FTO AUSTRALIA

Hey guys,

Weirdest thing happened to me last night.

Was driving my manual gpx 95 home last night at about 3am home.

After about 20 minutes driving at about 60-80 kmph I entered the Monash freeway and reached 100 kmph. After 5 minutes at 100, I had to turn off the freeway and as that was happening the fto shut down on me.

Initially I noticed when I pressed the gass the revs would climb but woulnd translate into the speedo – even though I was in gears 5, 4 and then I tried in gear 3.

I noticed the yellow engine light flicker on for a few seconds along with the oil light (I think it was the yellow engine and red oil light, it all happened so quickly). I then pulled up on the exit ramp and stopped the car. Before stopping I also noticed the alternator guage drop real low. I tried to restart the car and the starter motor would tick over energetically, as usual, but would never start the engine.

Called RACV to get me towed.

1 hour later tow arrives, I test my car and the car starts. The tow escorts me home, about 10 minute drive and there are no issues what so ever! Drives as usual. (I suspect the car cooled down over the 1 hour time – maybe a heating issue?)

Admittedly I am on the very bottom range of the oil stick – so I topped up the oil today. The radiator is okay, timing belts look fine, alternator belts look fine. Clutch works as usual.

I had a mechanic look at it briefly today and he couldn’t pin point – he effective said it could be anything and had no idea.

Any ideas??

Man that sounds weird..

But did u need to post 3 times.... Lol.. Go and delete some topics..

So apart from oil, what were the other fluids like?
When did u last do fuel filter?
When did u do 02 sensor?
What was your volt gauge reading?

If alternator, it is possible it is shirting out.. I am having this in my GSR/Evo.. Alt was not kicking in.. Then volts went down to 9.something.. Which screwed the tune in the ECU.. so it ran rough and a little smoke came out..

Then, it started working again.. And was at full charge.. Then the other night, it shorted out and is dead.. But yeah, battery light was flashing and so too where the gauges..

Apologies, didn’t realise it posted 3 times…it was taking ages to submit, must have clicked ‘submit’ a few times.

Drove the car for another 20 minutes last night, drove fine.

At the time of the incident, radiator fluids were all fine.
Last fuel filter was changes around 12 months ago I would say.
O2, I haven’t changed it for 3 years - since I bought the car.
Vault gauge dropped off, it normally sits at 13-14v but when the car shutdown it sat there for a few seconds then it dropped off to below 8v – similar to when the car is parked.

Thing is I replaced the alternator about 12months ago and has been working fine. For some reason my instinct was that the alternator shutting off was a side effect/consequence of other issues in the vehicle.

Can an fto put the car into idle if the ecu deems the oil levels are too low??

Hmm.. Tricky..

Nit sure if the Alt causes a check engine light.. That's why I asked about the 02.. Apparently they are meant to be changed more frequent then what people do.. And that is one of the simple things that throws on the CEL..

If your battery dropped to below 8, that would explain why the car shut down.. Voltage dropping that low can make an ECU reset itself.. I know it makes aftermarket ECU's dump their tune.. So think it may have put your car into a protection mode..

Check your alternator belt.. Make sure it is bot slipping.. Or getting stuck.. If the Alt is only 12 months old, it should still be good..

How often do u drive the car?

Check for corrosion on your battery terminals or if they are loose.

check your fusable links...

definatly check nothings loose, sounds like a short somewhere, check your earthing points

Update – car is driving as usual, no problems.

I have been keeping a close eye on the temperature, voltage and CEL lights/gauges when driving and nothing suspicious is happening.

I was thinking maybe I need to enter the freeway again and drive over 100kmph to see if anything plays up/changes - replicate the scenario where the car initially shutdown.

Rock_it - I drive the car daily, probably 15km per day @ 60kmph.

Battery looked fine last time I looked, but will check more closely along with earthing points.

Cheers,

Update – had the gpx shutdown on me sat night!

Damit, so annoying I had driven the car for around 5 minutes and it conked out on me. Fortunately this time I made a video of me trying to restart the car straight after it shutting down - might be helpful.

I eventually start the car and drive it back home, however I had to wait around 5 minutes before it actually started.

Youtube vids below…If you don’t want to click the link search for:

FTO Shutdown –part1 & FTO Shutdown –part2.

Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghZc1v10Zlo

Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0pEDir6_fk

Cheers!

btw, immobilizer was turned off at the time as someone suggested it might have been playing up.

check battery load first then alt, providing terminals are all good there is a lack of power there

Update - fto don’t even start any more :[

Its progressively gone from stalling now and then while running and then having trouble re-starting for a few minutes. Now however its completely dead.

Currently, its ticking over quick dynamically but just wont ignite. Went sniffing to see if unburnt fuel was coming out the exhaust, but I would say it is only marginal.

Checked battery load and alternator – everything fine there.

Still clueless, and now totally immobile which sucks.

Update – had the local auto elec come down.

He mentioned there is plenty of spark and electronics are all fine, just that no fuel is entering the system.

Possible issues:

1. Fuel pump relay
2. Fuel pump
3. ECU issues (he mentioned this is the worst case scenario however and its unlikely as there wouldn’t be any spark coming through)

Have been doing a little research for possible fuel pump replacements:

WALBRO GSS341 255 LPH
WALBRO GSS342 255 LPH

Is anyone familiar with which one is more suitable for a manual gpx…or recommend a better fuel pump?

On the net it advises:
“THE DIFFERENCE WITH THE GSS342 TO THE GSS341 IS THAT THE INLET AND OUTLET ON THE GSS342 ARE ON THE SAME SIDE. WHERE AS ON THE GSS341 THE OUTLET ISN'T ON THE OTHER SIDE (CHECK PICTURE), WHICH MAKES IT EASIER TO FIT APPLICATIONS THAT THE GSS342 CAN'T.”

Cheers.

ummmmmmmm

Fuel reg?

Cheaper and easier part to replace first...

hmm, 'entering'... hard word to interprut without knowing full well what he meant.

For the FTO you want the 342

I had a similar issue a while back, just for hell of it check your vacuum sensor.

Have a look in this thread for details.
http://ftoaustralia.com/v3/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=19460

Update – fto mobile again.

Had the car towed to the sparky and he worked on it for 2 days.

Apparently they tested the fuel pump and the relay all good, the issue was with some corroded connections between the relay itself and the pump so they repaired all impacted connections.

However the same day they fixed the connection issue they said a seal in my clutch went and all the fluid drained out :/ they had to refurb the part and stick it back in.

All up $500.

I drove it home no stress today (2 min drive) but I am going to take it for a longer test drive later tonight to see how it holds up.

Personally have mixed feelings about the whole job, don’t feel confident its been resolved. Good news to is that’s its running I guess. Ill see how it holds up tonight.

The batt voltage in first video seems very low. The cranking of engine sound horrible.

Thought id keep all updated.

Seems to be running okay following around 4 hours of drive time. Hope it stays that way.

I was on the Monash yesterday and it was raining and wet and i noticed my FTO was slowing down so i put my foot on the accelerator and the revs went up but the car didnt move so i had to pull off to the side. I put the car in park and then back into drive and it was fine after that i had no idea what happened. It was like i had hit the auto into neutral... Im thinking my cars low on transmission oil..
Hope everything is okay with your FTO goodluck