Cav cutting out

[ronnie1995]

Hello there,
I have recently (since passing my test last wednesday) been having problems with my cavalier.
On sunday I had to drive though a big puddle (not that deep) so i took it carefully but at the same time kept my speed up, then i felt it losing power so put my foot down to get out and swerved into someones driveway as it cut out, i gave it a few mins to evaporate the water and it took a bit of time to start properly so kept the revs maintained below 3000 to help get rid of the water, but once i put it in drive and drove off for a second, it cut out again, followed the same procedure as before but couldnt get going as battery was starting to go, luckily it was a safe 30mph area in a village so waited for my dad (a mechanic) to turn up, an hour later he got there hooked the jump leads up to his passat, after a few revs he jumped out unhooked the leads then i drove off and it was fine....

The on tuesday eve i went to pick up my nan as her corsa's lights are playing up again, on our way to hitchin from where she lives i hit a pothole as i was moving aside to let one of these people that drive right up ur backside at night past. and it cut out, tried starting it, nothing. switched off the fans, radio etc and tried again, it took a while to start but finally got going. So yesterday (wednesday) i got my dad to put a new battery in it as i thought that could be the cause since it sat in the car for a few months while it was off the road.
However today it was driving fine, but when i finished college and went to reverse out of my parking space, as soon as i gave it a bit of throttle to help it out it cut out again, also i'd filled it up with £10 of fuel this morning, went to the shops at lunch (around a mile round trip) when went to leave college the red fuel light was on. however it did dissapear once i'd driven about half a mile.

So very strange, and worrying for me as i dont want it to happen when driving at higher speeds as the powersteering also goes when it happens.

Anyone who has an idea of what it could be, your help would be much appreciated.

[Gaz]

any lights on the dash while its running? does it just cut out at random or does it only do it when your slowing down?

Have you got access to a multimeter?

Are the battery terminals tight?

[ronnie1995]

any lights on the dash while its running? does it just cut out at random or does it only do it when your slowing down?

Have you got access to a multimeter?

Are the battery terminals tight?

No lights on dash while running. Just cut out on those 3 occasions so far, the first 2 being when slowing down, but today when i was reversing it was when i put my foot on the accelerator to get out of the parking space.

Took my car yesterday to my dad's garage and he put a new, bigger one in, and put a battery tester on the old one and he said it was fine.

Also I forgot to mention that its an automatic.

[Lowrider Dave]

Earthing points clean and tight?
Fuel starvation?

[ronnie1995]

Earthing points clean and tight?
Fuel starvation?

I think so. But not sure, where are they?

I put £10 of fuel in it this morning and have only driven it 5 miles max today since then.

[planetc]

Forgive me, but which engine are we talking about? £10 for fuel is nothing these days, I am not surprised you have the light coming on again already. The cold weather tends to increase fuel consumption too.

[ronnie1995]

Forgive me, but which engine are we talking about? £10 for fuel is nothing these days, I am not surprised you have the light coming on again already. The cold weather tends to increase fuel consumption too.

It's a 1.8i.
Just got off the phone to my dad and he is going to get a set of spark leads an a distributer as he says it sounds like its failing.

[Cavalier342]

Might not be this, but just a thought... when it cut out, and you turned the ignition on again, did the dash lights come on as they should?

My auto did the same thing when I went through a deep puddle, but the ignition loom or switch started smoking, as if something shorted out and I was unable to restart or do anything. Don't know if you got water in the alternator and it screwed something up.... The way you describe it is very similar to what I've experienced.

[ronnie1995]

Might not be this, but just a thought... when it cut out, and you turned the ignition on again, did the dash lights come on as they should?

My auto did the same thing when I went through a deep puddle, but the ignition loom or switch started smoking, as if something shorted out and I was unable to restart or do anything. Don't know if you got water in the alternator and it screwed something up.... The way you describe it is very similar to what I've experienced.

Yes, the lights came on the dash again like they usually do, they were flickering when it started cutting out when going through it, but no smoke for me thankfully, just the steam from the engine.

I noticed a mk3 astra did the same thing as my cav when it went through as i noticed its hazard lights come on and steam pouring out from it just slightly ahead of where i stopped, but he seemed to get it going ok a couple of minutes later.

[planetc]

Forgive me, but which engine are we talking about? £10 for fuel is nothing these days, I am not surprised you have the light coming on again already. The cold weather tends to increase fuel consumption too.

It's a 1.8i.
Just got off the phone to my dad and he is going to get a set of spark leads an a distributer as he says it sounds like its failing.

Certainly a decent idea, more likely to be moisture ingress than anything else. C18NZ caps are more resistant to it than the older ones. The older Lucas distributors were a bugger for corroding, which was the first thing that sprung to mind and hence why I asked which engine.

[ronnie1995]

Hi there,
Had the spark plugs, leads and distributer changed, while removing the old distributer found out that the wrong one was put in by the previous owner (or his mechanic) as it was the carb version therefore the pin going into the leads wasnt there.
Also one of the sparks were cross threaded so someone along the line didn't know what they were doing.
Anyway, it hasn't cut out since, so hopefully problem solved.