K-Series (not) starting

[Gabbleratchet]

Wonder if anyone has experienced this before and can through some light on it?

 

1.6 K-Series

 

Turn ignition on, hear (immobiliser?) whirr, wait a second, turn ignition fully and....absolutely nothing!! not even a sound.

 

But...if i roll the car forward a foot and roll it back, it turns and starts as normal!!?

 

Have tried setting the alarm with the plip then turning it off again but this makes no difference, only the rolling of the car enables starting.

 

Is it the immobiliser? although I hear it whirr or is it some sort of inertia switch somewhere getting stuck?

 

The only time i've seen this before is in the wifes metro. If she gets out of the car, the immobiliser automatically kicks in, if she forgets to push the smooth button on the plip the car wont start, in exactly the same manner.

[Blatman]

The whirring is probably the fuel pump priming. If the alarm is a Vecta, I'd look to this first. If you decide that's working OK, then it may be the old starter solenoid connection malarkey, which work loose/fracture on a regular basis. Both these problems have been covered on here a few times. Take a look through the archives.

[CHRIS GALE]

Same problem happened on my car when new,turned out to be the electrical spade connector broke off on the starter motor, one minute it would start next it wouldnt. Caterham sent another same happened to that.I made sure their was enough slack in the lead and carried out some heavey duty soldering.Its been fine since.

 

C7 CJG

[Gabbleratchet]

Thanks for the posts....

ive been fiddling on and off this afternoon....and with no garage im annoyed AND wet!!

...reading through the countless threads I hope I dont believe it to be the immobiiliser (hope not anyway)....but sounds like it might be 'ye olde solenoid problem' I hope so anyway.

 

Will investigate further tomorrow lunchtime.

thanks again

(makes note - 'must remember to search threads before sending s.o.s. next time')

 

Edited by - gabbleratchet on 27 Jan 2002 19:39:08

[rj]

I'd suspect the solenoid if nothing happens at all, but if you turn on the light, you should see a reduction there as even the solenoid takes a lot of power. If not I'd suspect the ign switch, or an immobiliser, that prevents the live form the switch to get through...

 

Good luck

 

 

/regin

[Tom]

My K-series has an annoying starting problem.

 

You turn the key, press the starter button and...she turns over, doesn't cough and try to start, but turns once and stops.

 

This morning she started only by bump-starting on the sloping driveway. Having had this problem for awhile now I was confident enough to drive to work and leave the car outside, thinking that as in the past she would start. But no. Luckily there's a garage where I park and they used jump-leads to start her.

 

It's a wierd problem. Hyperion changed the plugs last week to cure a misfire and we all thought that would cure the problem, but it's worse now. This was the first time I've not been able to start her after work. Normally it's just in the morning.

 

As for turning the key and hearing only the whirring of the fuel pump, that's happened too. Last time was just my knee knocking the wire off the starter button!!

 

It's driving me mad!