8 Aug
2006
8 Aug
'06
4:30 p.m.
On Tuesday 08 August 2006 06:28 pm, Tony Duell wrote:
We have four vehicles here, all with problems of one sort or another
that are currently sitting idle waiting for the funds to fix them. One
car was on the road until yesterday when it was shut off and refused to
restart, and when I looked it over (some miles away from here
unfortunately) it appeared to be getting fuel but no spark. And thanks
to the electronics that's as far as I could go with it.
Ouch!. Is it fuel-injected?
Yes, which goes for three of the four.
Yep, different manufacturers used different terms.
Ouch!. My guess is that you have a major mechancial problem with the
transmission (burnt clutch plates?), and that the electronics might well
be fine.
I'm still quoted $1100 to fix it, so it's been sitting since December or so.
apparently
have electronics in the newer ones...
Alas yes. My father has just got a new car with electronics everywhere
:-(. If so, often the same sensors (and control unit, at
least in part) are used
to trigger both the injectors and the ignition coils (most modern engines
don't have an HT distributor, they either have a coil per spark plug, or a
coil for every pair of plugs with a wasted spark on a plug in a cylinder
that's at the top of the exhaust stroke, if you see what I mean).
That one has a distributor, and a coil, which was part of what I checked.
Do you have any docs at all? The workshop manual shold
at least give
pinouts of the control modules, from which you can deduce the signals, etc.
I have a really awful Chilton's book for it which covers way too many years to
be specific. They referred to the control module for the electronic ignition
and said it was inside the distributor but when I looked at the pic they
showed and looked under the cap what I saw was a metal disk under the rotor,
and no obvious way to get that out of the way.
There's a control unit for the (automatic)
gearbox. According to the
workshop manual, there are 6 solenoid valves inside the gearbox, and
also a manual slide valve coupled to the selector lever. Alas it
doesn't explain what the latter does (if it fails you change the whole
valve block),
Here I've heard that portion referred to as "valve body". it
doesn't explain what each of the solenoids does (it does give
the dC resistances and the pins on the conector that each solenoid is
linked to so you can find a defective solenoid)
Oh well. I don't suppose I'll ever have to get amongst this, but it
would be interesting to know what's going on.
I have a van sitting out back which has a real problem in that regard,
you put it in gear and nothing whatsoever happens as far as any motion is
concerned. And it's new enough to have one of those electronic
transmissions which I believe got seriously overheated at some point.
I'm sure that the fluid that I checked is not supposed to be as black as
motor oil turns out to be at times. And either getting that one fixed or
even getting one from a At least the manual for our car does document taking
the mechancial side
of the transmission apart, right down to clutch plates and thrust
washers, etc. I don't fancy doing it, but I would if necessary.
I've changed one out so far, in a car that I had, and swore at that point
that I'd never do that again, but people tell me that in a van it's easier
and the quote on that is like $600, if I can somehow scrape that up. Not
fun...
--
Member of the toughest, meanest, deadliest, most unrelenting -- and
ablest -- form of life in this section of space, a critter that can
be killed but can't be tamed. --Robert A. Heinlein, "The Puppet Masters"
-
Information is more dangerous than cannon to a society ruled by lies. --James
M Dakin