QuestionI have a 1997 Land Rover Discovery. The engine started to lose power like it was out of gas and stalled a few times.But when I would start it back up the power came back or if it sat for a while. This occured over about 2 to three weeks. Now it will not start at all. It seem to fire a few times while trying to start it but it will not start. Any ideas on where to look for a problem.
thank you for any help you can give.
AnswerHi Keith,
first determine if you are getting fuel to the engine. You could remove one of the spark plugs and see if there is fuel on the plugs.
If there is fuel on the plugs it could indicate that 1) fuel pump is working; 2) not enough spark exists to ignite this fuel - engine is 'flooding'.
IF fuel is present (you can smell it if you deliberately try to flood the engine) then you have to look at the spark. Its possible that your coilpack has problems. One way to test this is (wear protective gloves) remove one of the sparkplug wires (be organized and start with cyl.8 then 7, ...) and hold it very close to the enging block (solid ground) while the engine is running. You should see a spark as the electricity jumps to ground. Do this will all the wires.
In your case, its more ignition related. Could be fuel pump (random delivery of fuel), clogged fuel filter, injectors fouled, vacuum hose cracked or blocked. It could also be spark related, worn spark plug wires, bad coilpack, loose spark plugs, failing alternator.
SO..first determine if you have fuel delivery then determine is sparking exists. At this point could be coilpack related (I've seen this on my vehicles). Some say the coilpack is more likely to fail over the older coil/distributor combo. If you've not changed your plugs and wires for the past 2 years, now's the time.
Best of luck,
JohnMc
