Hi Guys,

My car died a few times when driving. After the second time it died and it would not start up again. I had it towed home in the hopes that I could fix it.

I read through posts here and went with changing my crank position sensor. That didn't do the trick. Changing that sensor without jacking up the car was a harrowing experience. So when I failed to get it to start after the CPS change I had it towed to the shop...

At the shop they were able to get it started by "bypassing" the inertia switch. So I gave them the go ahead to change the inertia sensor or switch or whatever you call the thing. So for the past few days all has been well until this afternoon! I was coming off a freeway exit and at the bottom of the ramp the car goes dead... Identical to the first time it died. I was also coming off of a freeway exit and the car died at the bottom of the ramp.

I was about an hour away from home when it died today - scary. I prayed before trying to restart today and it did start back up. Now I'm thinking the next time it dies it will not start again like last time.

Please help. Any ideas? Should I take it back to the shop and see if they can help? They will probably just ask for more cash to re-diagnose things.

Thanks so much,
Ray

 

you need to determine if the fuel pump is running and what the fuel pressure is at the fuel rail....there is a small Schrader valve on the fuel rail...passenger side....looks like a tire valve.....that's where you would check the pressure with a fuel pressure gauge, you could use a tire gauge in a pinch and there ought to be around 30-35 psi there....without any gauge....you could push on the valve core with a pocket knife or pen and the gas should shoot out there pretty good.....no pressure means that the pump likely isnt running....start with that

 

I did check to see if my fuel pump runs. By listening to get pump it sounds good. I also did push on the valve on the fuel rail and gas spit out pretty well. I don't know what the pressure is though.

A am having electrical issues in general so maybe it's just an electrical issue - I say just like it's easy to deal with...

But I will keep looking into the fuel pump like you mentioned. I'll take some actual readings. I see that that have loaner fuel pressure gauge and O O O O'reillys

Thanks.

 

Check fuel pump harness. Open rear "cargo space" cover which is right over pump. Check connectors, looking for burned contacts/corrosion. If you follow that harness it leads to another connector, again check it for previous. You may have a fuel pump that doesn't have any connector issues but is loosing a brush in the pump motor. Normally your lucky if you can get it to start again after is dies but I had one that did what yours is doing, died slowly. IF the pump becomes the source of the problem you can replace just the pump motor and not the whole enchilada' (cage/float). Much cheaper fix and works like new. Good luck.

 

Had this happen to me before but, with other symptoms like dimmed lights and sporadic idling issues. But then like you it would die for no apparent reason. With no where else to look, after greasing every last electrical connection I added (4) new ground wires (2) one to each side of transfer case and (2) one to each side of block. Lights are bright with no flicking and absolutely no more electrical problems in more than 6 months (other than my back windows not wanting to roll down half the time). It's cheap and you won't do anything but help, even if it doesn't fix your immediate problem. Good luck!

 

I'm new here and will be picking up my first Rover tomorrow. Of course it doesn't start so I will be doing some trouble shooting myself. That being said, I could not agree with you more here. I come from a audio/electrical background and solid grounds are always something harped on and rarely taken correct action on. Even if it isn't the problem its helping and preventing issues in the future.

 

I haven't had time to try to fix my D1 this week. I still want to hook the fuel pressure gauge up.

After a week of driving it mostly on quiet roads - since I'm scared to take in on the highway. I ended up taking back on the freeway. About a week ago or so it died as I came to the bottom of a freeway off ramp. I thought there would be no way that it would die again in the same spot since it had seemed like it was running fine. Well, I get to the bottom of that exact offramp and bam, it dies just as before. That particular spot has a right hand sweeping turn and you must apply the brakes at the same time to make the stop sign at the end of the ramp. Man, I had a lot of pissed off people behind me. I was totally stalled out in the middle of the street.

Does this offer any clues? The car dying at a very specific spot? Maybe if I just avoid that exit I will be fine? haha

As I tried to restart nothing happened. It almost seemed like the electrical system was completely down. After a couple of minutes it did start however and now - like a fool - I'm driving it around town a bit.

Maybe tomorrow I can find some time and troubleshoot. I will try to hook the fuel pressure gauge up and reconstruct the engine shutting off - somewhere with no traffic.

I will also try to look at the wires going to the pump like was mentioned in previous posts.

 

What year is your Disco Ray?

 

It's a 1998 and it's only 600 or so miles away from 200K.

 

Any codes? How's the idle? High or low? Is the PCV clean?