PLEASE HELP!!!! Tank is Battling!!!! Arrrrgggghhhh

[Bigrig]

Howdy

just sent a PM to Tony, but not sure if he is online, and quite frankly, how f'ing rude of me on Christmas day!!!! lol .. below is what I sent to him ... essentially, I'm in the dark, car has gone on the blink, and I'm supposed to have 4 kids and 3 dogs in a car at 9am in the morning to spend Christmas with the family up north ... any help would be mucho appreciato!!!

Hey mate - sorry to bother you on Christmas Day, but having a (shall we say) slight issue with the patrol ... if you're around and have time to throw a suggestion at me, all good - if not, absolutely no dramas. Leaving in the morning for Hervey Bay and just a bit concerned to run it - literally been running fine, just went and filled with petrol (was running on LPG when I got there, but had started on petrol and switched over once warm on the way down). Got back in the car, and no go - wouldn't start on LPG. Thought must just still be a bit cool as the station is just down the road, so swithced to petrol - nothing doing there either, so back to LPG and after 10 or so seconds it slowly burbles to life. Ran it home rather than risk rooting around at the petrol station on LPG, and once I got home switched to petrol - burbled and carried on, and when I hit the accelerator, it sort of seems as though it's going to stall and then picks up the rev range (blowing a heap of black smoke on the start of acceleration also as though it's running way too rich). It is now also idling at around 11-1200 RPM - switch back to LPG and no burbling or smoke and carrying on, but still ideling at 11-1200 RPM also .. Bit confused mate- and sincere apologies again to bother you on Xmas Day!!

[YNOT]

PM sent Scotty.

Tony

[Bigrig]

Thanks boss - just responded ...

[AB]

Hope it gets sorted mate!

We need to start paying Tony double time on Christmas day...lol

[NissanGQ4.2]

Is this TANKS way of saying merry xmas after putting it through so much water???

[YNOT]

Update for anyone following this thread, this was my reply;

What ever is causing your fault is common to both fuels so is unlikely to be the fuel systems themselves, but something affecting the control systems or ignition.

First thing I would check is the inlet ducting. Start at the air cleaner/ air flow meter and make sure the hoses are all properly fitted, hose clamps tight and hoses not split. You might want to take the hoses off to inspect them properly. If there is an air leak anywhere between the air flow meter and the engine the air flow meter will be sending incorrect signals to the computer stuffing up the mixtures.

Also check the wiring connector to any sensors you can find, especially the one on the air flow meter.

If you have a timing light (I don't) throw it on and check the timing at idle. Failing that see if the distributor is loose and can be rotated.


I've spoken to Scott on the phone to discuss the problem, but at this stage we still have not found the cause of the fault. We will keep you updated.

Tony

[Bigrig]

First thing to say off the bat, is that Tony is a legend - if he can walk a halfwit like me through the steps to follow then he both knows his stuff, and more importantly for me, has incredible patience!!! LOL

Righto - here goes.

Pulled off all the inlet ducting between the MAF sensor and the manifold - all good there (pulled out the MAF also - not much I can do, but wanted to make sure it wasn't clogged up - didn't appear to be from photos I have) .. reseated, checked all clamps, hoses, etc as well as connectors to idle valve and cooling sensors as suggested. Didn't improve at all, and as a last ditch effort (being a computer, no matter how old), I pulled the cable off the positive battery terminal to reset the ECM - left if off for probably 7-8 minutes and reconnected - low and behold, I had (and stress 'had') a fully functional vehicle - not revving at idel (sitting on about 650-670), no loss of power on touching the accelerator, and immediate response right through the rev range ... left it idle on petrol for about 10 minutes with the occasional hit on the accelerator and all good - same for LPG and no problems switching between the two ... thought I deserved a beer (have had buggar all today as preparing for the trip) and stopped the car and went to the mates house across the road to sharpen a machete I have in the toolbox - came back about 15 minutes later, kicked it over first go on petrol, but is back to idling at around 1000 RPM ... soooooo ... did a bit more reading up and apparently you have to have the battery disconnected for a minimum of 30 minutes, and up to 24 hours (don't know how true that is though) to not only reset the ECM, but to clear all associated errors that it had registered ... alas, the positive terminal cable is off and I'll reconnect it in the morning and see what happens ... keep you posted ...

Oh ... and did I mention Tony is a legend?? Thanks a million mate!!!!

[Maxhead]

i know it can take up to 24hrs to discharge the cap in the ECU and thats what I usually do as well. I have heard tho you can speed this process up by having your lights on when terminal is disconnected,
Keep us posted mate.

[YNOT]

Thanks for the praise Scott, but we haven't fixed it yet.

Tony

[Bigrig]

Well .. strange one to say the least ... reconnected the positive terminal this morning and car is obviously completely cold - starts on petrol literally on first crank (which is normal) and then sits on about 900RPM and over the first minute or so as it warms, idles down to about 630-650RPM. Bootiful ... switch over to LPG and the same ... sooooo ... stop the car, restart it and low and behold, straight up to 1050 RPM on petrol and holding ... stays there for about 2 minutes before it ever so slowly starts creeping down to eventually (after about another 2 minutes) dropping to just on 600RPM (even lower than before) ... no black smoke though through any of this so appears it isn't O2 related now (ish) and hence not punching too much fuel through ..

How bizarre ... could I have a faulty ECU? or to drop it to something really basic, could the air filter need cleaning/replacing? Anyways ... feeling a little more confident (at least on LPG) to run it up to Hervey Bay - I'll get the old boys mechanic to have a squiz at it tomorrow whilst up there, as when we come back, we are only here for a day and then off to Sydney for a week, so obviously want it sorted before that ...

Thanks for comments all, and thanks again Tony for your time and input (any more would still be appreciated though!! LOL) ...