Technical Marea Injector Light + Engine Failure

[yuri]

Hello all,

i have been searching through the forum trying to find someone with the same problem as me, but i couldnt find any, so here is a new post. There are alot of posts about Marea's with injection light errors, but mine is a bit different.

For the record, i drive a late 1999 Marea 1,9 JTD with 140.000 on the clock. I have been driving with it for some time now, doing about 1200 km
Last week, when i tried to start the car, it didnt start. I was baffled, and thought it might be a battery problem. It wasnt that, cause after trying some time the engine started again. Some time before that i drove quite a bit, about 150 km. But, since the car started again, i didnt think anything from this, also because no error lights where lit.
Then after i again drove some kilometers (not much this time), the car lost power, and the red injection light came on. I couldnt start the engine after that. When i waited along side the road for some time, i could start the engine again, but after like 200 meters, it failed again. Again, with only the red injection light on.
My dad called a collegeau of him which has the same car, and he said it could be one of the four relays that reside just in front of the car's battery under the bonnet. We checked those, taking them out and cleaning them, and put them back. After that, the car started again, and i could drive normally.
Yesterday, when i drove the exact same traject as stated before, the car didnt start again. I was kinda getting pissed off, and did the same thing as before, taking out the relays. Car started again, and is running fine now...
I went to the local Fiat Dealer, and they told me its probably a problem with the temp sensor (sound logical) and they said i had to read out the engine for errors.

I just wanted to post this here, and maybe someone has any good advice, before i throw in money at the local dealer
Could it be the relays? One of them is the Fiat CODE relay.
Or is it most likely a faulty temp sensor, which doesnt let me turn on the engine because it thinks its too hot?
And, finally, could reading out the engine solve my problem?

Regards,
Yuri

 

[polecat]

Hi Yuri,

A diagnostic is usually a good idea if you have a difficult problem as it can save you having to swap out good components while tracing a fault. But I know how you feel about having to pay for one. You could ask for them to deduct the cost of the diagnostic if you subsequently find a problem and have it fixed at the garage.

I am not sure if the diesel electronics shut down the engine if it gets too hot, they can do but usually just disable the glow plugs. RS Pilot may be able to answer this one better as he is our diesel expert.

Next time it fails try cleaning each relay one at a time to see which one clears the fault. It may be worth just changing that one and/or is base first.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

 

[RS Pilot]

As already suggested, getting onto the diagnostic machine will be the quickest way of finding out where the fault is occuring.

Is the starter motor operating when the engine doesn't start?

If the starter is operating, my initial thought would be a leak on the high pressure fuel circuit. You can get a situation where the engine starter motor doesn't crank the engine fast enough (ie 300 - 500 rpm) for the high pressure fuel pump to provide enough pressure for the engine to start. Once started, the engine will run over 800 rpm and the fuel delivery valve in the pump will compensate for the leak.

The engine thinking it's too hot could be an explanation but I am a little sceptical. Certainly the engine management can be programmed to shut down the engine under certain errors however for safety reasons they don't normally use this function (imagine your engine just turning off on a busy motorway). Maybe FIAT have used the software to stop the engine starting but that would be a new one on me.

Going to the relays - If any of them are the same rating, swap a couple over and see if the problems goes away or if another function stops working.

 

[yuri]

thanks for the replies guys!

I swapped the relays for new ones (my marea didnt start today, since i drove the same bit a was talking about earlier) and it didnt help. So i let the engine cool off with the bonnet open, and guess what, it started again... It's so silly, since i just drove another bit (not long) and i just can keep starting the car... So it just has to be a warmth problem.
The thing is, getting a diagnostic done wouldnt be much of a help, since they have to read out the engine when the error occurs right?

 

[polecat]

Some faults latch into the ECU and they might pick up a faulty sensor, etc. Tell them that the fault only occurs when hot and they will do a running test.

 

[yuri]

Hm, its going in for a read-out today, and they will probably replace the RPM-sensor (it has this really difficult name in Dutch, so i wont even try and translate it )
We will see if this has anything to do with it, they say it does. It's not an expensive repair so i'm cool with it

 

[RS Pilot]

From another thread with a faulty Marea JTD, it looks like FIAT are hanging their hopes on the RPM sensor with that too. I hope it works ok for you but it sounds too easy if that makes sense. It may be that they have a warranty alert for this sensor so it's worth getting changed anyway.

 

[yuri]

well, yesterday i had it checked for any errors, and they told me it was the RPM sensor. Changed it, and now they couldnt find any errors... it wasnt all that expensive, so its fine with me. Let's hope it doesnt happen again...
tnx for your replies