galaxy starting problem

[webbnick1]

im having a problem with my 1999 2.3 ghia x galaxy.it always started first turn on the key.it recently started taking longer to start then maybe 2-3 mins to start it and now not starting at all unless you bump it.battery is good(ive had it checked)plenty of fuel,rac man said coil pack was u/s so had that changed now have a good spark but still no luck. alternator ok.when driving after bumping it kageroos a bit but driveable.any ideas as im stumpped?

Originally Posted by webbnick1

im having a problem with my 1999 2.3 ghia x galaxy.it always started first turn on the key.it recently started taking longer to start then maybe 2-3 mins to start it and now not starting at all unless you bump it.battery is good(ive had it checked)plenty of fuel,rac man said coil pack was u/s so had that changed now have a good spark but still no luck. alternator ok.when driving after bumping it kageroos a bit but driveable.any ideas as im stumpped?

Supermarket fuel causes your car not to start first time, this is because it's a low frade fuel. Try some Esso or BP and you'll soon notice the difference. I've not used supermarket fuel for 5 years since my cousin told me what they do to it, he's been involved in the oil industry for 25 years, he always tells me to avoid supermarket fuel.

[tweetypie/8]

Originally Posted by Nidge

Supermarket fuel causes your car not to start first time, this is because it's a low frade fuel. Try some Esso or BP and you'll soon notice the difference. I've not used supermarket fuel for 5 years since my cousin told me what they do to it, he's been involved in the oil industry for 25 years, he always tells me to avoid supermarket fuel.

DARN GOOD ADVICE

[Hom3r]

I've used nothing but fuel from Tesco, Sainsburys & ASDA for nearly 10 years and have never had any problems.

---------- Post added at 21:59 ---------- Previous post was at 21:59 ----------

its to the same British Standard

[Graham M]

No problems with Supermarket (specifically Tesco) fuel here, no difference to Esso/BP at least in my car.

[Keyz333]

Mine and My familys Cars, all run on mostly 'Tesco Fuel' and had nothing wrong with them recently.

since my cousin told me what they do to it

What do they do?

[Tali]

Supermarket fuel comes from the same place as a branded filling station's fuel. All fuel in the UK has to meet the right standards and octane level or else Trading Standards will get involved.

[Rob]

All sorts of things could be at fault. Presumably this is a petrol rather than diesel since you are talking of sparks.

Could be as simple as the automated choke settings being wrong. I'd suspect the timing being at fault (pistons slightly in wrong position when the spark fires). Could be as serious as the engine having worn such that there is poor compression and oil getting into the pistons reducing the spark efficiency.

On a diesel the most common cause of failing to start easily is problems with the glow plugs.

Originally Posted by Tali

Supermarket fuel comes from the same place as a branded filling station's fuel. All fuel in the UK has to meet the right standards and octane level or else Trading Standards will get involved.

Go to any decent garage and they will tell you what cheap supermarket fuel does to your car.

---------- Post added at 04:52 ---------- Previous post was at 04:51 ----------

Originally Posted by Tali

Supermarket fuel comes from the same place as a branded filling station's fuel. All fuel in the UK has to meet the right standards and octane level or else Trading Standards will get involved.

It might come from the same refineries but it's stored in different tanks and is not mixed with any other fuel.

---------- Post added at 05:04 ---------- Previous post was at 04:52 ----------

Originally Posted by Keyz333

Mine and My familys Cars, all run on mostly 'Tesco Fuel' and had nothing wrong with them recently.
What do they do?

The big players in the oil industry Esso, BP, Shell, Texaco have oil pipelines straight into their refineries, when they pump the crude oil through the pipes there is a residue left which is of no use to them, the independent fuel suppliers come along and buy this then pay the above ^^^^^^^ oil companies to refine it into petrol, (a lower grade of petrol) for the supermarket trade, this fuel runs at a much higher temprature causing damage to your cars internal fuel burning system.

I've seen engines that have been run on supermarket fuel and engines that have been run on good quality fuel from BP, Esso, Shell and Texaco, the engines that were tun on supermarket fuel where shot to bits, carbon deposits all over the valves, perished valve seats, spark plugs that wouldn't ignite a fag lighter, the engines that had been run on good quality fuel had done more mileage, the internal engine looked like new with no carbon deposits around the valve seats, the valves were hardly scorched basically no carbon deposits anywhere.

