Hi peeps.

I'm having trouble starting my RST and I'm sure the imobiliser is disarmed. Everything works and it turns over but Its just not firing! There's no spark, tested by removing a lead and putting a known good plug into it and trying to spark it by touching the engine.

Any ideas?

 

coil wires? coil? coil spark lead? bad rotar arm? worth a try

 

Cheers mate will go check now, anyone else got an idea while I check??

 

Right, I've tested as follows:

coil wires? Ok
coil? Ok
coil spark lead? Ok
bad rotar arm? - how could you test??

I put a plug at the end of the coil spark lead and cranked, sparked fine in a pulsed fasion. so that ok'd the first three in the list.

To me this points to a bad dizzy cap/rotor arm, but my old man dissagrees as they look new.

What does the black plug that goes in to the top of the dizzy do??

Could it be the dizzy itself??

Lee

 

my dizzy blew up witch makes you lose your spark from the coil a wire insdce had split and had arked out,it happened on my old s1 aswell

 

may sound mad check your cam hasnt snaped,are you getting fuel up?can you hear the pump mate,are you getting a spark to your plugs

 

Same thing happened to me

 

when my dizzy i blew i got a backfire

 

Yes, I'm gettin petrol up you can smell it after a while and the pump primes, just a total lack of spark at the plugs. The exact same thing happened on Saturday morning but fiddling cured it, so I dont think me cam has snapped!

Would it be safe to crank the car with the dizzy cap off, to check that the rotor arm spins??

I get a pulsed output from the coil so I'm sure the dizzy itself is ok.

Oh I dont know, RST eh, who'd ave em

Cheers Lads

 

normally when its the dizzy you get no spark from the coil,as the dizzy triggers the coil to spark when you crank it over,i had a similar problem to wot you described and fidling cured it, it was a bad connection on the plug that goes on the dizzy,get a tiny screwdriver and close the connections in a tiny bit,and check to make sure one of the wires hasnt pushed back and not making a good contact,also check the contenuety from that plug to the ecu if you know how to that is to make sure theres not a break in the wire somewhere you cant see (inside the insulation)

worth checking these first before you go buying parts you dont need.

hope this helps

 

Cheers matey, stuck my tester into the aforementioned plug, I get 12v pos outta one, 4v pos (ish) outta another and nothing (guessing earth) outta the third., but you may be right with the contacts being apart and not making a good enough contact. Will ave a look in the morning. Other than that, me first stop is a new dizzy cap and rotor arm.

Cheers

 

fixed?

 

Naah, I was gunna wait till the morning and get a new dizzy cap and rotor arm. My battery is on charge ATM, I'm gunna try what L3 COS has suggested first thing and go from there!

 

something else ive just thought of, now you may not of touched this but il tell you anyhow for future reference, if you,ve ever removed the heater box from under the bonnet to get to the ecu,s (most people have) theres 2 earth wires together right by the wiper motor (you cant miss them) the one is an earth for the heater motor obviously and believe it or not the other is an earth for the ecu! i use to think it was an earth for the wiper motor but it isnt, so my point is,if you have had the heater box out recently check that earth point to make sure its tight and not loose,also might be worth taking the screw out and cleaning the connections and body with a little sandpaper there, a bad earth there could be half or all yr problem

i had the heater assembly out the once and those earths off and couldnt work out why i had no spark doh!! lol.

heres a pic so you know where i mean,hope this helps.

 

As has been said if the hall effect sensor in the dizzy had gone it wont be firing the coil. If the coil will run a plug directly it must be the cap and arm.

Its only a tenner for the 2

 

Right, charged the battery overnight and without "Fiddling" I tried to start her, cranked once or twice but started up straight after like usual!!!! I dont get it.

If the cap and arm are worn, and the battery is fully charged, is it possible that the spark is arc'ing between the arm and the point in the cap, thus allowing it to start, but when there's not enough power it can't make the jump??

L3 COS Those were fine, thanks for the info tho, an earth for the ecu there, how dull.

Cheers guy's

Lee

 

If you got a low battery its not guna help matters, the starter will rape any available current and deprive anything else.

If its running happy days, just keep an eye on it and expect the worse for now until you feel you trust it.