After 6 months of painless Z motoring, had my fisrst problem last night.

 

Filled up with petrol, unlocked car (by remote), went to start as normal and nothing - fuel pump primed, all electrical systems working, just no turn of starter motor.

 

Called the RAC, after hunting about checking under bonnet fuses, stil nothing - my thoughts were leaning towards a lose starter motor wire or an imobilser problem. At this point, everything else was working, remote central locking, alarm fob, CD, all ignition lights etc.

 

Then RAC man gets under the steering column and turns the key several times whilst poking some sort of device into the fuses under there. Suddenly I had no power to the ignition at all, everything was dead including RCL and all dash lights.

 

He called a recovery truck then shot off without leaving me any paperwork, reference numbers or anything. I think he knew he'd done something major when poking about and legged it before I could register this.

 

Car is now with Bob at Safe & Sound (luckily he was there at 7pm when I turned up with the Z on the back of a truck), he is doing me a full report when he gets the chance and if its found that the problem was made worse, my already posted letter of complaint will be joined by a claim for the damage.

 

Any ideas as to intial problem & future course of action should this be major are most welcome.

 

Pretty p*ssed off as you can imagine!

Is it an auto?

Could it be something to do with the switch that wont let it start when its in drive?

Run the diagnostic test and see what code you get.

 

Similar symptoms on mine turned out to be bad contacts

in CAS plug.

Similar (no starting) problem with mine turned out to be a loose earth on the starter motor. Tightened up, and no problem starting eversince!

 

StuartR

...my money's on Trevz's answer. The ignition switch in my auto is held together with an elastic band (has been for about 3 years now) otherwise I can't get the key out. There's a lot of interesting stuff associated with the ignition switch - hours of fun.

 

good luck

 

Jack

It's a manual.

 

I think Stuart R is on the right lines for the initial problem, but what the RAC guy did to cause everything else in the dash to fail I don't know.

 

I'll just have to wait for the report - in the mean time I have a Pug 307 auto for three days. This is the worst auto I have ever driven, it can't make up it's mind which gear to be in, and has an alrming hesitation just after pulling away on mid throttle which almost lurches the car to a stop.

 

Can't wait for the Z to be returned to full health!

Worst Auto - has to be the old Mercedes C220 diesel. The only car you had to plan your journey around left turns as crossing traffic was too scarey. I was driving it along the road one day and the glow plug light came on - fancy that, engine running at it still is not hot enough. I chose a tree and ended it's life - the Fleet manager was not amused.

 

Hope your problems are not as serious and you're back on the road soon.