broke down – boo hiss

 The Moggy just cocnked out on me – the first time I’ve ever broken down when driving a car.

The other day when I was driving along the A505 the car faltered and carried on. As if the fuel supply was interrupted. The engine was just getting warm as I’d driven a couple of fast miles. Afterwards it was fine and I was sitting along at 55mph. The car had gone from Luton to Leighton Buzzard a couple of hours earlier without any issues.

Twice this week mum has started the car and within the space of 10 meters the car has died. I’ve been called out and got it started again. There is no fuel smell so it’s not a case of inexperience with chokes.

Just now I was driving along in a 60mph zone accelerating and doing 50mph. I’d only driven about a mile. The car faltered and I couldn’t get it to pick up so I put it into neutral to see if I could rev the engine to bring it back to life but when I did so the engine died. I pulled over and after a short time managed to get it to start.

Thinking it might be a bit of crap in the pipes and seeing the amount of muck in the float chamber I fitted a fuel filter yesterday. I couldn’t spot a piece of flexible pipe before the fuel pipe (it’s the standard electronic SU pump to my eyes) so fitted it after the pump. That way I would also be able to tell if there was fuel after the pump if the car died again – to try and narrow down what the problem was. When the car died today there was fuel in the filter so the problem is the pump or before the pump.

My logic says it’s unlikely to be crap in the lines because once it’s died and been brought back to life the car runs fine. So it must be electrical but again it’s odd that it’s fine afterwards. Unless the problem has just started and is going to get worse over time.

These fuel pumps have points don’t they? Possible those wearing out or in need of adjustment?

Each time I get the car started again I hear the fuel pump do a lot of clicking. It’s not until it does this that the car starts again and it does start instantly. I’ve assumed this is the pump priming itself or doing something similar which is why I initially though it was a blocked pipe before the fuel pump.

I’ve yet to look for another fuel filter in the car as I’ve not had the chance. Maybe there is one someone else has put on and that’s dirty. I’ll also look for a bit of flexible pipe on the car to fit one before the fuel pump.

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