Re: A little help please

johnplayerblue

Hows it going
Heres the thing! the petrol gage on my 1994 nissan primera 1.6 slx is a little faulty and as a result i ran dry last night and she cut out on the side of the road,
i got a lift to the garage got €10 of petrol, got back put it in the tank waited a few minutes and tryed to start her, she done her best to try and start, right up until the battery went dead. I got her home this morning and got a set of leads and its the same thing, she tries her best to start but i don't think theres any fuel getting to the carb cos when i put a little juice into the carb she starts and thicks over for a couple of minutes and then dies off and cuts out! What do you think is the cause of this? is there dirt in the carb or is it more serious than this?
Rgds

Squirrel

This is just a guess, but it could be air-locked, so no petrol is getting to the engine at all. Bring it to a mechanic if you can't find your way around the engine to spot the problem

garyh3

could be that you had Sh**e in the bottom of your tank and it was sucked into the carb when you ran dry... Jets could be blocked ???? I had a dirty tank and I was forever cleaning the jets ......

Garyh3

blastman

Sounds like you've sucked something from the bottom of your tank and it's now blocking either the carb or the fuel filter. With the car switched off, try pumping the accelerator a few times, this should pump fuel through the system after you've run dry (you should have done this before trying to start it, really). If it's still not starting, there's probably a blockage.

IrishRover

This idea of sediment at the bottom of the fuel tank is often talked about, but in my experience it isn't true. It's a sealed unit, only fuel goes in. I've taken fuel tanks off 10 and 15 year old cars and they've been clinically clean inside.

Another thing I've discovered in the cars I've worked on is that when the fuel gauge reads below the empty mark there is actually between 10 and 15 litres in the tank, but because the tank is wide and thin, it is still not quite enough to reach the filter where the fuel is sucked up by the fuel pump.

10 euros worth now is only about 8.5 litres. Maybe there's just not enough fuel in your tank for the fuel pump to reach. Your car probably ran out on the last of the fuel that was in the line. Try putting some more fuel in the tank. If the pump is trying to pump fuel that isn't there it may burn out. Do you hear it prime when you turn the key to position II on the ignition?

AMurphy

IrishRover wrote:

This idea of sediment at the bottom of the fuel tank is often talked about, but in my experience it isn't true. It's a sealed unit, only fuel goes in. I've taken fuel tanks off 10 and 15 year old cars and they've been clinically clean inside.
......?

My thought also, I've never had a problem restarting anything after it ran out of gas.

[johnplayerblue]

However, This happened to me a million years ago, when cars ran on steam.

friend ran out of gas, filled up at the local station there near the Regional in Limerick and very soon thereafter the car stopped.
I had a look at it, but as I was going somethere and it was late and dark I wasn't about the spend the evening investigating.
Fuel "appeared" to be entering the engine from teh carb, but no start.
The friend suggested "Water". I figured "no way".
The problem we found out later was the pump had in fact dispensed about 5 gal of water into his tank.....don't ask me why or how. They paid for the "repairs" , etc.

Anyway, a couple of quick tests.

Yousay you have a carb. remove the air intake/cleaner, or wahtever is over it so you can see into the carb bores.
get a light to shine in there.
with the engine off, pull on the accelerator cable to activate the Acceleration pump, when this is done you should see a squirt of raw fuel come from somewhere into the carb bore. If not your do not have any fuel in teh carb.
If you do, then it should fire or backfire at leat when a start is attempted..... unless you have no sparks or the "fuel" is diesel of water.

Get a cloth, Q-tip or some absorbant material and stick it into the jet of "fuel" and get it wet.
Pull it out and see if it smells and burns like petrol. If not, determine what it smells and burns like,

However, you indicate you can get tit to run when you put neat fuel down the carb, good. Means you have sparks. So only the fuel to check for.

You could disconnect the line between the fuel pump and the carb and srank the engine to see if you have any fuel flow. If not, blockage/filter, etc.
If yes, something the matter with the carb.

johnplayerblue

Hey!
First i'd like to say tnks to irishrover for his simple yet expert help yesterday! hard to belive from many points of view but an extra €10 of petrol and one turn of the key and she was grand! (red blushes all round) man there wide tanks on cars Also my brother pmed you irishrover as i've just found out sorry for that.

That all said when i did get her going last nite i think i might have caused another problem trying to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place,
What happens now is that when she gets to 2 and a half revs she just stays there even with my foot to the floor she just revs and won't go above 2andahalf shes driveing and what have you but shes not right, i went back over every thing i did with her and all looks good and tight, the 3 main things done were: 1 Removed the fuel filter and ran some petrol through it and cleaned it out petrol was filty and it probaly needs changeing.

2 With this model of car the pump is electronic and is just under the back seat opened it up to have a look but put it back as there was notting i would have been able to do with it anyway.

3 And this has just come to my attention and its a good one, my old man was with me and in his wisdom when putting a drop of petrol into the carb he for some reason pushed a screw driver down into the carb! now im not sure but i could have sworn that there was one or two very fine lenghts of what looked like copper wire running from one side of the carb to the other i took a picture of most things before i removed them but not the inside of the carb as i know little about them but when you have a man with a screw driver and little knodlege its more than a camera u need and i think that this may very well be the problem?
Rgds

MercMad

Firts of all you dont have a carb !

Your car is fuel injection and it sounds like you've just guntered the "Hot wire" in the throttle body !

This is used to sense airflow, and if its buggered you'll need a new throttle body..........tell your Da you've just thought of a Christmas pressie for him !

I am not completely sure where this component is on a Primera, so there is a chance that what I've said does not apply...........but it sounds like it and so do the symptoms !

johnplayerblue

At last its all sorted! i chanced takeing off a little black electronic panel from the side of the carb (what looks like a carb) and low and behold there was two very fine wires with the lower one broken, i got a lift to the local breakers and was in luck to pick one up for €20, got it home stuck it on and she's perfect, Thank god.
What i've learned
If your fuel gauge is broken get it fixed.
If you run out of petrol put plenty into the tank and pump a little through with the engine switched off.
Always check the very obivous.
And above all only stick screw drivers where there supposed to go.
Tnks for the help guys, i owe u a pint!

IrishRover

Great result!
Lol at "guntered" btw

MercMad

And above all only stick screw drivers where there supposed to go.

Now you have it !

Glad you got it sorted, you did well at €20 too !

AMurphy

MercMad wrote:

Firts of all you dont have a carb !

Your car is fuel injection and it sounds like you've just guntered the "Hot wire" in the throttle body !

This is used to sense airflow, and if its buggered you'll need a new throttle body..........tell your Da you've just thought of a Christmas pressie for him !

....!

Too true.

It is kinda hard if not next to impossible if the user cannot tell an EFI from a Carb.... what's the world coming to at all , at all.

Can i suggest changing the needle in your Cd player?.