The weather here in the UK has been quite changable just lately, even more than usual!
We have been having some very cold days with lovely clear blue skies, great for driving, but now it’s getting wetter as we move into springtime. All the rain and wet weather has been taking it’s toll on the kitcar (don’t forget I drive it to work everyday, not just dry weekends) and it’s not been firing very well.
First of all the car stalled on my way to work. I managed to pullover safely but the car wouldn’t restart. Two hours later then AA show up an diagnose the fault to the the ignition coil. This coil is what makes the spark that ignites the fuel, so if that’s broke you ain’t going nowhere… got a new coil the same day and it was fine… for a month or two!
The next time I was driving along a 70mph dual carriageway in the outside lane in pouring down rain and the engine spluttered. up oh! Yep it stalled and once again I managed to over safely, this time it did restart but it was very erratic in the low revs. I drove home in low gears and made it back. Now I realised there was an ignition problem so I renewed the HT leads, distributor and rotor arm. Still wouldn’t start. Bummer.
Now thankfully I was able to use Alisons car to get to work as she got a lift to work one day and was away on business another, this gave me a bit longer to fix it up not that it helped because I still couldn’t get it going. I decided to call the AA again (this time they arrived in 10mins, I was shocked to say the least). The AA man sprayed some “duck oil” (a lot like WD-40) all over the distributor cap and it stared first time. Excellent! At times like this I don’t mind paying the AA membership fee.
So next time I know, before renewing the leads, cap and arm just spray WD-40 all over the distributor cap!