried plugs, plug in injector and it should start.
if it dosent then flooding isint your problem

tom

I took the plugs out and disconnected the fuel injectors and turned the engine over 3 or 4 times, then peeped inside the cyclinders with a flashlight and it appears nice and dry looking in there. However before I attempt to start it again properly with everything connected I will put a new set of plugs in it first. I'll report back tommarow so thanks for the tip!

This is the only car I've ever had in my life thats done this sort of thing. Even my old carb engined VW's I use to knock about in during the mid 90's never done this, it's a strange one. I thought electronic fuel injection eliminated this sort of thing...

mondeo

Update on this:

I did the above procedure and it still won't fire up....It's getting plenty of fuel and spark so could it be the throttle body or TPS?

I cleaned the throttle body today and took the TPS of to inspect it and all appears ok.... This is starting to be abit of a mystery...There is not that many things that are required for a car to fire up.... fuel, Air, Spark...

I am wondering did someone shove somthing up my exhaust pipe or something silly like that or water get into my fuel tank. I tried my spare key aswell and that makes no differance. If there was an immob problem the ecu would record it and jump the check light.

On further inspection this car has had a replacment throttle body at some point as I can see little white tipex type markings along various bits of the throttle body as breakers often use to stop people swapping their shagged parts.

This is given me a headache..

DublinDilbert

Have you tried spraying in some carb cleaner or easy start into the air intake?

Have you verified the timing marks? Nothing has slipped?

If your worried about a blocked exhaust, just unbolt it below the manafold

mondeo

DublinDilbert wrote: »

Have you tried spraying in some carb cleaner or easy start into the air intake?

Have you verified the timing marks? Nothing has slipped?

If your worried about a blocked exhaust, just unbolt it below the manafold

I did not check the timing marks, the belt was changed about a yr ago.

I have not tried easy start, have never found products like that to be of any use. I just cleaned the throttle body and butterfly valve with wd40...

Just to have the car towed 4 km's up the road to the garage is going to cost me 75 euro ffs. Just as I was about to put the car up for sale all this crap happens:rolleyes:

DublinDilbert

Defo check the timing marks. I would do a compression test too. The easy start was just a suggestion, but sounds like you've got fuel in there...

ianobrien

Are the plugs wet when you take them out?

You didn't pull the fuse for the fuel pump? (which is my cure on a wet morning)

mondeo

Another update on this:

I had the car brought to a garage and was told that it was the piston rings that were stuck which was causing it not to start... Strange problem.

However when driving it home I noticed it has a fluctuating idle problem, fluctuates between 900-1250 rpm.

I need to get this car up for sale and can't sell it with this new problem.
What should I be looking at now? The garage is not open sundays so I'd like to play around with it myself and see if I can sort it out...

Nissan doctor

And how did they fix it if this was the case? If the rings are seized in the ringlands then there is no way to correctly fix this externally.

with regards to the idling, I'd be checking the vacuum lines etc first, then aac valve operation, then the throttle body butterfly clearance etc

Balbriggan mechanic

It sounds to me like you may have an ECT (engine coolant temperature sensor problem). This does for the modern fuel injected engine what the old choke knob did years ago. If this sensor is faulty it could be sending a false signal to the ECU which will cause the car to over or under fuel on startup. The sensors are not an expensive item and can be changed by anyone who is reasonably competent with a spanner. The sensor itself can be tested by removing it from the engine and immersing it in a cup of water heated to a specific temperature normally around 20 degrees celcius. You then measure the resistance of the sensor with a multimeter and compare it to a table of specified values. I'll post you up the values for the 1.3 lancer engine shortly once I've looked them up. Alternatively if you know someone with access to diagnostic equipment get them to plug the car in and check the actual value reading off the ECT. A cold engine should have a coolant temperature of between 5 & 20 degrees celcius depending on the ambiant temperature. Anything above or below this indicates a faulty sensor or wiring fault, usually the sensor. Hope this helps:)

Ok checked the values, the resistance across the 2 terminals of the sensor should be between 2100-2700 ohms at 20 degrees celcius. The sensor you are looking for has a 2 pin plug on it and is located on the head close to the distributor.