electric / ignition problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stefan Hassenstein
  • Start date Start date
S

Stefan Hassenstein

Hi !

lurking for a while,
first post now.

for weeks i have a strange electric / ignition problem,
which is not always in the same manner reproducible.
Has been three times at the car mechanic, problem still exists.

Its a 97 B230FT Estate with 185k (km)
Extras: ACC

First time it was on the Autobahn with a speed of 170km/h.
Out of nothing the automatic brake system (ABS)
was switched on and off in a sputtering manner, the ABS-control-light
was flashing in the same rhythm.
thought of a serious problem, slowed down
and looked for the next parking slot.
Reaching the turning lane i switched into idle-gear,
which caused (?) the ignition to went off.
Radio off for seconds than on again, Control-lights in the
instrumental panel / dashboard went off for a second than on again.

Starting the engine again was no problem.
A look under the hood offered nothing special
(no loose cables for my amateur view)

From time to time
i can reproduce this sudden shut-down,
but not always.
Mostly when the engine is idle, the RPM shows s.th.
around 750.
When i turn on another power user (? sorry for my spelling),
tearing some more current from the generator,
like the high-beam, electric window-mover, seat-heatings,
there is a short speed drop (down to 500 RPM).
Most of the time within a second engine speeds up to
750 or even 1000, but in rare circumstances
the engines dies. (german slang, directly translated, sorry)
After the engine stopped, the control lights are on again.

The most sensitive symptom is from the radio. Turns on and off,
mostly without a stopped engine.

This habit shows with a cold engine or a warm one.
Starting the engine is no problem, no need of
extra gas to prevent the engine of dying
(as i experienced with older cars and other brands,
when idle RPM is tuned to sharp)

Need more details ?
Ever had such a disturbing manner ?

Thanks for reading and suggestions,
Stefan
 
Nothing much wrong with your English Stefan - better than some posters here
!

Welcome to the group ...

Nick
 
Nick said:
Nothing much wrong with your English Stefan - better than some posters here
!

Welcome to the group ...

Nick
Click to expand...
Thanks for that warm welcome, Nick.

In the meantime i found the impressive http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900
and stumbled across the mentioned Fuel injection relay
and even the ignition-lock.

Told it the mechanic by e-mail.

Questions remain...the lock hasn't s.th. to do with additionally
power-suckers.
A damaged FI-Relay should show other bad habits... or not ?


Thanks again for reading and
leading suggestions !

Stefan
(otherwise just happy to drive a car with such an active membership
world-wide and who would like to put a few 940s into the deep-freezer
just to have some spare ones :-) )
 
Stefan Hassenstein said:
for weeks i have a strange electric / ignition problem,
which is not always in the same manner reproducible.
Has been three times at the car mechanic, problem still exists.

Its a 97 B230FT Estate with 185k (km)
Extras: ACC
Click to expand...

Far away from being anything more than
just a lurking amateur
i have to precice another observation.

The Radio is a Becker-traffic with GPS.

GPS works fine, but
after a stall (induced or by ... magic)
the GPS has to be freshly initialised.
(but no code - don't know if there is one)

Assumed there exist more than just one
"ignition-on" circuit, but a more central one...
could it be an intermittent contact in the Main-circuit
(even "before" or "above" the ignition-controlled circuit),
that causes the problems ?


Thanks for reading !
Stefan
 
Stefan said:
...
Most of the time within a second engine speeds up to
750 or even 1000, but in rare circumstances
the engines dies. (german slang, directly translated, sorry)
After the engine stopped, the control lights are on again.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the group.
Sorry, can't help with the problem but I wanted to say that your 'German
slang' is exactly how we would say it in English.
Probably the most frequently used word to describe when a motor stops
without explanation is 'it dies', 'it died' or 'it's dying'.
Unlike the Brits, who simply have an 'engine bother'.
Goes for most anything mechanical or electrical... My CD player died so
I bought a mp3 player.
....and' I'm envious that you can cruse at 170 kph (105 mph translated.)
(as if my 1983 estate would even go 100 mph! Well, maybe if I dropped it
out of an airplane)
 
clay said:
...and' I'm envious that you can cruse at 170 kph (105 mph translated.)
(as if my 1983 estate would even go 100 mph! Well, maybe if I dropped it
out of an airplane)
Click to expand...

Clay,
thanks for your friendly statement.

Wasn't my intention to tell the group in a boastful manner:
look here - we can do.
Cruising speed is mostly about 80mph,
(without traffic jam...but
happens frequently, you cannot tell any reliable arrival time)
Bigger towns in Germany start to close zones for
cars too old in fear of "Fine-Dust" exhausted by
non-catalysator engines. Chancellor Merkel says:
Do not drive at full speed all the time... :-)

wanted to state clearly that this first
symptom occured not in idle state.

Another observation:
Opened the ash-tray,
saw behind two rows of fuses,
behind the second row
there are 5 little square blocks.

One is covered with metal (Aluminium?),
the other 4 have plastic cups.

The metal covered block
(The second, when No1 is the block
at leftmost nearest to the steering wheel)
was rather hot by touching it after a
30 minute drive in the town.

May this one be that hot ?
(probably around 50 to 60 Celsius degree)


Thanks for reading,
Greetings,
Stefan
 
Stefan said:
Clay,
thanks for your friendly statement.

Wasn't my intention to tell the group in a boastful manner:
look here - we can do.
Cruising speed is mostly about 80mph,
(without traffic jam...but
happens frequently, you cannot tell any reliable arrival time)
Bigger towns in Germany start to close zones for
cars too old in fear of "Fine-Dust" exhausted by
non-catalysator engines. Chancellor Merkel says:
Do not drive at full speed all the time... :-)

wanted to state clearly that this first
symptom occured not in idle state.

Another observation:
Opened the ash-tray,
saw behind two rows of fuses,
behind the second row
there are 5 little square blocks.

One is covered with metal (Aluminium?),
the other 4 have plastic cups.

The metal covered block
(The second, when No1 is the block
at leftmost nearest to the steering wheel)
was rather hot by touching it after a
30 minute drive in the town.

May this one be that hot ?
(probably around 50 to 60 Celsius degree)

Thanks for reading,
Greetings,
Stefan
Click to expand...

Sound like an electoral power delivery problem. I'd suggest looking at
the ignition switch, then alternator and battery.

Also, relays (square blocks) should never get that warm. Pull it out,
and look at the terminals, both on the relay and socket. If there's any
melting or burning, the problem needs to be fixed quickly.

--
Mike F.
Thornhill (near Toronto), Ont.

Replace tt with t (twice!) and remove parentheses to email me directly.
(But I check the newsgroup more often than this email address.)
 

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