TRAVELLING ESPRIT MAN (MON) - HELP!!

[Erikl]

Yeah - I want you to run 12 volts to the fuel pump and then try to start the car

[Rambo]

Me too.

[madmax]

I want to do that too but it won't stop pi$$ing down with rain - it's absolutely relentless!

[madmax]

The saga continues although the clever guys on here may be glad to learn that a direct electrical feed to the pump allows the car to run - Feel like I need a 'Can of Hope' like Johnny Smith has when he discovers barn finds on his Late Brake Show.

Also thanks for the comments from @sailorbob and others who suggested it might be due to an aftermarket alarm and/or immobiliser. That's the only thing that's not yet been tried and excluded, so I'm hopeful for a solution around that.

What's the situation with factory fitted immobilisers on our cars around 95 vintage?

I know these Esprits use Vauxhall/GM keys and Fords of the day had a small transponder within the key that only allowed the proper key to talk to the car but I don't have any experience of what GM were offering back then. Do they also have electronics within the key?

A month later since the breakdown and I feel like I've made no real progress -  although I'm glad that the car didn't appear to have any fault codes stored and other parts of the system check out ok. If nothing else, I also have a new fuel pump and now a working spare should I ever need it.

Thanks again for all your help guys - invaluable!

[Escape]

You have made progress, you've got the car to run!

If the immobiliser is only affecting the fuel pump, it's easy enough to take it out of the equation. See the diagram on the previous page, if you can find the immobiliser (I do not know the location myself, limited experience with an S4) you can just take it out of the wiring for the fuel pump. Or you can put in a new wire from the inertia switch to the pump and another one from the pump to a good ground. Easy enough to do, might just take a bit of effort to make it a clean install. 😉

 

[sailorbob]

PM'd about the factory alarm.