very hard to start.

hello,

I have been giving the task of fixing my neighbours car, as she cant afford to take it to a main dealer,

so far i have changed a few things and now i have finally got the EPC and ECL to go out, however now it will not start very well at all / if at all.

First off she said the EPC and ECL came on about 3 weeks after the mot and she took it back and they reset the fault codes and they then stayed off for about 200 miles then the EPC light came back and the ECL later on.

I have a sealy eobd reader that gave 2 codes of lambda sensor (after the cat) and the map sensor,

so i changed both of these, this was fine for another 50 miles then the lights came back and the car started to stop responding to throttle commands (i guess a limp home mode) if i stopped and restarted the engine i could do another 5-10 mins of driving befor it would shut off again, this time the codes said long term fuel trim and throttle high and low circuits.

I have now changed the throttle body, for another one from e-bay, this has removed all codes once the engine is running.

After a few hours of playing around i chacked the battery and it was not holding charge well at all, so i used my car to assist the starting, after a very long time (5 mins) of running at 250-500rpm it sprung to life and was fine,

I then drove it for a mile or so to see if all was well. so far so good

Today i have changed the battery for a new one (HB013) and now she does not want to know she runs for 4-5 seconds at 250 rpm then stops. the EPC light is still off and the ECL is showing the pre cat lambda sensor, i reset the light again and it has not come back yet, however she will still not start.

I have looked through the threads on here and i see you have to recal the Throttle, can this be done like on the rover turbo's where you press the throttle peddle 5 time etc when in a set mode? (my experiance is with 80's mg turbos and rover 800's) would this stop her starting? or just make her run badly?

all advise is greatly receved

jago