three issues in one

[markthe45king]

So 40 minutes of a traffic jam (and inevitably on a junction) and Lily decides to spray about a litre of water through the rad cap. Rad seems fine (no subsequent loss of water). I'll take the occassional over heating (once before in 4 years)

But - will she start again? Not after 30 minutes, not after all the plugs being taken out and cleaned, not after the dizzy being taken off and points cleaned, not after some easy start spray. After an hour and ringing the AA to remove her - starts "first time". Runs fine for the next few journeys.

Yesterday parked in a wet field, starts briefly, dies after reversing a few feet. Take the first plug (radiator end out) and off she goes again!

Plugs look a little oily, new head gasket 6 weeks ago, no loss of power when up and running - so i'm assuming its not the head gasket, but will do a compression check when i get home - any other ideas?

thanks as ever

[mike.perry]

Faulty condenser, cracked dizzy cap, loose plug lead, faulty thermostat?
It might not be the same fault each time, that's the fun of Minor mechanics

[simmitc]

Need to determine if it's fuel or electrical.

Check that you have fuel reaching the carb - does the pump tick? Tap the pump body with a hammer. Does it start ticking now?

For electrical, try changing the rotar arm, cap, condenser, points, in that order. Do one at a time until problem removed. Last resort, try a new coil, although that is very rare, it does sometimes fail

[markthe45king]

fuel pump is ticking away happily (though a bit slowly sometimes) - fuel evaporation was my first thought - but fuel pipe is clear - had it off and flushed it through.

dizzy looks good visually.

She has taken onboard more water than normal - so will need to find and check thermostat!!

I was waiting for BME to mutter it's "never" the coil though!!

she has to go in to have the suspension checked on wednesday, so i'll get the garage to do the obvious checks again. But she has just run up the motorway beautifully.

[mike.perry]

The thermostat is under the thermostat housing
Sorry could not resist that one

[bmcecosse]

What's to be 'checked' on the suspension? Are you taking it somewhere that has the slightest idea about Minor suspension? Good to see you know about coils.........

[markthe45king]

BME - track rod ends need doing as theres too much vibration on the steering wheel and having the tracking done didn't help. She's due a mot too so best to do them before she fails on them.

TBH the running of the engine is more concerning. I need to get that compression test done, she's really sluggish pulling away for the first 5 minutes of any journey. All the plugs are a good caramel colour, but i'm confusing myself with the HT leads / dizzy - if i disconnect one and it has no affect on the running is that good or bad? i know i should know this......

i'm going to be very annoyed if it's a 6 week old head gasket blowing again, but now i've worried myself about it needing an unleaded head because i spend a lot of my time on motorways (though only about 2 - 300 miles a month max) - i should never read threads i didn't think affected me!!

[kennatt]

who's told you the tre cause vibration ,hold the tre with your hand and get someone to waggle the steering side to side if the tre is worn you will feel the movement in it,if not then they are not worn. And comp.test will show a lot

[autolycus]

... she's really sluggish pulling away for the first 5 minutes of any journey. All the plugs are a good caramel colour, but i'm confusing myself with the HT leads / dizzy - if i disconnect one and it has no affect on the running is that good or bad? i know i should know this......

Is the choke working correctly? Can you watch the bottom of the jet move downwards as you pull the choke out? HT leads - if you pull a lead off one plug, engine revs should drop. If they don't, it means that cylinder isn't pulling its weight. As you then reconnect it, pause just before the inside contact of the plug cap reaches the plug terminal. If you find that the revs increase, then drop again as a proper connection is made, the plug may be fouled with oil or carbon.

i'm going to be very annoyed if it's a 6 week old head gasket blowing again,

Have you re-torqued the head nuts since the head was replaced? Always good practice to do this after a couple of thermal cycles then again after a couple of weeks. Then check valve clearances, of course.

Kevin

[bmcecosse]

Steering vibration is either bad tyres (lumps/bumps) - or out of balance wheel/tyres. You really DO NOT need an unleaded head (or daft additives) - but you DO need to regularly check the exhaust valve gaps - and set them to 15 thou. Slow for first 5 minutes? Hmmm - piston moving freely in the SU? Brakes dragging (does the car roll freely?). Or indeed runnimg with choke out unnecessarily? I get the choke back in within 10 seconds of starting - at least in this warm dry weather.....

[markthe45king]

We did that TRE check and they are pretty stiff.

BME - thank you for reassuring me - my minor garage have been banging on about one, but to be honest apart from the odd episode she has run well for 4 years and runs better on motorways than in traffic!

I'm not sure she's slow as such - just takes a while for the revs to pick up - especially at the first couple of junctions, and i had previously worried that was because like BME i barely use the choke beyond the first 100 yards - funny you should mention the brake dragging though as you really "feel" the first set of braking, like an arthiritic man getting out of bed!!

i'm going to do the leads again before i set off home and see if they are doing anything but the plugs looked fine yesterday after the motorway run....

[mike.perry]

If you have steering vibration it is more likely to be loose tie rods and bushes than TREs