When people buy new cars they are told by the workshop manager not to use supermarket fuel as it will effect the cars performance and cause damage to the internal parts of the engine, he also used to tell them that they'll see less performance with supermarket fuel.

[Xaccers]

How's your starter motor?
If your car starts when bumped (pushing a galaxy to start it can't be fun!) then it suggests starter motor issues.


All crude in to UK refineries is the same (there is an established acceptable range for certain attributes). All petrol out the other end is the same (within an accepted range).

The tankers line up, fill up with petrol and then add 'additives' relevant to who's buying the petrol. Therefore the base petrolis all the same there is no concept of Shell say geeting the 'good' stuff.

None of the oil majors owns tankers anymore. They are all sub-contacted out. They may carry an oil companies livery but they don't own or run the tankers. I'm not sure if Tescos own their own tanker or not. Don't think it matters.

All sellers are party to a net fuel agreement whereby they swap fuel if someone has an unexpected shortage. They are one or two fuels outside the agreement such as Optimax but nearly all are in it.

So the only difference between supermarket fuel and branded fuel is the 'additives' unless you happen to be filing up with swapped fuel in which case you could be buying Tescos fuel at a Shell station or vice versa.

The oil majors have never made any claims in their advertising that these 'additives' do anything as if they did they would have to prove it.

[Tali]

Nidge

I think we'll have to agree to disagree, but after working in a supermarket filling station for over 5 years, I can can say with some confidence that the fuel we sold was the same that you culd buy from any Texaco station, as it all came from the same depot, even down to the tankers and drivers that also delived to the local Texaco stations. The only difference would be the additive. And in a tanker which hold in excess of 30,000 litres, the adittive would make up less than a couple of litres.

[Rob]

The fuel may all come out of the same depot - there aren't that many, but within that depot there are undoubtedly different main storage tanks used by different companies. How else would only Tesco and some of the other South East Supermarkets have got the conatimnated petrol problems earlier this year, yet the branded suppliers were apparently immune?

But I thought this thread was about why a Galaxy wouldn't start, not the merit of different fuels

[Vlad_Dracul]

Originally Posted by webbnick1

im having a problem with my 1999 2.3 ghia x galaxy.it always started first turn on the key.it recently started taking longer to start then maybe 2-3 mins to start it and now not starting at all unless you bump it.battery is good(ive had it checked)plenty of fuel,rac man said coil pack was u/s so had that changed now have a good spark but still no luck. alternator ok.when driving after bumping it kageroos a bit but driveable.any ideas as im stumpped?

Not familiar with the particulr model but systems are basically the same from vehicle to vehicle.

Are we saying that its cold starting thats the problem?

If so it could be;

(a) you may have an intake manifold pre-heater which isnt being energised becuase the relay is goosed or the pre heater is goosed. The preheater,as its name suggests,preheats incoming airstream for better running when cold.

(b)More likely,the fuel injection system needs to know whn the engine is cold so that it can adjust the air/fuel mixture when cold for better starting. Usually this is done by a temp sensor which sits in the cooling water flow,either on a manifold or on the engine block. The sensor is usually an NTC resistor which feeds a varying voltage to the engine management unit. When cold,typically it signals the EMU to energise a fuel enrichment device such as a fast idle bypass arrangement around the main air intake throttle valve. This allows the engine to start. As it warms the tempurature changes,the resistance of the NTC sensor varies,the feedback voltage to the EMU varies and so the signal to the stepper motor in the fast idle device varies,gradually shutting off to lowest rate until the engine is fully warmed and the air intake is then fully controlled by the main air throttle valve which is connected to your right foot.

If your not familar with this stuff then take it to a fuel injection specialist. Many small garages dont know jack about this stuff.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by webbnick1

im having a problem with my 1999 2.3 ghia x galaxy.it always started first turn on the key.it recently started taking longer to start then maybe 2-3 mins to start it and now not starting at all unless you bump it.battery is good(ive had it checked)plenty of fuel,rac man said coil pack was u/s so had that changed now have a good spark but still no luck. alternator ok.when driving after bumping it kageroos a bit but driveable.any ideas as im stumpped?

Post your problem here:

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/threads.htm?f=4&

Good luck.

[Hom3r]

What about a cracked distributor cap