Hi after stalling her car a seicento shumacher the engine light as come on and this morning she says it jutters and spluttered before going back to normal.<br />
Will taking the battery off for 15mins help reset it and if not what can be done.<br />
She needs the car as shes self employed and takes her daughter to school <br />
Any help to solve this would be gratefully received

Pop the bonnet when its dark and look for random sparks.

Get it plugged in

D

It could be a duff coil or loose HT lead. It'll be interesting to see what an ECU scan comes up with.

You can test the coils by removing the HT leads (in turn) and connecting them to a spark-plug that is earthed against the engine block (it's better to not remove one of the car's plugs.... and also, wear rubber gloves/hold the plug on the block using the HT lead so you don't become part of the national grid for a few seconds).

If the plug sparks then all is good.. If it doesn't, do the same test on the other plug that is connected to the same coil. If that doesn't spark either, then it's the coil. You can "prove" it by swapping the coils over and repeating the test. The two plugs that sparked will no longer spark, and the two plugs that didn't spark, now will.

No spark at just one plug can only be a duff plug or HT lead.

If all the electrics/sparks look good then it's a fuel issue... but that's another topic by itself. See what the sparks looks like first.


Ralf S.