[00111R]

Hi everyone.

I wanted to ask if anyone would have advice on what to do with a Z16SE MK4 I got. Its a 2001 caravan, with the 62kw-ish Z16SE engine in it. The last few months, it began to cut off each time it warms up to 90 (indicated on the dash), and wont start until it cools down. (It will spin over, but wont start).

After a bit of googlin', I found a few solutions, most of which i have tried:
Fuel pump relay (Replaced all engine bay relays with a new ones because i didnt know which one is the fuel pump relay, but i made sure to check i was putting in the right ones)
Changed the Temprature sensor
Changed the crank position sensor (old one had metal shavings on it, and was a little scuffed from something, not to mention a lot of gray.. paste buildup on it.)
Cleaned the breather tube and the throttle body (Quite a lot of milky gunk, i think the headgasket is shot, the engine is capable of eating through its coolant tank in two months)

After i replaced the relay it stopped doing it for a day, but then the problem returned. It was in a garage and they used a diagnostic tool on it, it didn't give them any codes and they ''couldn't replicate the problem.''

Could anyone give me some advice? I heard it could be the ECU, but the diagnostic didnt give them any stored codes, so i'm not sure. And if it is the ECU, are there any ways to.. bypass the problem? I'm not sure if its worth it sending the ECU out for a pricy repair with no warranty because the shops in the country I live in dont give warranty on repair jobs like this.

 

[nova16sv]

if i had to guess, i dont think its ecu related.
a lot of the time, these ecu's throw codes, even when theres no problems.
if it was, it would most likely crap its pants and throw codes, if something failed badly enough to stop it running.

i had a similar problem to this on an old ford fiesta, years ago.
it would fire up, straight into life when it was cold, and drive ok-ish for 20 mins, but as soon as it warmed up, it would suddenly start to splutter and die shortly after, and that was it, it wouldnt start again, only crank over.

i had to leave the car for at least 3 hours, for it to go stone cold, before it would start again.

i never actually fixed the problem, cos i didnt know much about cars back then, but i later learned, that it was most likely an issue with the ignition system. the advance / retard / spark timing control, side of things, to be more specific.

your car could have a bad wire, or poor connection somewhere, thats controlling something to do with the ignition. could be a split in a vacuum hose.

it could also be something completely different tho.

what happens, right before it cus out.
does it just skip a beat suddenly, and then flat line, or does it start spluttering, and tries to stay alive, but eventually dies ?

 

[00111R]

Thank you for your reply, nova16sv
The car was on a diagnostic yesterday and it gave me the following codes which im not exactly sure what they mean.
P1600
P1550
The codes were deleted but the started doing the same thing a day later. Over the weekend, i'll be looking into the engine bay electornics connectors to see if something is faulty there, like a corroded connection on something, like the ecu.
One more thing I need to mention: The previous owner was a bit of a.. special guy. He added underglow and daytime lights using stuff like those plastic connectors that look like lego bricks (I removed that stuff as carefully as i could). The AC rad is gone as are the AC lines, apparently those ''fell apart'' and i didnt question it since it ran fine for 4 years. However now with all the problems its having, maybe that is a part of it?

 

[cmurf36]

P1600- reprogram or replace ECU .
P1550- Throttle body/TPS error.