Strange (electrical?) problem

oscarBravo

I've a 1998 Rover 400 1.6 with a personality all it's own.

Lately, it developed a charming new habit of cutting out when I drove through puddles (Fiat Ritmo, anyone?) Waiting about ten minutes would usually allow it to start again.

It got worse - more recently, it decided it wouldn't start on rainy mornings. It would turn over and over without a sign of ignition, except for an occasional cough when I stopped cranking. Again, sometimes leaving it for a while and trying later worked.

A few days ago, when it wouldn't start, I lifted the bonnet - again. Nothing looked wet, although it all looked mildly damp - the way everything does in the humidity of a wet morning. I couldn't see any obvious problem with the coil or distributor, so I decided to check if there was water near the plugs. I removed the cover from the head, and unplugged the leads one at a time. All four looked clean and dry, so I reconnected them. When I tried again, it started instantly, and it hasn't given a problem since.

I mean, WTF? It's not like one of the leads wasn't connected, surely - it ran very smoothly once it did decide to run. Is it possible that one of the leads was almost not connected, and it took a cold morning for it to become a problem?

I'd love to hear some informed opinion on this. It's not like I can be certain it's fixed, so I'm not sure how much I can trust it. Having said that, her indoors tells me she's driven through several puddles since, without a problem.

On a probably unrelated note, there's a lot of whitish cruft around the positive terminal of the battery. It has a pale blue tinge that to my untrained eye suggests copper sulphate - does this mean that leaking sulphuric acid from the battery is corroding the copper battery lead connector? How big a problem is this likely to be?

Victor

Sounds like the water was shorting something and/or something was slightly loose.

How old is the battery? Get a clean (no grease dirt etc) and clean all the contacts, then use a wire brush on the corroded one until you can see clean metal and no corrosion. Corrosion tends to feed on corrosion.

Turner

Had the same problem with a rover 620, even driving behind a truck in rainy weather would cause it to cut out.


If you are stuck some rainy morning take the leads and distributor cap out and pop them in the oven / get a hairdryer to them for a while.....

Or else buy a new distributor cap and leads and it should sort you.


I remember all the wet rainy days getting out my extension lead and Peter Mark hair dryer... unplugging all the leads and drying each spark plug one by one.


Rovers=sheite unless its a 75.

Chief.

Stephen

I had a similar problem with an old scooter a few years ago. The spark plug (it only had 1 ) was loose, making it very hard to start and very easy to stall at traffic lights etc. Cleaning and properly installing the plug fixed the problem.

Edit: Oo! 6000 posts. I truely have no life.

oscarBravo

Update on this:

Seems it's a problem with the coil. If the cover gets cracked or damaged, moisture can get into the coil, shorting it and causing ignition failure - apparently not an unusual problem with Rovers.

Due to get it looked at in Galway tomorrow - I'll be dosing it with Damp Start and avoiding puddles. If y'all see a green Rover weaving around damp patches on the N17 tomorrow, gissa wave!