Engine won't start on cold damp days, no other problems at any other time. Not a sniff of potential HGF woes on this one and I intend to keep a close eye on coolant/rad/hoses/etc after learning my lesson with the last Rover!
Fuel pump kicks in, engine turns fine, just doesn't fire. A liberal dose of wd40 around the distributor cap and exposed ht connectors followed by 10 minutes wait usually cures it. Having searched the forum there are several stories reporting similar problems, the recommended solution usually appears to be one or more of the following:
1. renew ht leads
2. renew spark plugs
3. renew dizzy cap
4. renew rotor arm
Ours is getting 3 and 4 done tomorrow by our mechanic friend who suggests these are most likely to cure the fault. Does anyone have an opinion on whether there is a genuine design fault in one or more components on these cars which is likely to cause wet starting problems? I've known other breeds suffer from similar faults, but seemingly not as commonly as Rover.
Thanks,
Ed.
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Remove and measure end to end resistance of all HT leads including King Lead. Clean Coil body. Clean all spark plug ceramics and if resistance OK clean inside of plug caps. Clean all leads and examine for cracks. If you do not replace the leads put all the old ones back on then that evening when dark spray hole system with water ( hand spray pistol and watch engine whilst someone else turns it over and look for sparks/ ironisation to identify cause. Having said that if it really just does not file at all I suspect King Lead, Coil top or Dizzt cap tracking to ground. At 83K I'd through all the leads away. Regards Peter
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I can't believe a 1999 car has a distributor?!
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As Peter said,but its usually coil short that causes it in wet.
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Steve
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My wife ran through a deepish puddle in our 416 & it spluttered & died. It restarted 10mins later & got her home but refused to start the next day. We changed the dizzy & spark plugs only & it burst into life with a tow start & has ran fine since for the past month.
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Not much point in testing HT leads if you have no values,reject any over 20K ohms.Before spending money on new ign.components try a can of ignition sealer.My car dislikes damp mornings,and going fast through a deep puddle will kill it,but this stuff doescures it by doing what it says on the tin-'waterproofs auto-electrics'.
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sierraman. But he will have values ie are they all indicative of the length of cable. Usually between 1 ans 1.6K per 300mm. Ignition sealer is only worth using if everything is spotless clean, if used on dizzy can it can actually cause tracking. Identify and rectify not just spray a can of something at it. Regards Peter
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Sorry for delayed response...
Distributor/Rotor replaced, no problems since. But then it hasn't been very wet recently! I guess we'll have to wait for a downpour and then try starting it. We'll investigate leads/plugs as per advice above if continued problems.
Many thanks for all your replies and advice.
Ed.
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Distributor caps and rotor arms have quite a hard life. One of the few mechanical parts in 'modern' electrics. By now it will have operated several million times. At 83K replacing is a good idea anyway. Often distributor caps can look OK but have very fine imperfections that wet atmoshere will expose. On hot summer days they can tolerate less than perfect conditions. Probably best to replace both parts every 40K anyway. Usually only £20 for most cars. Classic case of a little over-protective maintanance paying dividends in an older car.
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