1995 1.3 Festiva not starting

5.8 · 08-11-2012, 12:48 PM

I posted this in the Festiva section but I thought I might get a better response in the pub

I have a 1995 1.3 Festiva for a work car. It has just over 130,000km on it. I went to start it the other night and after initially nearly starting it will now just wind over as per usual but no go. I pulled the fuel lines and checked the filter, all good. When I take the air intake off and put a bit of fuel into the chamber it starts and runs until it uses the fuel and then cuts out. Believing it was the fuel pump I then fitted a new Goss pump to it and it still has the same problem. It happened about 5000km ago and after putting fuel in via the air intake it started and has run fine up until now. Any ideas?

Fiestaman · 09-11-2012, 10:44 AM

If you have checked that the fuel lines are OK and the fuel filter is OK then fuel should be getting to the engine. Since it will start when you pour fuel into the intake it would seem that you have an injector problem. This could be clogged injectors (rare to have them all clog at the same time) or an intermittent electronic fault controlling the injectors. First check that all the wiring to the injectors / fuel system are properly connected and not corroded.(Had a 1.6 Festiva that had a connector on the firewall come loose and the engine died until plugged in again).
If you can't get you car to a workshop take out the injectors for testing. If these come up OK then you will need specialist equipment to check over the electronics.

5.8 · 09-11-2012, 05:14 PM

Thanks for the info. We ended up finding the fault today. It was the wiring on the fuel pump housing. It had shorted for some reason where the pump plugs into the harness clip. No power = no fuel being pumped. 2nd hand housing and a new pump (which I probably didn't need) and the 47 Kilowatts has fired back into life!!!!!!!!!!