philipreji
New member
Hello folks, this is an injection light problem. Below is the story. Sorry for the long post - I am trying to explain the incident as best as possible.
My car is a 2003 Dec model fuel-injected Uno that has a 1242 cc SPI engine. It is used mostly for short trips in Bangalore city, and the mileage is about 20,000 km. So far I had to change only the exhaust pipe, and the car generally runs fine.
Recently some rats bit the petrol tube near the throttle body, and I had to change that tube. To discourage the rats from further attacks I covered most of the pipes/hoses in the engine bay with wire mesh. Also kept a few tablets of camphor stuck on double-sided tape on top of the air box, clutch housing etc (the idea is - when the car runs the camphor evaporates due to heat, and some vapours remain in the engine bay. Since rats don’t like camphor vapour smell they stay away). The rats didn’t come after that.
However , about three days later (yesterday) I was driving my son to his schoolbus in the morning, and about 1 km from home suddenly the fuel injector light turned ON, and the engine died. Tried cranking again, and the engine started, but as the car rolled forward the engine died again. The light remained On. I got out, lifted the bonnet, removed some of the wire meshes, and all the camphor tablets. When I started the engine again it worked fine, and the injector light went off. After another 2 km I noticed that the temperature gauge is kind of dancing, which was later traced to a loose single-wire temp sensor cable connected to the engine block near the dipstick. When that connector was tightened the gauge became steady. After that the car is behaving well – no issues until now.
(I am not sure whether the temp gauge was erratic BEFORE the warning light came on. The connector perhaps got upset AFTER the engine stopped, while I was removing some of the wire meshes nearby).
Now I have a few questions regarding this incident. (1) The injector light coming on and the engine dying INSTANTANEOUSLY indicates that the ECU might have switched off the engine. But which sensor could generate such a fast response from the ECU? (can’t be the lambda sensor, for example). I had to move around the cables and pipes in the engine bay little bit while installing the wire meshes earlier – could this motion upset any sensors? (2) suppose the temp gauge cable is feeding the coolant temperature information to the ECU also (I don't know whether this is the case in my engine). If the connector was loose to start with, could that prompt the ECU to stop the engine? (3) Or, is it possible that camphor vapour temporarily got into the injector, blocking the fuel flow – but in that case an instantaneous switch-off is unlikely, isn’t it?
I am scared of such instantaneous failures happening again, and I look forward to your kind opinions and suggestions. Many thanks for your time!
Reji
My car is a 2003 Dec model fuel-injected Uno that has a 1242 cc SPI engine. It is used mostly for short trips in Bangalore city, and the mileage is about 20,000 km. So far I had to change only the exhaust pipe, and the car generally runs fine.
Recently some rats bit the petrol tube near the throttle body, and I had to change that tube. To discourage the rats from further attacks I covered most of the pipes/hoses in the engine bay with wire mesh. Also kept a few tablets of camphor stuck on double-sided tape on top of the air box, clutch housing etc (the idea is - when the car runs the camphor evaporates due to heat, and some vapours remain in the engine bay. Since rats don’t like camphor vapour smell they stay away). The rats didn’t come after that.
However , about three days later (yesterday) I was driving my son to his schoolbus in the morning, and about 1 km from home suddenly the fuel injector light turned ON, and the engine died. Tried cranking again, and the engine started, but as the car rolled forward the engine died again. The light remained On. I got out, lifted the bonnet, removed some of the wire meshes, and all the camphor tablets. When I started the engine again it worked fine, and the injector light went off. After another 2 km I noticed that the temperature gauge is kind of dancing, which was later traced to a loose single-wire temp sensor cable connected to the engine block near the dipstick. When that connector was tightened the gauge became steady. After that the car is behaving well – no issues until now.
(I am not sure whether the temp gauge was erratic BEFORE the warning light came on. The connector perhaps got upset AFTER the engine stopped, while I was removing some of the wire meshes nearby).
Now I have a few questions regarding this incident. (1) The injector light coming on and the engine dying INSTANTANEOUSLY indicates that the ECU might have switched off the engine. But which sensor could generate such a fast response from the ECU? (can’t be the lambda sensor, for example). I had to move around the cables and pipes in the engine bay little bit while installing the wire meshes earlier – could this motion upset any sensors? (2) suppose the temp gauge cable is feeding the coolant temperature information to the ECU also (I don't know whether this is the case in my engine). If the connector was loose to start with, could that prompt the ECU to stop the engine? (3) Or, is it possible that camphor vapour temporarily got into the injector, blocking the fuel flow – but in that case an instantaneous switch-off is unlikely, isn’t it?
I am scared of such instantaneous failures happening again, and I look forward to your kind opinions and suggestions. Many thanks for your time!
Reji
