Hi all, I am in quiet a pickle as I have been to 2 mechanics in Brisbane, Australia.
I recently bought a Holden Barina 2001 Hatch that looks to be having issues when starting. I will provide an much detail as I can remember in bullet points.
When purchased:
Cold start was easy enough with my foot slightly on the accelerator.
Warm start would be very hard to get it going.
Took it to a mechanic to diagnose..
They changed over the oxygen sensor as it was reading back. That's the only code.
I had this replaced and because they couldn't work out why it was still doing it. They suggested to put some Nulon Extreme Fuel Injection liquid through the fuel tank to give it a clean. They also wanted me to replace the spark plugs and coil packs as they were both worn out.
After using the fuel injector liquid. It was not the opposite. This time harder to cold start and easier for warm start.
I also can't get the radio working. So I pulled the radio fuse out to check and noticed it looked fine so I put it back in.
It wasn't long after this I noticed something was a bit funny. When I started the car, the needles on the dash were all jolting up slightly back and forth a couple of centimetres. Not sure why it was doing this and one night my interior light wouldn't turn off for some reason. The boot also have issues with not opening anymore.
Anyway, I tool it to another mechanic to give it a general service and have the spark plugs and coil packs changed over.
They said it doesn't look like it completely fixed the issue. So I drove it out of the shop and got down the road a little bit nothing none of my needles on the dash had moved. They were all stationary. Needles being the speedometers, temperature, RPM ect.
So I pulled to the side and turned off the car and tried to turn it back on. Car didn't start.
The mechanic came with a battery jump starter to see if that was the issue. Unfortunate it didn't do anything. It was clicking as though it wanted to kick over but with no luck starting. He sprayed some liquid in the engine while starting it to see if it was a fuel issue. It showed signs of life briefly which from that test he thought it could be the fuel pump..but the next day after trying to start it multiple times with his colleagues. He was able to get it started and moving. And since then has been acting normal..so is honestly lost at what might be going on here and isn't sure if it's going to do it again to me and just die.
I really need some thoughts on this as it seems no is sure what might be going on here. I have currently been running the car turning it on and off but don't really want to go anywhere in case I get stuck with a car that won't start again.
Suggestions please..thankyou!
Well I start with another mechanic is that guy doesn't seem to know what the heck he's doing. We mechanics can easily figure out if it's a fuel problem or an ignition problem or say an internal engine problem using our equipment. That guy doesn't know what the heck he's doing. You could be losing spark. You could be losing fuel. Lots of things can do that and it's a mechanics job to figure out which one. I couldn't hazard a gas without actually seeing the thing and analyzing it, but find a good mechanic. Ask your friends who they use and they'll be able to figure it out. It's not rocket science. It's just logical deduction from someone who understands how the machine operates
