It Won't Start!

[chicosi]

My Galaxy (S reg, 2.3 petrol) wouldn't start at the weekend. It's done it once before and I was very sceptical when the garage I towed it to said it needed an oil change, however I have since discovered this is a known problem with hydraulic tappets. The garage flushed the engine and she's been fine for nearly a year.

 

I managed to get it bump started so flushed & changed the oil. Afterwards she was a bit sluggish to start and hesitated a bit when changing up. Next morning just would not start, not even with a bump - engine turns over fine but will not catch.

 

I've towed it to another garage I trust, I thought about relay 30 but they assure me it's immobilised and because of this they can't get their fault code reader to work. They've tried all my keys and are going to try removing the battery to see if that will reset it. If not, apparently the only option is to take it to a Ford dealer for re-programming. (and we all know this forum's opinions of main dealers and their prices!) That doesn't really explain the hesitating for I assume the immobiliser can't operate whilst the car is running. It may be that there are 2 or more faults at work here.

 

Does anyone have any opinions or suggestions? I've trawled the search facility and although people have had similar problems, none seem to fit mine. Another thing I thought of was the infamous water under the passenger seat. Does the water collect directly under the seat i.e. where the fuel pump reset is because I don't have an electronic box there or am I looking in the wrong place?

 

Cheers in advance

 

Chico

[Andrew T]

When we had trouble with the immobilser recently (because the chip had fallen out of the key) the starter would not turn, suggesting that it's immobilised by disconnecting the starter -or is there a difference between immobilisers on MK1s and MK2s ?

 

After suffering flooding under the passenger seat it ran O.K. but the engine check warning light came on (it cleared the next day of its own accord). I can't understand why it should do this because the ECU isn't under there on later models, just the C/locking control. Maybe there is a connection in the ECU wiring loom located there ?

[chicosi]

Thanks for the reply

 

I'm not sure how the immobiliser works, but the engine turns over fine.

 

I'm pretty sure mine must be a late 98 model with the module under the dash instead of the passenger seat.

 

I'm pinning my hopes on relay 30 but won't hear anything from the garage until Monday at the earliest

[Steven.Langdale]

I'm pretty sure when my old galaxy wouldn't start, due to relay 30 being knackerd (dry joint - soldered it and it worked for months after) the engine would turn over but the fuel pump would not start.

 

Do you remember if you could here the fuel pump going for a few seconds after engaging the ignition, but before you started cranking it?

 

Steven

[chicosi]

It was relay 30

 

Thank you to those who took the trouble to reply