twinter
08-17-2010, 08:37
Hello All,
A couple days ago, my wife was driving uphill on a gravel mountain road. She reported that there was a "thump" (went over a bump or through a pothole?), and then the engine died, right in the middle of the road, on a curve! I drove out to her location to see what I could do. I was unsuccessful in getting it going, so had to call a tow truck. Here is what I found and tried while out there in the middle of nowhere:
Battery is good. The starter motor turns over fine. But there is no ignition. The "wait for glowplugs" light cycles on and off, with corresponding dips by the in-dash voltmeter.
I replaced the fuel filter with a new one. Cranking the starter motor with the air bleed valve open spewed fuel out, so it appears the fuel lift pump is fine.
I reseated both ends of the cable on my remote-mounted PMD/FSD with no effect. I then replaced the PMD/FSD with a spare. Still no good.
I hooked up my OBD-II code reader, but it could not communicate with the onboard computer, even after repeated tries, and reading the manual carefully to make sure I was using the right procedure.
After 2 days, with a cool engine, I still have absolutely no ignition whatsoever: not a cough, snort, or sneeze out of the engine. Just a cranking starter motor.
Previous to this, the engine had been running beautifully for the last year (that's when I remote-mounted the PMD due to frequent stalling).
Any ideas? Do I have a dead computer? What could fail so suddenly without prior warning and completely kill the engine?
Thanks for you help,
Todd Winter
A couple days ago, my wife was driving uphill on a gravel mountain road. She reported that there was a "thump" (went over a bump or through a pothole?), and then the engine died, right in the middle of the road, on a curve! I drove out to her location to see what I could do. I was unsuccessful in getting it going, so had to call a tow truck. Here is what I found and tried while out there in the middle of nowhere:
Battery is good. The starter motor turns over fine. But there is no ignition. The "wait for glowplugs" light cycles on and off, with corresponding dips by the in-dash voltmeter.
I replaced the fuel filter with a new one. Cranking the starter motor with the air bleed valve open spewed fuel out, so it appears the fuel lift pump is fine.
I reseated both ends of the cable on my remote-mounted PMD/FSD with no effect. I then replaced the PMD/FSD with a spare. Still no good.
I hooked up my OBD-II code reader, but it could not communicate with the onboard computer, even after repeated tries, and reading the manual carefully to make sure I was using the right procedure.
After 2 days, with a cool engine, I still have absolutely no ignition whatsoever: not a cough, snort, or sneeze out of the engine. Just a cranking starter motor.
Previous to this, the engine had been running beautifully for the last year (that's when I remote-mounted the PMD due to frequent stalling).
Any ideas? Do I have a dead computer? What could fail so suddenly without prior warning and completely kill the engine?
Thanks for you help,
Todd Winter