Car problem. Any ideas please?!

Hamster

Hamster

Hamster

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Have been having a problem with my car since a couple of weeks ago. When the engine is cold, the car starts without issue. Once i have driven it for a few miles and turned the engine off, the car won't start immediately. It will turn over but not fire, if i'm using the right terminology. I have to wait about 10 minutes before it will start again. During that 10 minutes or so, there is a faint whirring/ticking sound eminating from within the car which will then stop after a few miinutes. I am guessing that when that sound stops the car will start.

I took the car to an auto electrical place nearby and they diagnosed it as having some electrical fault (to be honest i can't remember what they replaced but it cost me £160 + £40 diagnostics). Needless to say i'm not happy as they haven't cured the problem. Took the car back to them and now they say my fuel pump has gone and needs replacing and they would need to empty the tank so i thought i'd live with the problem for a few days until i'd nearly finished the petrol.

After killing my battery in a supermarket car park today trying to start the car too many times (i know, i was being impatient but i had a meeting to go to) the RAC said that they doubt very much it was the fuel pump and if it was then the car just wouldn't start.

Before i take it into the dealer garage, do any of you mechanically minded people have anyone any idea what the problem could be so i might be able to save on stupid Saab garage costs? It's a Saab 9.3 SE turbo if that matters.

Thanks and i hope that wasn't a tl;dr!!
:)
JM
 
My Honda Civic and lots of friends Honda's suffered from the dreaded Main relay fault where you could start from cold no problems but once warm it was a git to start for about 5 to 10 minutes. The main relay on the Honda's controls the fuel pump/s and as such prevented the car from starting until it had cooled down. I managed to fix the problem for myself by re soldering the dodgy solder joints. Sounds like you have a similar problem, where the main fuel pump relay is getting hot, try and find the relay (Normally under the drivers side dash somewhere and see if you can get one from a scrap yard or maybe even take the cover off the resolder the joints.

Either way the relay would be a hell of a lot cheaper than a fuel pump + fitting.
 
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Thanks for replying. I know little about delving into cars since everything became electrical but if it might be a simple fix i'm prepared to give it a bash.

Would this be the relay you are talking about?

http://www.statracing.com/oem-repla...3-SEDAN-004&category=All&part=Fuel+Pump+Relay

I know it's from an American site but i'm sure i could pick up something similar here and if it's not the source of the problem then only a few quid lost.
 
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It dawned upon me that i may have wasted £200 and the repair could possibly be covered under the AA mechanical warranty so i decided for peace of mind to take the car into one of their approved garages for diagnostics and see whether AA will cough up for the repair. It's going to get looked over this afternoon.
 
JoeMama said:
It dawned upon me that i may have wasted £200 and the repair could possibly be covered under the AA mechanical warranty so i decided for peace of mind to take the car into one of their approved garages for diagnostics and see whether AA will cough up for the repair. It's going to get looked over this afternoon.
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Either way, I wouold write a letter of complaint to the garage that "diagnosed" and charge you for wasting your time. They saw you coming by the looks of it.
 
mejinks said:
Either way, I wouold write a letter of complaint to the garage that "diagnosed" and charge you for wasting your time. They saw you coming by the looks of it.
Click to expand...

It was an auto electrical place. They said they ran the electrical tests and found that an electrical coil (whatever that is!) wasn't providing enough current and that that could well have been the cause of the problem which is why they replaced it. I did complain to them, saying i came to you with a fault, you charged me £200 and you didn't fix the problem. They said that it could well be a combination of that problem and a fuel pump that they were wanting to replace next so i guess it would be difficult for me to prove otherwise now the coil has been replaced.

I agree in thinking that were taking the mick and they won't be getting any more business from me as i now think they are just guessing at the problem and i'm not prepared to play roulette. Anyhow it's in a different garage now and i'm waiting on a phone call to find out what the real problem is.....hopefully!

It's been hard finding a garage round here that hasn't done me over at some stage. Saab dealers charge horrendous prices for even thinking about your car and a place i had the clutch replaced nicked some locking wheel nuts replacing them with cheap generic ones. I couldn't prove it but i know damn well they nicked them. Hope i strike lucky with this particular place now even though they did say that 50% of AA mechanical warranty claims get rejected which wasn't very reassuring seeing as though it was AA who told me to use them.
 
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Update - The garage hooked the car up to a computer and couldn't find any fault so are going to investigate further tomorrow. They're not going to charge any extra for further diagnostics, neither are they going to charge for any repairs that don't solve the problem.

However i'm getting rather annoyed with AA as i spoke to a Saab specialist parts retailer today, who used to be a main dealer, and he strongly advised me to stop wasting any more money getting faults diagnosed by non-Saab main dealers and getting bogus repairs done as they don't have the correct official Tech2 software and hardware to diagnose the faults properly. I don't know what this latest garage have been using. He said if i took it to a Ealing Saab, they would take one look at it and know what the problem was right away. He said it sounds like it could be a fault with the EGR valve but couldn't say for certain.
 
mm generally the first thing that the egr valve can do when failing is cause stalling/idling problems. None of which you have mentioned mate :/
Anyways, look forward to hearing what the garage finds.
 
Hmm i've heard about the dreaded main relay problem hondas can have (and other cars ofcourse) but i always thought that was more associated with scorching hot weather, rather than just the engine being warmed up?

Also i seem to recall it being a fault that was easily diagnosed with the clicks from the main relay at each stage as you turn the key? ie if it aint clicking..its buggered.
 
The main relay was OK. The garage diagnosed and repaired the problem today but was considered wear and tear by AA so they wouldn't cough up for it. It turned out to be a problem with the crankshaft sensor which needed replacing.
 
Dratt I was wrong :( but a crank shaft sensor :o I wouldn't have thought that in a million years. When they go its normally night night engine until replaced. Oh well at least its sorted mate. hope she's running fine again :)
 
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