RR P38 Starting Problems

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qq7

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Hi all,

I have a 1998 4.0 litre SE manual transmission P38 which I have had LPG converted with a multipoint sequential injection system. It has been running fine for 18 months but has recently had starting problem.

You turn on the ignition and try to start, it may start perfectly, or it may just turn the engine over and no signs of life in the engine at all. You can then turn the ignition off, wait 10-15 seconds and try again, this time it may start fine, or not and so on. No warning or failure lights show to indicate any problems.

I took it to my local garage who have the proper LR Testbook software and they said it checked out without any error codes showing (apart from a problem with one of the blend motors) but as they were not familiar with the gas systems, then perhaps I should get the gas system checked over. I took it to the chap who did the gas conversion. When I picked it up, he said that there were 2 problems that had shown on the diagnostics,

-the camshaft position sensor was not working properly and he had sorted that out and also
- his system was flagging up a "ignition timing relay" problem although he had spoken to LR and they had been unhelpful in providing him with any information, so that problem still existed.

He said that the problem with the relay meant that if it failed to start, this was why you had to wait 15 seconds for this relay to reset before trying again. Looking through the Rave discs and Autodata books, I cannot see any relay mentioned as the ignition timing relay, so I don't think LR were being purposefully unhelpful, just didn't understand what he was after.

Immediately after taking the RR home, it did seem a lot better and would start mostly first time and if not first, then second. It now seems to have gone back to mostly not starting first time. :mad:

I have replaced the ignition relay, starter motor relay and fuel pump relay, but still have the same problem.

Any ideas of what the problem may be, or where to look?

Regards,

Chris.
 
There's no such thing as an ignition timing relay, timing is controlled by the engine ecu via the crank sensor, cam sensor and knock sensors.

is the bad starting on gas, petrol or both?
 
Thanks for the clarification, I didn't think there was such a device.

I can only say for certain the problem occurs on starting with petrol. I tried a sequence I was given to switch the gas system to enable starting directly on the gas, but I was not convinced the sequence switched it to start on gas first. If the sequence did work, then the problem occurs on both gas and petrol.

The sequence I was given was :

Ignition on.
Set gas/petrol switch to petrol.
Ignition off.
Ignition on hold gas/petrol switch down until there is a constant yellow light.
Start engine.

Regards,

Chris.
 
Just to add, it has the same problem starting from cold, or restarting 1 minute after turning off.

Regards,

Chris.
 
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