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1

Omega General Help / Alternator Faulty - or something else?

« on: 15 February 2023, 15:45:29 »

I have a 'barn find' (was my father's old car) 03 plate Omega V6 2.6 with 45k miles that had sat in a dry garage for 7 years that's previously been discussed on this forum with a fuel issue - since resolved thank you - and been working nicely - or so I thought.

I noted that the old battery apparently wouldn't hold charge, so I replaced the battery with brand new one.

I've probably driven 100 miles with it since the new battery fitted over the past week - often with lights on. This morning I came to start the car  - it seemed a bit reluctant to turn over but went off OK. Drove 15 miles to where I was going (lights on) and then couldn't restart it. Left the car to sit for a few hours while in a meeting - came out and it restarted OK. No warning lights for any of this time.

On the drive home - the battery light came on - dimmly though - along with the ABS and EML. I carried on driving. Then - after a few miles some more lights lit and after another mile or two the whole dashboard went dead - no tacho, speedo, fuel / temp gauges - but the car kept going... Drove a bit further and then it cut out entirely...

Charged the battery for 15 mins from a good running car and then started it. This time the battery light came on brightly - and got the car home without further incident.

I expected that a full alternator failure would have brought the battery light on brightly - but given that the battery seemed not to be charging well for the long period - is there anything I or the garage should be investigating.

Thanks

                 

2

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 03 February 2023, 15:27:29 »

So - just to close this one out. The car has been sitting on our driveway for the past 6 months because life got in the way, but this week I've had a need to get it running again. This time I couldn't cajole it at all to keep running so, with no spare time available, I sent it to the local garage - along with a spare fuel pump to fit. 1.5 hours later they came back with it fixed - it was actually a split fuel hose inside the fuel tank - so the original pump was working fine, but most of the fuel was falling back into the tank!

Thanks for all your interest and support in getting this going.     

3

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 22 June 2022, 23:10:07 »

Sorry - I should have been clearer - the EML came on before I unplugged the MAF after going for a bit of a drive to test the thing out on the road - but it has remained on obviously through removing the MAF and re-connecting it.

Yes - the pressure gauge has a flexible hose - I can try that. What's the betting this is just the fuel pump which is what many of you told me in the first place - but it looks a big of a dog to get out with the towbar strengthening in place!

4

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 21 June 2022, 21:14:50 »

Thank you all - very helpful. Disconnected MAF sensor tonight - and car runs worse and strong smell of excess petrol.

EML back on - presume because the fuel trims are beyond the end stops again. Car runs OK, but is a a little lumpy and very gutless.

Thank you for the info about the Schrader valve - I hadn't twigged you couldn't measure the pressure with the engine running - so makes sense now. Will remove plenum and check fuel pressure - but not until after the weekend.

5

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 14 June 2022, 21:58:53 »

Sorry for the delay folks - lots going on here - but managed to find an hour tonight to work on it again.

I've found some software which gives sensible real-time readings of data - scantool.net v1.13.

Mass Flow Sensor at idle reports as 3.25 g/s, going up to about 13g/s at 3000 rpm and after running for a bit - long term fuel trim on both banks is pegged at +25%

The car got as far as running quite reasonably tonight - but still a little hesitant as you pull away from idle - so doesn't feel right.

Full readings at idle
RPM : 638
Load Value : 2%
Timing Advance (Cyl 1) : 4.5%
MAF Sensor : 3.25 g/s
Short Term Fuel Trim (Bank 1) : -8.6%
Long Term Fuel Trim (Bank 1) : +25.0%
Short Term Fuel Trim (Bank 2) : -13.3%
Long Term Fuel Trim (Bank 1) : +25.0%
O2 Sensor 1, Bank 1 : 0.295V @ -8.6% st fuel trim
O2 Sensor 2, Bank 1 : 0.440V
O2 Sensor 1, Bank 2 : 0.685V @ -10.9% st fuel trim
O2 Sensor 2, Bank 2 : 0.435V
Intake Air Temperature 44C
Coolant Temperature 89C

And at c. 3000 rpm
RPM : 3085
Load Value : 9.4%
Timing Advance (Cyl 1) : 34.5%
MAF Sensor : 13.25 g/s
Short Term Fuel Trim (Bank 1) : +14.8%
Long Term Fuel Trim (Bank 1) : +25.0%
Short Term Fuel Trim (Bank 2) : +18.0%
Long Term Fuel Trim (Bank 1) : +25.0%
O2 Sensor 1, Bank 1 : 0.195V @ +22.7% st fuel trim
O2 Sensor 2, Bank 1 : 0.440V
O2 Sensor 1, Bank 2 : 0.605V @ +22.7% st fuel trim
O2 Sensor 2, Bank 2 : 0.440V
Intake Air Temperature 41C
Coolant Temperature 95C

The intake air temperatures seem pretty high given its about 13C outside right now - but I don't know if the air is drawn through the radiator perhaps.

Now to demonstrate my real level of ignorance in public.... I bought a fuel pressure gauge - but for the life of me, I can't find the Schrader valve to connect it to. Most of the fuel injection system seems hidden under covers - and I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to remove... sorry ;-)

Thanks again.




I also

 

6

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 05 June 2022, 23:37:17 »

Another brief update. I managed to get the thing started by reving it hard once started. If I held the revs up at about 5000 for a few tens of seconds it would sort itself out and then run OK at idle. But drive off and it was clearly not right - quite lumpy (much worse in Drive or 1 than Reverse oddly). This is a car which was driving OK prior to resetting the fault codes to turn off the EML. No sign of a lack of fuel to hold it up there - and when the thing stalls - the instantaneous fuel consumption reading climbs (from 0.5 gal / h at normal idle to 1.2 gal / h as it stalls) - so looks like the system is trying to deliver more fuel under these circumstances - though I wonder if this is just a calculated value based on assumed pressure and time injectors are open for?

