18 replies to this topic

[alanc16]

booted it off from a set of lights and got to about 40mph and then the car just died, had greenflag out and they came up with nothing on diagnostics, got towed home and car hasnt been able to start since, it sounds like it has no compression, i havent got money to just start buying everything it could be so i need a better answer than, "it could be" please help as i need to get my car on the road this weekend

[btmaldon]

I am hoping its not your cambelt. Id get the cover off and see if its still ok. If its gone, you may as well look for another car.

When was it last changed? I think its 100k miles or 10 years (which ever comes first) on a 1.6.

[alanc16]

Its a 1.8 mate and the cam belt hasn't gone as you can see the cams turning when you turn the key

[Stoney871]

Head gasket or inlet manifold gasket?
Your head may have warped too, Get a garage to do a compression test on each cylinder.
They just remove the plugs and screw a pressure guage into each plug port in turn to test pressures.

[btmaldon]

Its a 1.8 mate and the cam belt hasn't gone as you can see the cams turning when you turn the key

Its good news its not gone. If it had slipped it would probably still run but really rough. Does it still turn over on the starter?

[alanc16]

Yer I'm lucky the belt hasnt snapped haha, took the plus out before and they where soaked, put new plugs in and fully charged the battery but nothing still, fuel rail is not blocked and there's nothing coming up on diagnostics, don't think the head gaskets gone as the oils still perfect, any more idea's?

[btmaldon]

As the the plugs are wet, it may just be your coil pack decided to go and your now not getting any spark.

[Danny87]

Bear in mind that oil in the coolant system is only one of the signs of headgasket failure. It can go in many places, if it goes between two cylinders there probably wouldn't be oil in the coolant system (or 'slush'). That would also cause the lack of compression.

Unfortunately the only way to know for sure whether there's a problem with the headgasket is to do a compression test, remove plugs and scew the tool in each cylinder while cranking.

To test the spark plugs, take one out and connect the HT lead, rest the plug against some metal and you'll visibly see the spark jump - if each of the plugs are sparking and the fuel system is good, there's a good chance the damage is inside the engine.

This is just my opinion, and I have a terrible dose of flu at the minute - so forgive any spelling mistakes.

Dan

[stef123]

Whats the immobilizer light doing? does it extinguish?

[alanc16]

It's getting spark on all 4 cylinders and the immobiliser light goes off after a few seconds so that's fine, is there anyone in the Cheshire area with a zetec compression tester that could help me out as i haven't got any money for 2 weeks and need to get my car back on the road :/

[alanc16]

can anyone help ?

[alanc16]

will be having a compression test done in the next hour or so, will anyone be able to help me with the results?

[btmaldon]

Post them up and hopefully someone can help.

[Danny87]

How did you get on with the compression test? Ideally you want each cylinder to be the same, really small differences don't matter too much on an engine with 100k miles on the clock but it's when there's an obvious difference on one cylinder or all of the cylinders are down etc.

[btmaldon]

If that doesnt show anything up, it might be worth getting a pressure leakage test done if it turns out you have compression issues. That will id where the problem is.