Any ideas?

jayerpay · Post by **jayerpay** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 9:05 am

Hi all,

I think if I had read this site, I would have never bought a Piazza, but that was a good thing, as I'm on my third, and think it mostly a brilliant car. But it has an occasional problem which I don't understand, but then again I don't know the difference between an open-ender and a torque wrench.

The current car has two problems ... the dash only works in full some of the time, but I have got used to that. The other is however rather mysterious. I bought the car very cheaply as the previous owner had got sick of spending money on it, the final straw being told by RACQ that the fuel pump was defective. 30,000 kms later, I'm still using the same fuel pump. What had happened to him was that after going around a bend, the motor simply died. It has done the same thing to me twice, both times after a lefthand corner, neither of which was taken at any sort of speed. After it happens it simply will not start, but I discovered if left for a couple of hours, it will then start first go. It is as though it gets a gulp of air in the fuel supplywhich somehow disappears over time. This theory doesn't gell with a fuel pick-up problem due to vehicle motion, as the last time it happened was at a suburban heavily trafficed roundabout at about 30kph. The previous weekend I had had a fang down the Gillies Highway (700 odd turns marked at 30 and 40 K in 22 kms ... 18 minutes of pure adrenalin and much more comfortable than Go-Karting), all without the slightest sign of any problem.

Anyone had the same problem? Ideas? My mechanic can't fix it as by the time I can get it to him, it ain't broken. Only other clue I can offer is that the car runs like a dog (missing, won't idle etc.) if the fuel tank gets below a third as shown on the guage, which was also an idiosynchrasy of my first Piazza, so have assumed that this is just a Piazza "thing". Both times it died, the fuel tank was however well over half full.

Cheers

John

GeminiCoupe · Post by **GeminiCoupe** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 10:21 am

Start by doing little stuff to see if that rectifies or can identify the problem. If the fuel pump is alledgedly on its way out, it wouldnt be a bad idea to test it. Theres a test procedure you can carry out to measure if the pump is flowing at the right rate. Its fairly simply, not sure how hard it is with a Piazza, one of the other blokes might be able to explain it to you. If not just bite the bullet and get a VL EFI pump. About 150 new.

Another thing that springs to mind is fuel filter. Ever thought it could be full of shit, allowing crud to block the lines and block fuel delivery? Not a good thing - It could possibly be disasterous if the engine leans out on WOT at high RPM...

BTW, you shouldnt be hammering it if its running like shit! Get new plugs, leads, rotor button, dizzy cap etc etc and sort the miss out.

Nick-

Post by **wedgenut** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 3:02 pm

Here are a couple of rare ones but easy to spot and fix. make sure no one has re routed the fuel lines too close to the engine, in slow traffic especially excessive heat can cause a vapour lock if they are. Also spend five minutes under the car looking for the squahed fuel pipe from the last time you hopped the kerb to avoid paying to get out of the carpark although they are pretty well protected. A friend of mine had a similar problem happen after he had run out of petrol once, not a Piazza but the same applies. It was definitely fuel starvation so he replaced the filter, which didn't help. He replaced the fuel pump which made no difference, he stripped and cleaned his carbuettor which was no help either. I removed his fuel tank and turned it upside down and removed the grass, spiders bumble bees and all the other shit that had found its way into the tank. It turned out he borrowed his neigbours lawnmower fuel can when he ran out and got all the extras that came with it. A big fat bumble bee makes an excellent plug for the pick up line.

Now to get really obscure I once fixed a nissan sunny that used to cut out on left hand corners because someone had been playing with the underdash wires fitting a radio and when it went back together the connecter was getting snagged on the column universal joint putting enough strain on it to lose the connection.

Lots to look for good luck

brendan · Post by **brendan** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 5:27 pm

i am having lots of problems with my fuel pump atm, kinda the same thing the car hates idleing at the lights and if you do for more then 5 mins the idle will go down and the car will stop, when you try to start it again it seems to flooded and you have to rev the shit out of it to keep it going.
that is not the only problem the fuel pump makes heaps of noise and no matter what pump i put in it plays up. It made heaps of noise with the standard pump for the piazza but it is the only pump the car will run properly on, but my piazza pump died last week and i have a vl one in it at the moment and when the car is cold the car only runs on 3cylinders no matter what i do. i have tried everything to fix it but i have just written it off to the curse of the piazza now,
i am going to try removing the tank this weekend but apart from that i cant thing of what else to try?

i have new fuel filter, the injectors have just been serviced new plugs and leads?????????

shorty · Post by **shorty** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:14 pm

i had a problem kinda like this once. i say kinda cause it would also do it to me even while going straight and one time at a set of lights in the middle of town, how embarasing. anyway back to the point my car would be running fine and then just die and wouldn't go for ages and then it would just go again. i figuered out the the coil screws weren't tight enough (it's a aftermarker bosch unit) and was losing it's earth and it's spark. next time it happens check the spark with a screwdriver and the strut tower.

Rodeobob · Post by **Rodeobob** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 4:11 am

Id say a faulty wiring circuit. Check both the power side and the earth of both fuel and ignition. Id check all the earth straps, if the main one from the battery isnt good to the body it may be routing most of the earth thru the engine and then back to the body.

The other thing could be the fuel reg playing up. thats more in shorty and brendans case. Its either that or its not making the pressure to start with.

Hooking up a pressure guage to the fuel system and driving it around, if it plays up and its pump/pressure related you will know where to look.

Im off to touch some wood.

Cheers. Bob.

Bugle · Post by **Bugle** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 1:46 pm

With the cornering thing, the Piazza has 2 fuel pumps, the little low pressure one is pumping from the return line to a little surge tank where the main pump gets its feed from. Maybe if the second pump has failed but the first one is still running fine this could cause that problem in cornering.

dazza · Post by **dazza** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 6:00 pm

i've had the same problem but in a ea falcon the car dies and then will start again in a hour or so the RAC told me it was the fuel pump as well.But it was the module on the dizzy,next time it dies check for spark if you can't wait till then take the dizzy out and have it checked by a auto electrician.

Rodeobob · Post by **Rodeobob** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 3:27 am

dazza wrote:i've had the same problem but in a ea falcon the car dies and then will start again in a hour or so the RAC told me it was the fuel pump as well.But it was the module on the dizzy,next time it dies check for spark if you can't wait till then take the dizzy out and have it checked by a auto electrician.

The module is external. They ran one the same on a few other different cars.

Cheers. Bob.