Swift switching off

[abinesh]

Hi All,

A few weeks ago my Swift Vxi suddenly switched off when I was driving back home from work at night. I kept cranking it but it refused to start. Checking under the hood revealed no clues. All fluid levels were normal and it was not overheating either. After about 10 minutes it started but the check engine light remained on. I drove back home with the engine light switched on. The next morning when I started it, everything was fine and the engine light did not stay on.

I drove to Pratham motors and asked them to check it out. The service engineer asked his electrician to inspect all wiring and the engine diagnostics as well. They found nothing amiss and remarked that some stone might have hit one of the sensors and caused the ecm to refuse to allow the car to start. But other than that they gave a clean chit.

I shrugged it off as a one time thing and did not find any problems after that. This evening while driving back home again the same thing happened. Engine suddenly switched off, refused to start. After 15 minutes it started with the check engine light on. This time I drove it to a corner, switched the engine off and waited for another 10 minutes. When I started it after this the light went away. I am completely perplexed by this. Now I know it is not a one off thing. But the problem with taking it to a service centre would be the same. The problem wont repeat itself when they do a checkup and I am not sure of the exact conditions under which this issue would crop up.

What could be wrong!!!!!

[low_bass_makker]

i think some sensor is misbehaving here.

[neel12345]

Do you have any immobilizer? If yes, it must be giving problems. This depends on how old is your swift?

[merve_extreme]

Check your ignition coil.does the car shrudder while engine switches off ?

[abinesh]

Originally Posted by merve_extreme

Check your ignition coil.does the car shrudder while engine switches off ?

I dont think the igntion coil is at fault. The car is just 5 months old and has run only 3.5K kms. There is no shuddering whatsoever when it switches off. It just silently turned off when I was driving. I noticed it only when I sensed the loss in power and glanced at the dials.

The car did have an accident about 3 months ago wherein the left side doors along with the front suspension components were replaced. Apart from these the AC compressor, the Crankshaft Position sensor and the driveshaft were also replaced. Could any of these replacements be responsible for this problem?

[low_bass_makker]

Originally Posted by neel12345

Do you have any immobilizer? If yes, it must be giving problems. This depends on how old is your swift?

then why does the engine light lit up on the console

Originally Posted by merve_extreme

Check your ignition coil.does the car shrudder while engine switches off ?

same here

then why does the engine light lit up on the console

Originally Posted by abinesh

Apart from these the AC compressor, the Crankshaft Position sensor and the driveshaft were also replaced. Could any of these replacements be responsible for this problem?

why are these replaced because of the accident.

[meenakshi]

Its difficult to conclude immediately on the system but we can narrow down, The Major system which gives you malfunctioning while running are fuel system, ignition primarily !
Fuel system:
- It could be either fuel system leakage (20%)or Fuel pump loose connection (80%)
- Sparking / Ignition coil circuit
- 2 days is the switch off happened in the same area, Incase you have strong pot holes, speed breaker defnitely pump loose wiring ! we design these parts for some other vehicles ! Incase this happens on sudden gear change and acceleration mode it confirms the same.
The above reasons would miss firing a particular cylinder. (Engine missing is the word used)

sparking: It would be again loose connections wiring - 3.5 k seems to be less reason for the same.

Swift - You should insist the maruti service manager to check for engine control unit using diagnosis tool . That MUST give you the reason code for intermittent switch off. They are recorded in the ECU. Bangalore, let me know where do you work ? Let us ask the Bimal service to check as we have contacts there. Or at the worst case me and my application engineer will try to check your vehicle (we will not open any component !)

Regards
Meenakshi

[mclaren1885]

Check the crank position sensor once again. Also, it is quite possible for the crank pulley to have taken a hit. In such cases car will normally refuse to start. Check the teeth of the crank pulley to see if there is any crack.

[abinesh]

Originally Posted by low_bass_makker

why are these replaced because of the accident.

The front and left portion of the car sustained some damages during the accident. These among others were some of the parts replaced.

[merve_extreme]

it is an eletrical or elctronic issue for sure,because with an mechanical issue the problem will be persistent and not intermittent like this one.also it will not resolve itself.

Also an ignition coil failure can happen any time due to any reason and will mostly not be detectable on a scanner machine.

Does the warning light come on immediately or after your try a few restarts,because if it comes after a few attempted restarts its OK (i think you check light comes on because of multiple failed restart attempts and not because of the problem that kills you engine).
Tell me one thing,once the car stops and then you wait and restart it like you said after 10 mins,how long can you go before it stops again.

[esteem_lover]

Originally Posted by abinesh

Hi All,

A few weeks ago my Swift Vxi suddenly switched off when I was driving back home from work at night. I kept cranking it but it refused to start. Checking under the hood revealed no clues. All fluid levels were normal and it was not overheating either. After about 10 minutes it started but the check engine light remained on. I drove back home with the engine light switched on. The next morning when I started it, everything was fine and the engine light did not stay on.

I drove to Pratham motors and asked them to check it out. The service engineer asked his electrician to inspect all wiring and the engine diagnostics as well. They found nothing amiss and remarked that some stone might have hit one of the sensors and caused the ecm to refuse to allow the car to start. But other than that they gave a clean chit.

I shrugged it off as a one time thing and did not find any problems after that. This evening while driving back home again the same thing happened. Engine suddenly switched off, refused to start. After 15 minutes it started with the check engine light on. This time I drove it to a corner, switched the engine off and waited for another 10 minutes. When I started it after this the light went away. I am completely perplexed by this. Now I know it is not a one off thing. But the problem with taking it to a service centre would be the same. The problem wont repeat itself when they do a checkup and I am not sure of the exact conditions under which this issue would crop up.

What could be wrong!!!!!

Sorry to hear about your problem, please leave your car at a Maruti A.S.S and ask them to sole the riddle.

Are you sure your the software in your ECM has not been developed by Microsoft ? it sure has all the ingredients of a windows failure.

[abinesh]

Originally Posted by merve_extreme

Does the warning light come on immediately or after your try a few restarts,because if it comes after a few attempted restarts its OK (i think you check light comes on because of multiple failed restart attempts and not because of the problem that kills you engine).

The vehicle does not start for about 10 minutes. When it finally starts the light comes on. If I switch it off then and start after another 10 minutes it goes away.

Originally Posted by merve_extreme

Tell me one thing,once the car stops and then you wait and restart it like you said after 10 mins,how long can you go before it stops again.

As of now this problem has cropped up again after a period of 3 weeks. During that intervening period there was no problem whatsoever.

[caliper]

Take it back to the dealer. Don't think that it's OK, it won't happen again.

There seems to be a problem w/ the starter circuit of Swifts. Sometimes it turns off, won't turn on. Sometimes it'll turn on spontaneously.


Other people are having this problem, so have some backbone and don't let them tell you differently.

[Sideways]

I would have to agree with mclaren, although I don't expect any harm to the pulley. Just have the Crank sensor checked.

[lohithrao]

This problem occurs in the evening, so might be some electrical malfunction. try to on the headlights in the morning and fdrive for a while. should be able to spot the issue.