as title says ,

car started fine yesterday morning , got to garage to fill up ( short journey and choke was still out ),

sat in the queue ( bloody panic buyers coz of the Hemel explosion )

put choke in and it was running fine then it just died,( no I hadn't done a foggy and run out of gas )
a real pita to start , back firing and steam coming out from under the bonnet when cranking then it fired and ran a bit rough ,

got out onto the road and after a couple of seconds it cleared and was fine for the rest of the day. The reason I put it down to damp was that the symptoms on starting are almost identical to when I went through the large puddle on the way home from Stondon and it died

The car had not been used from lunchtime Friday until 10 am Sunday,

The only time I've had bad running is after pressure washing the engine It usualy splutters a bit and then settles down.

Do you actually point the pressure washer on the engine? I once saw a real though guy do that to his Golf GTI, ad the engine stalled! It didn't start up again so he and his rough looking friends had to push that idiotical looking crap, car I mean, out of the washing box!

the car has been fine since sunday , perhaps my fuel gauge is out and I had done a foggy

Japper wrote:Do you actually point the pressure washer on the engine? I once saw a real though guy do that to his Golf GTI, ad the engine stalled! It didn't start up again so he and his rough looking friends had to push that idiotical looking crap, car I mean, out of the washing box!

Yes nearly every week end. It starts up again ok every time but is not so keen. Not suprising when you consider lpg is very sensitive to poor spark.

Well I don't know if it is the Renix or what but I've had spark problems on starting two times now. I drive to school, no problems, car stays at the lot for two to three hours. I try to start it and everything else works, it cranks, there's fuel etc... but Renix doesn't give spark. Dizzy cap, the rotating thingy inside it (dunno what it is called in English ) and plug wires are brand new. Alternator has got new stuff in it too. Battery is a year old, not a good brand though but I checked the voltages and readings were ok. In both times I fiddled with renix a bit, wiped it with a cloth and took the coil lead out and then back in. Then it started but I still don't know if it was just some random malfunction, bad contact or what.. It rained heavy on both times. Well it hasn't done it for few months so hopefully it was just some bad connection or something.

Time to blast it all with a good dose of WD40! Usually does the trick.

Just a thought though. Have you looked for moisture inside you distributer cap? The way that is sited it could condense inside and cause a short.

could just have clogged up by running rich on idle for too long.

it seems to be running fine now .
I have only just replaced the renix coz the nozzle for the vacuum pipe snapped clean off.

I think it could well have been what Hugh said ,

however I prefer to blame fallout from the hemel explosion blocking the air filter
( bloody astrali steering wheel blocks out the idiot lights and I keep leaving the choke on for too long LOL )

the car has continued to play up when not used for a couple of days so decide to have a look ,

symptoms were It would start and run but if you went for a short journey and then stopped it would be a pita to restart , coughing and backfiring like mad , couldnt use throttle until it started running and then you had to gently bring up the revs or it would stall again.

got a new rotor and dizzy cap and after picking myself up after hearing the price ( bearing in mind only fitted new ones in June ) fitted said parts I havent had chance to take it for a run yet ,

on looking in the dizzy cap I noticed that the two contacts that would be on the carb side of the engine looked reasonable but the other two had almost completely disappeared , any ideas why the contacts would wear so unevenly ?

Sometimes if there's a slight distortion or crack then you can get tracking of the spark across the cap. Erm was it a Volvo one? The contacts on the OEM parts are much better quality. Halfords and other el cheapo brands lucky if it lasts a year.

Fuse, the cap thing is called a distributor cap/dizzy cap and the arm inside is the rotor arm. If these are new and the plug leads are new too, then I would look at the Renix itself. Sometimes the contacts can corrode. Particularly on the lead to the flywheel magnetic pickup and also the internal coil itself. I would take the Renix out of the car and carefully strip it down and clean out any contacts with a solvent, nothing abrasive though.

I had the same problem and same symptons too with mine eating dizzy caps! Did the contacts look as though they had been chewed up and spat out?
As posted elsewhere, it sorted itself when I changed the Renix but in fact I had changed the condenser also.

Was it oily at all Mick? Redblocks with head mount dizzys are famous for the rear cam oil seal failing, causing oil to pour into the distributor...same thing could apply to the F2n I guess?

Also, have you tried the blowlamp / WD40 / carb cleaner air leak trick? Fuelling problems can often 'seem' like ignition and visa versa. If two of the contacts on the cap were screwed, that would probably explain it...it took remarkably little damage to the contacts on my dizzy cap to make the damn thing have a hissy fit.

Regarding why it has failed so soon...someone (Chris C?) posted a message a few days ago about why that might be, but I can't remember what he said.

cheers

James

Talking of problems with the cap.

I have once had the carbon brush completly disappear once, still ran almost ok though