Hi All,

 

I'm new to these parts and looking for a little help with my wife's car. The car is one of the last of the MkII's  a 64 plate 1.2 petrol 3 cylinder. The car has been fine with no issues, noises, or lights. She arrived home yesterday and then tried to go back out 30 minutes later. The car cranks but does not start after multiple attempts. I did some basic checks, which showed the battery was a little low (lots of relatively short journeys), so I removed it and trickle-charged it overnight before investigating further.  

 

The battery was fully charged, which made no difference, obviously; on retrying the start, this time, I got the beeps you can hear in the video (this didn't happen when the fault first started). Oddly enough, the TPMS came on as well, which I assume is probably unrelated or perhaps related to the battery being disconnected.

 

I did some digging, testing common issues I've found on other cars (I hadn't noticed the oil light at this point), testing coils (fine), replacing spark plugs (they needed doing anyway), and checking all the fuses, battery connections, and grounds. I also checked the oil which is fine, I did a service on it this time last year with no issues.

 

I have a fault code reader coming via a friend tomorrow, but I wondered if there are any common issues that could be causing this. Any help is much appreciated.

 

Video is attached, the sound is a bit rubbish but you can here it cranking

 

Edited 22 June, 20241 yr by FabiaFiasco

Check fuses 29 (10 Amp) and 30 (20 Amp), which feed injectors and coilpacks respectively.

Could be a chain slip though, possibly. There's a cover over the gearbox end of each camshaft. Remove those and there are some slots in the ends of the cams. These should be at the same angle as each other, and horizontal at No.1 TDC.

Thanks for the speedy response, I'll check that out now and see what's what. Are chain slips common on this engine? 

 

 

Thanks for the speedy response. 

 

Just checked.

 

Unfortunately the fuses are fine. Is there anything else I can check without taking the timing covers off? It looks like a pretty major job for a diagnostic step. Will the obd scanner highlight timing issues?

 

 

The covers in question are held on by a single M6 screw each; I suspect you've mis-understood where I mean.

This is a photo of the gearbox end of the engine, with cam end covers removed, and some flat aluminium plates inserted into the slots in the ends of the cams.

the Allen key sits flat across them with the engine at no.1 top dead centre.

 

I was, I thought you meant the belt side. I'll take a look this morning. Thank you for taking the time to help!

Ok so update here with some pics. They aren't the best as it's a bit tight. Assuming the crescent piece is the end of the cams then they look aligned. I don't have cylinder 1 at TDC though as I don't have think I have the right size bit to turn the crank (still searching). So only can alignment checked.

 

As mentioned I checked the fuses you recommended and they are fine as well. Any other suggestions, could a sensor fault cause this and if so which. As I say OBD scanner otw so maybe that will help... I hope 

Edited 23 June, 20241 yr by FabiaFiasco
Additional info

Cam-to-cam timing looks to be OK 👍.

Crank angle sensor might cause non-starting, and may or may not give a fault code.

Awkward to change though, probably better to confirm crank to cams timing first.

 

Fuel quantity in tank? Any chance of mis-fuelling with diesel?

Edited 23 June, 20241 yr by Breezy_Pete

Chain timing error probably will give a code stored in engine ECU.

Very important to check the cams at TDC because it's the crank sprocket that slips, not the cam sprockets.

Ok further update.. odb scanner results are in. Here is a link to the report (fancy Chinese scanner makes a report!) .

 

If that doesn't work here is a screen grab of the interesting bit.

 

Does that help with diagnosis at all. I'll be googling shortly.

 

 

Yes, the timing chain has definitely slipped on the crank sprocket I'm afraid, you should do a compression test with leak down to determine if the valves are damaged before proceeding any further.

Thanks for all the help guys. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

I thought I had posted this already but I'm going mad.

 

For anyone looking at the outcome of this post...

 

The diagnosis is in. The chain had jumped a few teeth and, unfortunately, in doing so, took most of the valves with it. So you were correct

 

It's still in the garage, but hopefully, getting it back today or tomorrow. New chain and peripheral bits, new valves, gaskets fluids etc, all in just over 1K damage 😞