Forum Home / Silverstone - Mon 19th March 2018 / Belated apologies

27/10/2018 13:33:52
michaelcngm
To all those whose sessions were interrupted by me having to have the breakdown wagon out - twice!! - humble apologies. If I could explain, the previous autumn I thought I should replace my HT leads plus the distributor cap and rotor. Whilst doing that, I also thought I should replace the coil with one I had been given, which was reputedly nearly new. Drove down to Silverstone, some 300+ miles, no problem, did the sighting laps ditto, and got half-way round my 2nd session 2nd lap when I got violent misfiring followed by the engine cutting out completely. Red flag, breakdown truck and the rest of the morning trying to trouble shoot. I found that the LT lead to the coil if moved could find a dead spot, so I wedged as best I could and set off on the first session after lunch. Same result :(:(:(. A bit more wedging and I drove all the way home no problem. Further investigation showed that the old coil was perfectly OK, so refitted it. Anyway, a few weeks ago, I went to Sainsburys for fuel, filled up, and on the way into the store carpark, the engine died. Called out the breakdown guy who poked and fiddled, found there was fuel pressure (he'd wondered if it was the fuel pump relay), tried the engine and it started. Drove home no problem. A week later the day before the local MGCC Sunday run I started it up, backed out of the garage and the engine stopped. Restarted briefly, and it stopped again and wouldn't restart. I spent a few days trying to check out the fuel pump relay, got through checking all the electrics without finding a fault, and confirmed I had fuel pressure. As the wise man say, petrol engine needs two things only, fuel and sparks. So I got the dodgy coil reconnected and it started instantly. I now have a brand new coil, so all being well I won't have reason to apologise to you all next year.