I had posted in the past in this thread about my car's starting / stalling troubles. The troubles started in July-2022. All 4 spark plugs were changed and fuel-pump was replaced in Aug-Sep 2022. After this, there were no problems until June-2023.
On 25th June 2023, the car suddenly stops in moving traffic at Old Airport Road, Domlur. Odo was 71984 km. Sent family away by Uber. Disconnected and reconnected the battery again after 15 minutes. Car starts and I drive to Basavanagudi. Again car stops in moving traffic in Lalbagh road. Same 15 minutes battery exercise and it started again. Finally I reach destination at Basavanagudi & disconnect the battery. After 3 hours, battery reconnected, car does not start at all. I give up after several attempts including fuse checks.
This video was taken on cold cranking the next morning:
I then swap the mini-relay for ignition with another similar specced relay in the engine bay fuse box. Voila! She fires up on first try and I drive directly to TASS Kropex Koramangala. I replace the faulty mini-relay with a new one. Problem resolved (for now). Refer to Post #850 in this thread for complete details.
Since then, I have one of the two scenario happen (several times):
1. In slow moving, crawling traffic, the engine dies off. Immediate cranking does not help. Move over the car to the side of the road. Wait for 10-15 minutes. Sometimes, disconnecting the -ve terminal of the battery and waiting for 15-30 minutes helps. After all this, the car sometimes started again on cranking. Sometimes, it had to be towed away to service center.
2. Occasionally, during cold starts in the morning, the engine cranks with higher than usual revs (> 2500 rpm) and then slowly or immediately dies off.
This happened on 27th December at Chennai. Engine was cold. First crank of the morning. Odo was 77540 km. I ask service center to change the coolant temperature sensor for my peace of mind since I suspect that the engine is overheating but sensor is feeding lower temp data to ECU and instrument cluster (refer to posts #861 & 862 in this thread).
This happened on 21st January 2024, at Indiranagar Bangalore. Engine was started after overnight halt. Odo was 77980 km.
22nd January 2024: I went to Service Center and explained the problems to Service Manager. Asked them to also do the annual service along with breakdown diagnosis.
Fuel pump module was once again found to be the culprit. Fuel pump had to be ordered since it was not in stock. This is the 3rd replacement is less than 8 years, the last one lasted less than 18 months. I was not happy with its quality and lifespan. I informed the General Manager and Regional Customer Service Manager my disappointment with the repeated failure of fuel pump and the turnaround time to replace it.
31st January 2024: Car was delivered to me after fuel pump replacement and annual service. Total bill Rs.19,222. I drove home in the evening traffic. I was 1 km from my home when the car again stopped in a narrow road. Traffic piled up in no time. After repeated attempts, the car started and reached home without further drama.
1st February 2024: In the morning, I try cold starting the car in my residential parking space. Vehicle refused to start even after multiple attempts. Odo was 78000 km.
I call Authorized service center (ASC) stating my situation and my dissatisfaction with their resolution. I take videos of the instrument cluster and share it with them as well as Regional Customer Service Manager. ASC sends a technician home the same afternoon. He is also unsucessful in starting the car. His diagnosis: bad spark plugs and HT cables. He says he will return with them in few days time.
After several reminders, phone calls etc, they finally sends someone home on 7th February 2024. Senion Technician / Supervisor checked the spark plugs first.
All 4 spark plugs found to be bad (these were about 18 months old). Replaced them with 4 new ones. Tried starting the car, and it still seemed to be misfiring. Now all 4 HT cables were replaced. Car started now but the idling was not smooth. The Supervisor drove the vehicle slowly to service center located 10 km away.
10th February 2024: I visit service center to get an update. They inform me that during test drive, the engine seems to have died after about 20-25km of driving.
Now they suspect the ignition coil. I ask them to replace it as well.
15th February 2024: I visit service center to get an update. They have installed the new ignition coil. But the problem persists. Now I'm told that there is an error on scanning 'Fuel injector 4 is faulty'.
Now they plan to remove the fuel tank and clean it. They also plan to clean the fuel lines, fuel filter etc. They also suspect Lambda/Oxygen sensor and Knock sensor.
Today: I'm not sure if ASC has found the root cause of all these problems. They seem to do trial-and-error approach.
My query is: Can the above symptoms be due to either bad spark plugs, HT cables or ignition coil or Lambda sensor? Are the service center folks missing something obvious? Are the two problems (engine dying in crawling traffic / overheating and cold-start problem) due to same issue or completely unrelated 2 different issues?