Series 2 V6 Won't Start

Hi Guys,

Thought I'd start a new thread in the relevant section.

I started doing some tests tonight with the multi meter.

At the solenoid part of the harness I was getting battery voltage but whenever I touched it against the solenoid the voltage dropped to 0.

I found the inhibitor relay and changed it and whenever I touched the solenoid part of the loom I had a reading of battery voltage, when I put the car in gear the inhibitor works and gives 0 voltage at the solenoid.

Whenever touching the wiring harness against the solenoid post on the starter motor there is no splash and no sign of arcing. When putting 12v straight to the solenoid it pulls in sharply. I have had the starter apart and cleaned it but it appears to have made no difference.

When testing continuity from the solenoid post to the starter motor feed there is a very low resistance.

I am assuming there is a high resistance contact between the inhibitor relay and the solenoid or between the feed and the relay.

Has anyone had any symptoms similar to this? And if so how did you cure it?

I am going to find out tomorrow where the high resistance is and run a fresh cable either from the fuse to the relay or from the relay to the solenoid unless anyone knows of any specific weak spot on the car.

Regards

David.

This post has been edited by David Hallworth on March 17, 2009 12:25 am

I remember reading on the net somewhere that someone with problems similar to yours traced the fault to the connections at the under-bonnet fuse box.

Thanks Jan,

I have looked in the under bonnet fuse box and can see where there is 1 socket that has melted.

It looks like the fuse has been moved by a previous owner into a spare port on that box.

Someone on XM-L also suggested the plugs under the LHM tank. Fingers crossed I can find something when I get home from work again this evening.

David.

That'll be the socket for the airco/heater blower

You have a fully charged battery. Voltage at the inhibitor relay, but no voltage at the other end of the wire to the solenoid, right? It will turn out to be a dodgy connector or faulty wiring, of course. The trick is to nail it down. The wiring diagrams are difficult to read as you keeping flicking back and forth between 'engine' and 'starter' and try to find out what connectors there are and where. Grrr
I hope you will get it fixed soon!

Hi David

I have had this trouble with my MK2, it turned out to be a dirty corroded contact arm within one of the relays under the slam panel, all that happened when i turned the key was the relay under the arm rest and one under the glovebox clicked along with the one under the slam panel but no starter or starter solonoid action.

I am going to go out on a limb now and give away the all time best John wayne top tip for finding an electrical, or more specificaly a wireing fault, have an assistant operate the system with the fault, in your case the starter, keep the key turned to the starter position while you go to the engine bay and, without putting any body parts in anything that could remove them , wiggle all wiring, fuses, relays, and terminals, this method has never failed to source the problem and i believe is the one used by Citroen Dealers.............Keep it to urself mind .

D

Well the car finally started.

There appeared to be a break in the wiring between the relay and the starter solenoid.

I've had me dad listening to relays whilst I've been engaging the key and vice versa incase either of us missed anything.

After removing the old wire and running a new wire from the relay to the solenoid and engaging the starter it started first time.

There's soon to be a Series 2 V6 24v for sale with LPG and lots of new parts shortly.

David.

You DID get it fixed! Congratulations