Hi all, Well lately whenever I start my car it struggles to start, but it starts! It's not that loud squeeling starter motor sound, it just sound normal but it struggles to start! After that for about 20sec I have no power like i go to take off like normal and i just crawl? Help needed! Cheers Kingyvl

My VL doesn't like to start when the Tank is getting lower than 1/4 Full and is often VERY weak first off if its getting towards empty. When I've got a full tank it starts first go and has no problem with power. I just bought a new Fuel Filter this afternoon and I will probably be replacing it this weekend so I'll tell you how I go. Also, can you smell any fuel after you've been driving it? :?

I have similar problems, it will start ok (struggles a bit to keep idle but keeps it) when its cold, and it wont have any power for about 1 minute of warm up time (running it at 2000rpm)

mine started poorly for about 6 months until the CAS died. even when warm. Perfect after CAS was replaced.

Mine was doing the same thing for a little while, and then the CAS died... it turned out to be the fuel pump that caused it though because it had been making some noise and then all of a sudden stopped pumping. I'd check the fuel system out and maybe just replace the fuel filter while you're there.

Ta fellas, I will have a look at everything you mentioned. I do have a kill switch to the fuel pump! hhmmmmmmmmmmm. Cheers Kingyvl

Hey dude i had exactly the same problem on my car... it turned out to be a faulty throttle position sensor... yet the fault didn't come up on the ECU fault codes... so if u haven't solved the problem, u might wanna check it out

hehe i did a self-diagnosis on the vl the other day. i cant rememebr the faults exactly but it was like 13, 23, 11 and 31. some of these i can remember being pretty bad like a bad throttle sensor or something and that the temperature sesnor was shot but it seems to be working fine on the dash. wot tha! i just realised something... my km's clock has stopped on 280236 the other day... and i dont know if it died before i did the self diagnosis or after? could the self diagnosis stop my km's clock from working?! btw, anyone got a spare vl exec dash? preferably with a tacho and voltage (and do u get the km's clock from the other car with it or does the dash simply cover the clock?)

I *THINK* the temp sensor for the dash, and the sensor for the computer are different .. so even tho the dash is working, the computer may still not be seeing the proper reading. Also it could be a wiring thing perhaps. And no, there is no way the test can be linked to your odometer, the odo is cable driven from your speedo. I've had one of those units apart before, theyr 100% mechanicaly driven. If you dont mind pulling your dash apart (be *VERY* careful of the speedo, touching the needle can throw it out of whack) its probably just a gear out of place or something moved slightly. I think the tacho/voltage dash was actually a berlina/calais thing, but it will of course work in any model .. The km's on the odometer will come with the new dash. so you could upgrade or downgrade your kms with a new dash (I've got an old (broken) one here with 334,000 on it, would make your car look worse if you put that in Mind you, while your changing dashes, it isnt hard to wind the other one forward/backward so you could in theory set the new one's KMs to suit your actual car's real milage. Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

arhhhhh sweet thanx lord-data! heheh nah ill pass on ur instrument cluster ;-) ive posted this in the technical area but while u are here, do u have any diagrams or tips of how to connect the tacho and volts? ive heard the voltage wires are already there but just disconnected for my model.. that rite? and how the hell do i connect the tacho? if wires are supposed to go through to the engine or wiring harness, how do i thread wires through the fire wall? sorry to ask dumb questions

Trust me, its easier than your thinking. All you gotta do is get hold of a new cluster (the whole dash unit comes out in one big unit, you just replace that, rather than swaping individual bits inside it. the tacho dash has Volts, oil pressure, tacho and a digital clock, instead of the old dash's analog clock. Everything on the dash will work exactly as is, EXCEPT the oil pressure guage, if you just swap the unit. Your ECU already knows the RPM, so it knows how to time your injection, so the signal is already present in your cars wiring harness, and the volts it can obviously read from its own +12 line. The oil pressure stuff is half way done for you already. What you need, is a new Oil pressure sender (unscrew the current one from the block, and screw in the new one.. the old one only sends high/low for the Oil light, the new one sends an actual pressure signal). Up under your manifold, taped up to the rest of the wiring is actually another connector, plug this onto the new sender, and tape the old one up where that one was. Then inside your car, when you change the dash over, get the calais/berlina wiring harness (short one, goes from car main harness to the cluster/instrument panel itself) and swap that with your current one. This will make everything work (including "Reverse" light on the cluster). I bought my set of stuff from Phoenix mechanical, sold me a dash cluster (Set to the km's of my choice), the wiring harness and the oil pressure sender. They also show up on ebay as well from time to time, so worth keeping an eye open there. Tis a good simple mod for the lower spec VLs, handy extra guages and also improves the look (better patterning on the calais/berlina dash's).

arh okay.. so that short calis/berlina wiring harness just plugs into the wires that are already on the dash side of the firewall... it doesnt need to be threaded through the firewall to the main fusebox rite...? and where abouts is the oil pressure sender? under the manifold on the block? how much are those oil pressure senders? thasnx again lorddata

Yep. It doesnt need to go thru the firewall tho .. basically your car's body harness comes up to about 15cms below the dash cluster itself and ends in 2 big fat connectors. The harness your exchanging plugs into those 2 big fat connectors and provides the smaller connectors for the dash itself and facia/sateliete switches. Aside from being a bit of a reach in to the dash, its a very simple swap. The oil pressure sender is on the drivers side of the car, well below the manifold .. the original oil sender is fairly skinny, screwed into the side of the block .. look for a blue wire going to it. The replacement sender is much wider and like a barrel, but has the same screw thread. I have no idea on cost, I bought mine as a package with the whole lot .. if you can, try and pick them up together, at least then you know 100% for sure they all suit each other.

your a ****in champ lord-data! ill be looking for the stuff to buy this week and put it in on the weekend. ill put up some pictures aswell ;-) thanx again