Cold damp starts hurt my Ibiza....

[Jondarren]

Hey all,

Yesterday morning, after a cold rainy night, my SEAT Ibiza failed to start. The ignition turns over, the battery has charge and there's fuel in the car. So, all i could conclude would be that the spark plugs are damp or aren't firing, so might need replacing. Or, the fuel pump is busted.

Are there any ways to work out which one might be the cause?

Help please...

Jon...

[Peter Jones]

Most likely the ignition coil. Douse it in wd40 and you might be lucky and get it started. Goff Loon keeps them in stock.

Pete

[h100vw]

Pull the centre lead out of the dissy cap and lay it somewhere near and earth. Have someone crank the motor and check the lead for sparks to earth.

No spark means that you may have a problem with the coil or ECU. Sparks means that you have a problem towards the plugs, either the cap or leads.

Pull out a sparkplug and stick it in one of the leads, rest it so that it is on an earth. Crank the motor and check for a spark. If you have one, then was the sparkplug wet with fuel when you removed it?

If you have no spark and no fuel then you could be looking at the Hall sender in the distributor. Jaycar sell them for 20 bucks if you are handy that way.

If you have sparks and no fuel then another thing to check would be the fuel pump relay. They often fail due to dry joints. Take it out remove the lid and touch all the soldered joints with some fresh solder and iron.

HTH

Gavin

[Golf Loon]

I bet its the coil. Check for spark.
Try leving the bonnet open in the sun, when its dry try again and car may start.

[Jondarren]

I bet its the coil. Check for spark.
Try leving the bonnet open in the sun, when its dry try again and car may start.

Hi guys,

thanks for your help with this. I really apppreciate it.

Last night I took a look last night and the dfistributor cap connections were fine and dry. Sadly i didn't have a socket set to get the rocker cover off to access all the spark plugs but the one i could reach wasn't waterlogged.

So if it's looking like the coil, what's the best way to confirm? I don't have a Haynes Manual for this car yet so i'm unsure of the location of the parts. I'm considering getting a mechanic to come out and fix it as i can't start it to take to a garage, and unless i know exactly what's up wth it, i can't buy the parts.

Bit of a catch 22 really.

Thanks

Jon....

[Peter Jones]

The coils develop really fine cracks that let moisture in, you won't be able to see it. try wd-40 and leaving the bonnet open. The coil is up on the fire wall, trace the lead from the centre of the distributer cap back to find it.

Pete

[Jondarren]

The coils develop really fine cracks that let moisture in, you won't be able to see it. try wd-40 and leaving the bonnet open. The coil is up on the fire wall, trace the lead from the centre of the distributer cap back to find it.

Pete

Hey Pete,

thanks for the info. I found the coil last night, just wasn't sure what part it was!!

I'll give the WD40 a bash and see what happens. If that doesn't work it's probably an easy fix and worth trying myself before i get a mechanic to get into it.

Nice one, thanks.

Jon......

[Jondarren]

Finally after a few nights of fiddling around under the bonnet, then calls to mechanics and a quick check over the car, the problem was found.

Fuel Pump failure.

So, one call to Golf Loon and a replacement pump was found. I fitted the sucker and half an hour later, the Ibiza was upand running! I was so happy, i treated the car to a wash, and now it feels great to be back on the road.

Thanks to all for your help and advice, and big thanks to Matt for the fuel pump. It saved me big time!!

Cheers

Jon....