A T4 was delivered to us on the back of a trailer as a non runner. To begin with this van had no communication from OBD to ECU which meant we were unable to any diagnostic tools and find any faults. The loom was exposed. The fuse box and all fuses and solenoids were hanging down and fuses were hanging out or missing. The intercooler had been removed. The timing belt covers were removed along with numerous other covers and wires exposed. The started motor was burnt out. The pump timing was incorrectly set and was completely out of alignment.
Once these faults were identified the vehicle was still difficult to start. We identified that the starter motor had burnt out, this would have been caused by numerous attempts to start it using brake cleaner or engine start as confirmed by the owner and father.
Once that was replaced the stater motor the vehicle was turning over but would not start up. We attempted to read the fault codes but there were no comms between ECU and OBD. The reason there was no comms to the ECU was due to no power being delivered to the ecu’s connecting block. We traced the wiring back so far however the break in the wire was not traced so we have used a bypass wire to provide power to the ECU.
Once power was restored we were able to use diagnostic tools to find common faults. The faults found were the fuel cut off solenoid was faulty which we replaced and the fuel pump relay (103) was burnt out. As a matter of course and to ensure clean fuel was being delivered to the injectors we replaced the fuel filter.
Once this was done the vehicle started up but was running very lumpy. We checked the pump timing which was completely out of sync. We stripped the pump timing belts down and reset all the pump timing to the correct position. The vehicle then started first time and was running perfectly.
We then put back and tidied up loose wires and engine parts so the customer didn’t have to worry where they came from.
To say this was a nightmare van is an understatement so much so that we may not accept any more break down vehicles unless we impose a minimum charge and customers are made aware that these repairs take time and effort to trace and fix.
