1990 Non Turbo ZX

Please can anyone give us some ideas as to what could have gone wrong?

Car has been sat on the drive for a couple of weeks and was then driven 10 miles and put in a garage running fine no probs at all, then.....

48 hours later went to start it up and its running like a complete sack of!!

It won't tick over, if you put it into gear it stalls it misses and sounds awful

Thanx please dont get too technical as we are new to this

Just thought I would update you all as you were so helpful when it broke, since december I have learnt a lot...

1)I never thought it could be so difficult to find a willing victim to try and fix it!!

2)Said victim improved it to a point where I stupidly thought it might drive home :o

3)The smoke, smell of burning, complete lack of power and brakes, led to probably the quickest exit from a car EVER :hyper:

4)The top of a slip road on the main exit to a town centre is not a good place for this to happen :D

5)Luckily it never made it on to the "was it you" thread

6)Enter victim number 2 his Z drives so this has to be better than mine

7)Within 3 hours of car being transported to his house,he thinks I ought to have a look

8)I can safely say I did a fantastic job of blowing it up

9)Credit card company rub their hands with glee :D

10)One engine now being put in.....Watch this space

How did you manage to blow it up ?

No water ?

No Oil ?.

too much boost ?

check the ecu for fault codes.

 

http://www.ttzd.com/tech/diagnostictech.html

 

this site is good,

 

http://www.twinturbo.net/ttnettech/tech.aspx

It would have been easier to tell you what I didn't break ;)

Its bodily fluids were intact ! It would appear that the timing belt jumped 5 teeth (this was caused by a collapsed bearing in the guide roller) this then caused at least 2 bent valves, 2 snapped valves, 2 brand new spark plugs cut clean in half, a bent camshaft and a piston with a hole in it.

At that point it was decided that another engine was more viable

Victim number 2 has said that it was the biggest mess he had ever seen

Holly Engine Batman.

 

Hope your next engine dont give you this much greif.

 

Hope mine never blows. cant afford a new one. easier at the moment to just buy a new car on tick

Mine jumped five teeth recently, i didnt drive it when as it ticked over so rough,towed it to SE who said i was lucky, i think it was caused by one of the screws that the P.T.U is tightend to fell in my fault i thought it would just drop to the bottom and stay there lol.

I totally agree that a new car would have been cheaper, but when it already owes you a fortune what do you do ???

I should know later tonight if it now runs or not :bow:

Nearly a year has gone by,minor probs with starter motors, water pumps, new bank of injectors but other than that it was ok just seemed a bit lumpy, but it ran...the car wasn't used much (loss of confidence springs to mind) but hubby has started it regularly etc etc, so thought today I would take it for an MOT (what a bad idea :headvswal ) the latest problem is... when its warm it won't start, it turns over but won't actually start, but when it cools down it starts, it appears to be missing and smells hot (possibly its over fuelling) but bearing in mind I don't think it has ever run spot on its hard to say, is there any common things that go wrong?? BTW it passed the MOT but now daren't use it again, I really do think if we can overcome this problem it might be ok cos lets face it there are no original bits left on it :confused:

forgot to add, that this was the first time I had took it out alone since my freefall run down the parkway...I am now banned from taking it out alone

Pretty sure your hot starting probs are the ptu,

Hope this helps.....good luck, you sound like u need it! ;)

got to agree, it certainly sounds like your PTU.

 

Vijay

just reading all this thread and thought "funny i didnt notice all these replies"

then looked at the original date of your problems, you certainly should get the award for longest ongoing problem with your ZX:(

i was going to say good luck, just hope your mechanics live long enough to sort it :shock:

Thanx will have a look at PTU tomorrow, yes I would think I do win the award for most problems (its the only award it will ever win, except perhaps most times on a breakdown truck), I can laugh about it now but it was a little stressful as it blocked the MOT stations doors and laughed at me, think its worse now its actually got MOT again but still not happy to take it out!!