ignis Sport - engine will spin but not fire - resolved

Paul · Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:02 pm

Hi, long time multiple suzuki owner - genuinely shocked that the car will not start. I didn't know this could happen to a Suzuki?

Ze problem
The key is turned and the engine spins freely without firing.

Im 100% that the engine is turning because I put it in gear and gave the key a little stab to make sure and sure enough the car moved.

What happened
I left the car in a garage for a month with the battery disconnected

Came back today, connected the battery and put the key to start it

Cranked the engine and I'm pretty sure it fired just to the point of starting and then all symptoms of having any spark at all dissapeared.

What I've done
Opened the fuse box under the bonnet and had a good look in there, relay 2 is missing and the fuses don't match up with the order in the book. What the?! do all your cars miss relay 2 as well? and are the 15 and 20 (iirc) fuses for EFI and something else the same as your owners manual?

I'm going to try and pull some error codes - I don't know how so I need to find out first.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Paul

Paul · Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:28 pm

I took the airbox off, took the coil pack cover off (the slim black plastic shield) and disconnected the loom from the coil packs.

Turned key, same result.

Something wrong with those. New question, how to test if the coil back is faulty or if the problem is in the loom that is coming to the coil pack? I'm googling for tha answer but thinking that this could also be a fuel delivery issue as well. I'll check fuel supply before blowing anything up with a multimeter.

Any advice from someone who knows what is up / has seen this before is appreciated.

Thanks
Paul

Paul · Tue Jul 19, 2011 12:46 pm

The method for testing the coil pack itself is a bit ... .. ... too much scope for someone like me not tooo handy with a multimeter to get it wrong.

I pulled a plug out of the head, plugged it to the cable, sat it on the rocker and fired the engine just a tiny bit.

Didn't see any spark so im still thinking its a spark problem.

I don't think it is fuel because the plug came out with a petrol smell + I can hear the pump priming itself when I flick the key. Hmm hmm hmm, still thinking about relay 2. Any one know what relay 2 is for? I can't find it in the user manual.

Thanks
Paul

Paul · Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:04 pm

Paul wrote:still thinking about relay 2. Any one know what relay 2 is for? I can't find it in the user manual.

I pulled out relay 3 and compared, relay 2 looks like a blank space from the factory. All the fuses in the engine bay are fine and so are the ones under the dash.

I just think its strange that both coil packs died together?!

Talking to myself is fun

I can appreciate the ignis sport technical forum being dead most of the time on account of the cars never breaknig down ..usually

Paul · Tue Jul 19, 2011 1:12 pm

Starting to think its not the coil pack...coil pack failure generally means misfiring, no power under load and a rough idle.

Paul · Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:52 pm

Got a mobile mechanic to come out and have a look, he checked for and found spark then started on the fuel hose on the manifold.

He pulled it off, i turned the key and the whole thing went up in flames in less than 30 seconds.....

just kidding, somehow the engine just started? fuel was coming out of the hose but the engine ran

it was surreal. Anyway, engine off, pipe on and it runs just as good as it ever did. Mobile mech reckons I'm up for a new pump. I like to live dangerously so I'm going to drive it and see how it goes

I'll also get it tested properly asap. I don't want to change it because there was a hiccup - it might have just been clogged?

What do you guys reckon?

suzi sports24 · Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:16 pm

i think poor fuel, sticking the fuel pump or pressure reg intank? just needed to pump without any restriction on pump to free impeller or air lock in line from sitting without use.

pHr34kY · Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:38 pm

The car has redundant coils. Mine died and only two cylinders stopped firing.

I'd probably also wait to see if it's a recurring problem. Perhaps the fuel lines de-primed while it was sitting there (although I'd suspect that would only be a problem for about 5 seconds of turning the key).

Paul · Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:52 am

No idea, what the actual problem was but its been running perfectly ever since his 'fix' there is no misfiring / loss of performance. There was just some hiccup between the pump and the manifold or between the manifold fuel return and the pump but its all gravy now

Paul · Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:39 am

I got more details on this later on, apparently there was air in the fuel pipe that's all it was. I haven't had any issues with it now 8 months later

igsport · Sun Mar 04, 2012 10:02 pm

Did the ignis suck some air when the fuel tank was low or something - like on hard cornering??

Paul · Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:59 pm

Nothing like that, it'd been sitting for a month so i guess the lines emptied out? IIRC the tank was close to E because I was thinking the fuel would go 'off' in the 30 days so I didn't want to leave a full tank.