I'm going off this car...

My MOT is due next week, so thought I would take advantage of this nice weather to do the usual pre MOT service, plus give everything a check over...

Bad news, the Tin worm has been at the rear of the sills on both sides, and made a hole big enough for a ferret!!! then I find that the front passenger wheel arch has a hole into the foot well as well... I am feeling a bit sad my car seems to be rotting away as I look it... Luckily the Drivers side was sound.

So... I decide to speak to Rick, and I have booked his wonderful services next week to do some welding....

To make things easier, I though I would do some of the prep work, like getting my Man steps off, and removing plastic trim and carpets all to save time on the day.

For the front, I have moved the ECU out the way, and removed more plastic trim, along with all the front wheel arch trim... I then found how bad my wings were....

After that, I made sure the car would start, as I am always a bit paranoid about disturbing ECU's

I then set to work on the list of other jobs, I still needed to sort, like finish off the service, use some Gunk under the engine, gearbox and cross members where the leak off pipes had covered them with dried on veg oil. replace the bulbs in the centre console with LED's, and quite a few other things. While doing all this, the car has been standing on the driveway without going out for a drive for several days, and I managed to run the battery flat, to the point the Starter motor only clicked, and all the doors tried to lock, but could not.

I thought I would try my new Battery charger, which has a re-conditioner built in, but to use this, you have to disconnect the battery, so with the negative disconnected, I left the battery charger to do it's magic... 24 hours later, battery fully charged, and according the the charger in tip top condition, I decided to leave it on trickle charge till I needed the car.

Today, I had a doctors appointment, so went out the car a bit before the time I had to leave, and used the battery charger to test the battery... 100%... I removed it, and reconnected the negative terminal, and the doors made a clunk sound, and various gadgets in the car beeped and pinged.

I then tried to start the car, but it just turned over continually, not trying to fire up. I checked the glowplugs with my clamp meter, and they were working, but no mater how much I turned the engine over, it would not fire up. Now last time it would not start, and the glowplug fuse had gone, I got grey soke coming out the exhaust, but this time there was nothing... I tried the "turning it on very slowly" trick, but again, it turned over, but would not fire... Eventually, after a lot of tries, checking things and trying again, I ran the battery flat, and was back to the doors clunking if I turned the key...

I put it back on charge, and called a Taxi which got me to the doctors with 2 mins to spare, then spent an hour waiting for the doctor, 30 mins with the doctor, and then walked 3 miles back home...

When I got in, I quickly tried again, but it was just spinning over..

I came in and waded through the various posts on here, but could not find anything extra to check, other than deep and meaningful stuff, like fuel cut off solenoid or ignition switch, I knew the battery was good, the charger was motoring that, and it was not dropping below 10volts when turning the engine over, plus the way it was spinning over, I knew the starter was good, the glow plugs were drawing about 60amp, dropping to about 35 as they warmed up, so they were fine... I checked the fuel filter pump, and it was hard.

After a cup of tea, I went back out and tried again... still not starting... then I tried a blinder... I took the key out of the ignition, shut all the doors, and locked it with the remote... I then unlocked it with the remote, and then tried to start it again...

Started perfectly....

I have now started and stopped it several times, and it's fine...

All the time, the battery was charging and the battery was disconnected, it had been left unlocked, and when I reconnected the battery, the doors were wide open, and the keys were already in the ignition... So I guess locking and unlocking must reset something.

Now back to doing those odd jobs, and looking forward to Rick working his magic, so I can get her through another MOT.

Think the imobilser had tripped in.

Sounds like you had to lock it to be able to unlock it again to operate the immobiser.

On quite a few cars if you have the key in the ignition and dont start it within a time limit the immobiliser trips in.

Oh dear poor Clive, must be the first time the truck has given you so much hassle though. Both my old truck and the project truck making some kind of beeping noise after battery has been disconnected, cant remember if its as I lock it or when I turn ignition off. Anyhoo similar to you lock it and unlock it and it's fine.
Rick will sort it, take a look at my project thread, if I could bring that round then Rick will sort yours with ease.

I have come across this before, needing the blip to lock and unlock to reset the immobilizer, looks like you better be here about 10am to have enough time, I will be abed earlier on Tuesday night, Rick

solarman216 said:

I have come across this before, needing the blip to lock and unlock to reset the immobilizer, looks like you better be here about 10am to have enough time, I will be abed earlier on Tuesday night, Rick

Click to expand...

That should not be a problem, as long as the A21 is not blocked by some homicidal maniac being late for work in the road works!!

Suz's leaves for work at 7:15, so I can have a cup of tea, and then leave a bit after that.

Deffo sounds like Immobiliser to me, mine does that sometimes, never figured out why

my blue t2 is at the welders having both inner and outer sills both sides done.they phoned me up and says it wont start no matter what they do,i says take key out of ignition close all doors and lock with key,no blip work,then unlock door enter car key in and start,walla all ok.as said needs im reset.

panelbeater said:

my blue t2 is at the welders having both inner and outer sills both sides done.they phoned me up and says it wont start no matter what they do,i says take key out of ignition close all doors and lock with key,no blip work,then unlock door enter car key in and start,walla all ok.as said needs im reset.

Click to expand...

Result...

Mine has done it to me twice now, the first time not long after I got the car, I must have locked and unlocked it with out realising that was what cured it, as I was reading through old threads on here, trying to find a cure and did a tonne of things.

This time I locked and unlocked it with the remote, but good to know using the key should work as well.