[pkumar]

Need some help in analyzing the situation, and advice regarding possible cause & solution.

Car : Ikon 1.3
Mileage : 27k kms
Age : 2 years

I was on my way back from karwar to bangalore - on the NH206 route (afternoon).
Drove the car with AC, on ghat, with race style driving, for more than an hour or so. Suddenly the RPM meter started slowing down and the engine went dead withing 3-4 seconds.
I found the Temperature meter at very normal position, at the same level which i normally see during city drive or highway drive. Fuel was topped up recently and the car had more than 30L of fuel. I opened the hood to see anything visibily unusual. All the oils were at required level, engine didnt feel overheated AT ALL.
Seeing no aparent reason for engine seizure, tried to crank the car after 5 minutes break, it came back to life and i was on the wheels again, this time with AC off. within 15 kms of this driving session, engine did it again and it died. tried the same 10 minutes cool-off before i drove again. This time i reached to one of my intermediate stop points where i left the car to cool off for more than half an hour.
After that i drove the car back to bangalore, a distance of 400kms, with absolutely no troubles at all, but was scared to encounter the problem again.

Can you guys please help me in understanding the possible cause for this?
was it just overheating? if yes, why no indication on the temperature meter? what role could the AC have played? Or it had something to do with possibly adulterated fuel that the small petrol pump could have filled in? although i will be visiting the Ford service station very soon, but i would appreciate the opinion of ppl here too.

Thanks.

[kiku007]

The problem could be because of the following,

* Faulty Ignition Coil
* Faulty Fuel pump

In the above cases, in addition to the car stalling, the following also happen,
* Sudden loss of power for a few seconds
* RPM will shoot up and down franticly during start ups

Fuel Pump Replacement in my Ikon:
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techni...tml#post996356

Anyways wait for the experts to comment. I just gave my exp

[pkumar]

Thanks Kishore.
but with regard to the additional symptoms you mentioned, i dont see them in my case.
I have never seen momentary loss of power before the incident, and even after the engine re-start and drive for 400kms i did not see any loss of power.
Also, while igniting the car from cold start, i see a momentary rev-up of the rpm meter to 2.5-3k (for 2-3 seconds) before coming back to normal. This i have been seeing from last 2 years, since i took home my car. So this also looks normal to me now.

[Astleviz]

Since you have mentioned that the problem re-occured after you had switched off the AC within 15 km, it's evident that this issue is not related to the AC.

BTW, did you hear any sputtering sound when the rpm was falling or felt anything abnormal with the engine/exhaust sound? Also when you drove down to bangalore for the last 400 km, did the car behave just as normal as before or were there any issues? Did you feel, a drop in overall acceleration/ pulling power? I assume that the car ran fine else you would have mentioned that.

Most probably it was bad fuel, but do visit the service centre and get it checked ASAP (including the fuel tank for any contamination).

[nitrous]

1 hour of high revving on mountain roads? Whoa!

I've owned and driven an ikon 1.3(but endura) for 7 years/90,000 kms and know its engine cooling system is pretty good and also that the temp. gauge is quite sensitive.
I feel it could be a case of an overheating engine with a malfunctioning temp. gauge leading to a blown gasket. Check if you have coolant in engine oil and vice versa. Could be an indicator.

Anyways, take it to a good workshop and get it thoroughly checked and the problem properly diagnosed.

[Perez]

hey pkumar

had a similar problem with my m800 a couple of months ago, turned out to be a bad fuel filter and dirty carb that needed an overhaul. Got the filter replaced and carb overhauled and now it runs very smooth

[babe_on_wheels]

Fuel Pump Failure Check for faulty fuse box.
Fuel line blockage cause u just mentioned you had refuelled and maybe some sediments from the bottom of the tank must have choked the line.

Check for the Ignition coil.
Just a few things that come to my mind.

[jat]

Difficult to say at this stage. It covers the whole lot - Fuel, Air and Ignition. However, it can be:
- Loose connection of wiring / Fault in ignition.
- Fuel contamiation or some blockage in fuel system.
- Quite rare but check the air supply system - filters etc.

Do you feel the loss of power after that or everything seems back to normal?

[Ford Rocam]

Would agree with babe here, get checked fuel pump & coil.

[pkumar]

Visited the Ford Service Station. listening to the story the engineer's first impression was it could be adulterated fuel. He had a brief look, and took the car for a test drive. Looking at the smoothness of the drive he believes there should not be any issue with the Fuel Pump. He also ruled out temperature gauge malfunctioning.
He has asked for a detailed investigation of the pump, which i would let him do some other day next week. But he has allowed me to take the car for another highway drive this weekend, with an advice that if at all the problem occurs again, i could tap hard the petrol storage box beneath the car .

[gaurav_diavolo]

This is 99.99 percent fuel pump varnishing melting off. Required is change of fuel pump (accompanied with tank cleaning and cleaning of fuel supply cords and injectors). Replace fuel filter too as a preventive strategy. 7950+250+800= 9000/- estimate. Fuse box issues wouldnt have caused stalking but simply failure to start. Make sure tank cleaning is done with it (simple process) so that left over varnish doesnt flow to your new pump.

[pkumar]

I went for the normal service routine this time, and asked the engineer to thoroughly check the Fuel tank, Fuel pump and whole assembly. Later i was informed that he could see the effect of adulterated fuel in the tank and he cleaned it up nicely. He tells that Fuel pump is completely fine, and there should be no worry about the pump, the injectors or anything else. (Injectors were also cleaned).

Thanks a lot guys for you analysis of the issue. Guess i was lucky to get out of the trouble without shelling out heavily.

[gpa]

I faced the same problem once. I was cruising at 85 kmph on the way to Bandipur when suddenly my engine died. After about 5 mintes, it started back up normally as if nothing was wrong. Later when I got the car checked, the mechanic informed me that the fuel line was blocked with some crud due to poor quality fuel.

Cheers,
gpa

[sgiitk]

My own experience also suggests that fuel may be the most likely culprit. Did you by any chance3 feel a loss of power. If so then another cause could be moisture in the fuel. However, this used to be more of an issue in the carburettor days, I have faced/diagnosed it thrice in my career, but always in carb cars.

[f1fan]

I had the same problem with my Alto a couple of months back. The car just stopped after being driven for an hour and half. Temp/Fuel everything was normal.
Took the car to MASS and they found the culprit to be the Fuel Pump which they say got over heated and hence no fuel to the engine. They changed the part under warranty.