Sudden cutting out, then works again

[Clifford Pope]

This is 240 with a simple mixer open-loop system.

It has been working perfectly for several years, but this morning after filling up I started off on petrol, switched to gas, it ran for a few seconds then suddenly died. I switched back to petrol and it ran perfectly.

The 4 green lights were on, and it had apparently switched to gas after blipping to the usual 2000 rpm, and the petrol light went out. But obviously something was sticking because no gas came through.

I tried again a few minutes later, and it did the same.
However after I had later stopped to fill with petrol and started again, it would switch over to gas and then ran perfectly for the rest of the journey.

I hate occasional faults that fix themselves. Is there anything I could usefully check, or is this just one of those things, down to weather change, not used for a couple of days, etc ?

[Father Adam]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

This is 240 with a simple mixer open-loop system.

It has been working perfectly for several years, but this morning after filling up I started off on petrol, switched to gas, it ran for a few seconds then suddenly died. I switched back to petrol and it ran perfectly.

The 4 green lights were on, and it had apparently switched to gas after blipping to the usual 2000 rpm, and the petrol light went out. But obviously something was sticking because no gas came through.

I tried again a few minutes later, and it did the same.
However after I had later stopped to fill with petrol and started again, it would switch over to gas and then ran perfectly for the rest of the journey.

I hate occasional faults that fix themselves. Is there anything I could usefully check, or is this just one of those things, down to weather change, not used for a couple of days, etc ?

Have you checked the level of water in your expansion tank?

[volvobaggen]

Maybe you have wax deposits in a solenoid causing it to stick? Have you serviced your lpg system and changed filter in your lpg-solenoid? Opening it should theoretically give some indication if there is any wax in the system.

[mad matt]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

This is 240 with a simple mixer open-loop system.

It has been working perfectly for several years, but this morning after filling up I started off on petrol, switched to gas, it ran for a few seconds then suddenly died. I switched back to petrol and it ran perfectly.

The 4 green lights were on, and it had apparently switched to gas after blipping to the usual 2000 rpm, and the petrol light went out. But obviously something was sticking because no gas came through.

I tried again a few minutes later, and it did the same.
However after I had later stopped to fill with petrol and started again, it would switch over to gas and then ran perfectly for the rest of the journey.

I hate occasional faults that fix themselves. Is there anything I could usefully check, or is this just one of those things, down to weather change, not used for a couple of days, etc ?

it can happen some times after filling you may have over filled the tank that can jam the valve its happend to in the passed hope this helps

[Clifford Pope]

Thanks.
I have serviced it at intervals, but never found any dirt or wax, and nothing is ever drainable from the vapouriser.
It has been fine since, so presumably as ypu say just something sticking and then freeing. I have sometimes found the indicator lights stick on empty after refilling, but then suddenly something clears, but never refusal to turn the gas on before.

[mad matt]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

Thanks.
I have serviced it at intervals, but never found any dirt or wax, and nothing is ever drainable from the vapouriser.
It has been fine since, so presumably as ypu say just something sticking and then freeing. I have sometimes found the indicator lights stick on empty after refilling, but then suddenly something clears, but never refusal to turn the gas on before.

yep sounds like your tank vavle is playing up sounds like the flot is getting stuck and it will alow the tank to feel more than 80% full and jaming you out let vavle i word be thinking ov changing the tank vavle unit

[Clifford Pope]

Point noted. I''ll try and get by for a bit. I have a feeling that before long the insurance company may start requiring that I get the car registered under this new system. Originally they were happy with a copy of the installer's invoice (Dutch) , but that must be 10 years old now, so I am half-expecting to have to take it to be checked and certified.

Then I'm thinking perhaps the tank wouldn't pass, because of age (unknown), and it might be sensible to scrap the small one in the boot compartment floor and get a larger toroidal in the spare wheel well.
And then perhaps the vapouriser - do they last forever? It's all expense in a car that's done 290,000 miles.

[mad matt]

as things are the is no need to change the tank as age does not matter for now wot car is it on?

[Clifford Pope]

1992 GL estate.
I know fitting an open-loop mixer system on an injected engine with catalyst isn't now regarded as ideal, but it's what they did then. And as it's June 92 it's tested on the old carburettor emissions levels so it doesn't really matter whether the cat works or not.

It has been working normally since the glitch, but I'm taking the point about overfilling. I notice that the garage pump changes its note when the tank is getting near full, so I'm stopping at that point now, not letting it try to squeeze in the last drop.

[Clifford Pope]

It's just done it again, after running perfectly for nearly a year, in the same circumstances.
As I was filling up I noticed that the garage pump was running briskly. Normally that pump is quite slow, but the warm weather seems to have rejuvenated it.
Usually I can detect a change in note as it nears full, and I stop at that point to avoid over-filling. This morning however the pump went so fast it quickly filled the tank and then stopped with a jerk.
On restarting it wouldn't change over. All 4 green lights plus orange were lit, petrol light went out, but no gas.

Presumably this is likely to be the solenoid on the tank, not the one at the vapouriser? Are there any tricks for re-activating it - thumping the tank with a mallet, or would releasing the pressure in the pipe from the tank at the vapouriser end to create a pressure drop across the tank solenoid encorage it?