Taxi Driver Online

I wonder if anyone can help. I have an 07 TX4. In the last month, it has developed an intermittent problem. Sometimes is just refuses to start. When the intermittent problem is in play, it spins over furiously but the engine won't fire. It is almost like there is no resistance on the starter motor or no compression as it really spins fast. Yet, when it is behaving normally, which is most of the time, the starter turns a couple of times as normal and she fires up perfectly.

First time the engine refused to start was mid-job on the school run work a few weeks ago. Engine was at normal operating temperature and I had switched her off for 2 mins. I tried to get her stated for over an hour and had to get the taxi recovered to Patons in Glasgow. Sods law - when the mechanic turned the key, she started and ran beautifully. No faults were found and no fault codes showed on their laptop.

next time she refused to start was at home last week from cold. Same fast spinning of the starter but no sign of firing into life. Called the AA. He tried easy start. This made the engine fire but it would not catch. The AA guy also commented on the speed of the starter motor when cranking. He put his laptop on the car and there was a fault code showing on the EGR valve (the yellow engine management light had been coming on and off for a few days). He put a tester on the injectors and they were not getting power. AA guy then reset the fault codes with his laptop. I think this also reset the ECU. And then - hey presto, she started as normal.

I took the cab to Patons again. They couldn't find any fault. The engine management light / EGR code Patons diagnosed a minor kink in a feed to the air flow meter and she has not shown this fault now for over a week.

Today, the cab has refused to start (fast spinning of the starter again) on 5 or 6 occasions. But she will start off the key randomly and will refuse to start randomly. The car is currently at Patons in this state and they have told us they have no clue why she is doing this. In other words they don't know how to fix it as they can't tell me what's wrong. So, I am faced with collecting the cab tomorrow knowing I have a starting and unreliability problem.

Anyone else experienced this and any ideas what is wrong?

Cheers
Graham

Send Mr T a PM.

_________________
IDFIMH

I'm new to the Forum. This is my first post. Mr T???

He's one of our regular posters.

memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=895

_________________

http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Either a duff starter or the immobiliser is not letting the starter engage

Thanks skippy. The starter is turning the engine over just fine. It just turns over a bit faster than it would normally when it doesn't want to start. I have tried both sets of keys in case it is a transponder issue but this also doesn't help.

Just had a call form the dealers. seems they have found the problem. Seems the car has had a broken key in the ignition barrel at some stage in the past before I owned it. The broken part of the key is taped on to the barrel and is loose. This is causing a transponder failure (intermittently). Fingers crossed it's fixed. Thanks for your help guys

I knew I was correct with my diagnostics

Thank feck your not my mechanic !

Why would I want to get my hands dirty on a heap of sheit
The key is part of the immobiliser when you put it in the barrel it makes contact and lets you start the engine does it not

Oh I forgot your still has a starting handle

You know a little more than feck all x

Actually I bet the cab has had a new barrel and the previous owner did not want to spend the money so they fitted the cheaper TX1 non transponder barrel and taped the old key to the new barrel to make it work

Saves about £100 but its false economy in the long run as you lose the immobiliser.

Hi there, sorry for the thread hijack with my first post but my father in law has a similar problem with his TX4. It has an intermittent start problem, mostly from cold. Bit of history it had an engine failure and was rebuilt, with new injectors etc. When he got it back it was horrendously underpowered and then developed the starting problem. Had it towed to a garage and they replaced the AFM which seems to have solved it being underpowered but the starting issues remains.

When its not starting it turns over fine but wont fire up, its been back and forth to the garage countless times in the last 3 weeks and has now been returned with basically "We don't know whats wrong with it". Anyone got any ideas what the issue could be?

Thanks in advance

Kenny

One thing you could try
Get a thick jump lead connect one end to the body and the other to the engine, if it starts its your earth strap nacked

Cheers for that skippy, which lead to where? Is there a eyelet for lifting the engine that I could use?

Thanks again

Kenny