BTW - tank is 80% full - all new 99 octane E5 fuel and all the old stuff was pumped out and new fuel filter fitted.

No great sense out of the ELM327 reader in terms of getting a real-time reading of Air mass flow - or much else in real time to be fair. It came with EasyOBD and Proscan 5.9 - but when you look in the comms logs when asking for real time readings - there are just loads of 'unrecognised commands'  - so clearly doesn't properly support the GM command set. I'll have a look for some more software options. Any suggestions for what will work and deliver real-time readings with an ELM327 interface appreciated.

I have also ordered a fuel pressure gauge - so will be able to get to the bottom of that soon I hope soon.

Thanks again for your interest and help.

   

7

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 30 May 2022, 23:38:57 »

So - a case of 1 step forward - about 6 steps back..

Reset codes with tool which eventually arrived today and car is now back to the state it was when I started it for the first time after 7 years. Starts, and then splutters to a stop after about 10 seconds. Was running fine prior to the reset (though indicating a bit fuel hungry on the computer - if I believe that).

I have read that it can take a quite a lot of starts to get it running again (would this imply that some parameter in the fuel / air delivery is a long way off from nominal values). I did about 10 starts but battery is weak (it was one I had lying about), so have left on charge overnight for another crack tomorrow.


 

8

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 22 May 2022, 10:23:21 »

Well - I've ordered this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281695229968?hash=item4196581810:g:ZKUAAOSwPKReWoIN for £12.95 which claims to read live data.

I guess we shall see...

9

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 21 May 2022, 18:46:47 »

Scanner ordered....

10

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 21 May 2022, 16:13:35 »

Another update on this. Not having lots of spare time, I got the local garage which did the MoT to give it a basic service. Spark plugs, oil and filter, fuel filter, air filter, pollen filter (FWIW). Then I drove it c. 20 miles up the road. All seemed fine.

Stopped for an hour, filled up with extra half a tank of Tesco 99 E5 fuel (to make it full - original fresh fuel was 95 E10), and then drove the final 10 miles home - this segment on dual carriageway and an opportunity to test it a little harder.. Half way home, the Engine Management light came on. After this, I think I felt a bit of a hesitation when pulling away.

Pedal trick shows error codes 0170 and 0173. 

Anything that the garage did likely to have triggered that? Anything obvious I can do?

Many Thanks

11

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 09 May 2022, 13:56:56 »

Just a quick update on this. I was getting round to ordering a fuel pump, but I got a call from my mate who, after another start, got the car started and running continuously.

On Saturday - I took it for an MoT, and it went straight through. It's still a bit lumpy and will get a service (and if it needs it a fuel pump), but was gobsmacked to get an easy pass for a car which had its last MOT in 2014.

Thanks for all your help and advice. 

12

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 27 April 2022, 20:59:55 »

OK. Thank you folks for all your helpful suggestions. Car is not here with me - so can't react and test immediately, but mate who has it right now put a basic diagnostics tool on it which appeared to connect OK and showed no error codes. I did suggest the pedal trick - but assume nothing showing.

Will try and pop the fuel tank cover and look - slight pain as it has tow-bar strengthening over the top of one corner - but can be done and will pick up new fuel filter.

Since the car starts immediately and runs fine every time for about 10-15 seconds and then stops - possibly with extra fuel being delivered - could this be the fuel pressure regulator? Or is it that the system gets pressurised with enough fuel to start but then can't feed the engine enough even to carry on idling? But does that chime with a pump that happily delivers several litres / minute when emptying the tank to atmospheric pressure. 

Do I need to get a pressure gauge to diagnose this with confidence?

Sorry - I can't kill the the logical electronic engineer fault finding approach in me - especially when I can't just try something immediately.

13

Omega General Help / Re: Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 25 April 2022, 10:05:31 »

Thanks. It is a saloon and has about 3 gallons of fresh fuel in it and is on level ground. The pump seems to run OK - we used it to empty the old fuel out. It took about 10 minutes to shift 50 litres of old fuel. In terms of flooding - maybe - but it starts immediately on first key turn every time and runs smoothly for about 15 seconds before spluttering to a halt.

14

Omega General Help / Barn find starts but then stops

« on: 25 April 2022, 09:10:51 »

My father's 45k mile 2003 2.6 V6 Omega has sat in its dry garage for the past 6 or so years. It has been turned over from time to time. I've finally got round to dealing with it and hoping to get it through an MOT, use it for a few weeks where we'll have a car out of action and then move it on.

Surprisingly - it started in first turn of the key and reversed happily out if the garage stalling once. On third start it ran fine for a couple of minutes. Then on restart it went back to running fine for 10-15 seconds and then spluttering to a stop.

Yesterday I pumped all the old fuel out and replaced it with fresh petrol but the same symptoms persist. When the car starts the display shows steady c. 0.5 gal/h consumption and as it starts to falter this rises to 1.2-1.4 gal/h. So - wonder if it's over fueling rather than starving.

I've only restarted the car about 3 times after changing the fuel - I don't know how big a reservoir of fuel sits behind the fuel inlet on the engine.

I'm no expert on working on cars - rather short of time - but would appreciate any guidance here on realtively straightforward stuff to try - if only to save a tow to a garage!