Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

[jpmillington]

Hi, I took my Hunter out this morning (first time for a month) and drove c.10 miles (15-20 mins), stopped for c.10 mins with the engine running and then headed back home. After about 2 miles I felt the car losing power and then the engine cut out. The engine turned over, but would not start. As it happened, I was about 100 yards from a garage I use, so pushed the car to the garage. The mechanic came out, sat in the car and with some hefty use of the accelerator the car started pretty much immediately. The engine was now running smoothly. I'm feeling a bit stupid!

So, I thought I'd try to get home. After about a mile exactly the same thing happened, loss of power, engine cutting out and I just managed to pull into a lay-by. I then tried to start the engine - no luck. So, I called the break-down service I use. After about a half hour and just before the truck arrived, I decided to put the key in the ignition and standing outside the car (i.e. no use of the accelerator) I turned the key and the engine started immediately. So, I drove the car onto the truck, got taken back to the garage, drove off the truck and into the garage! Feeling even more stupid!!

My Hunter has a 2.3l Ford engine and is an automatic.

Obvious thoughts are fuel issues (old fuel, fuel pumps, condensation on cold morning etc) and electrics. The garage have had the car on the ramp - nothing obviously wrong and have run the engine for well over an hour with no issues. My car has 2 fuel pumps - is this normal - think I've heard of this before - I think when I had some work done on it 10 years ago or so?

I've never had this happen to me before. I'm assuming there's no diagnostics hook-up (the garage can't find one) and Terry at Marlin appears to confirm this. I'm waiting to speak to the workshop at Marlin to see if they can help at all.

Has anyone had something like this happen to them? I'd be grateful for any thoughts.

Regards

John

[Gareth]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Electrics? I've had a coil do this, breaking down as it gets hot. Also the condensor in the points, but you've probably got electronic ignition...I always go for the electics first.
Gareth.

[jpmillington]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Yes, thanks Gareth. Come to think of it, I had an old Ford Cortina with that problem - breaking down on the motorway with me messing with the points and the rotar arm etc

[davidmartin720]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

I have a 1996 Hunter with 2.1 injection Ford engine and mine seemed to have no power. The first garage checked whether any faults were shown by hooking up to the ECU, they said nothing wrong and runs well. There is a 3 pin connection [red plastic plug which has to be removed]under the bonnet down low, and another one inside the car by the passenger foot well. I still was not happy as the engine seemed to be in "Limp home mode" at times. The second garage spent time on it and said the ECU showed a fault with the Lambada sensor. They checked it and found nothing wrong. Tried the car on the road and it went really well. The car now runs differently, although they said they did nothing. Was it the disconnecting of connectors, or just taking out the Lambada sensor and putting it back. Just in case you ever find after working on the car the engine turns over but does not fire, listen to see if the two pumps run, [one in the boot, sometimes in the petrol tank, another HP one under the bonnet], if no noise, check whether the safety switch in case of turning the car over has not been activated. The switch is in the passenger foot well by the door hinge. I hope this helps David.

[jpmillington]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

David, many thanks for this thoughtful reply. I’ll follow this up. Regards

[chris_cussen]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

I would suspect the coil breaking down when it is hot. That is assuming the engine is a DOHC with EFI. That engine does not have points although it does have a distributor. The spark timing is done by the ECU, the distributor just sends it to the correct cylinder.

[peterboat]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

I have the same engine in my Hunter it has a coil pack per cylinder not liable to all fail? Have a look at the crank sensor it is the bit that controls the ecu for firing the injectors and the coils. If you go on the Ford Granada forums their was last time I looked lots of stuff on there.
I used to own a garage and crank sensors are known to fail when hot then work perfik when cold. Easy cheapish fix
When my fuel pump failed [only one HP on my car] it did not restart and again at the garage when pumps failed that was normally it for good!

[jpmillington]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Peter, Chris, thank you both. I look into this. John

[billjackson54]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

In days of yore when I owned and drove a Sierra, on a trip with the elderly parents on board my engine lost power and cut out in a very similar way....so I phoned the RAC and sat at the roadside to wait. Upon arrival the friendly RAC "man who can" twiddled the key and the engine fired up...red faces all round. However, the guy went on to check a few things and finally diagnosed a worn pushrod....the fuel pump on that car was mechanically driven from the camshaft and the pushrod turned out to be fully 11mm (half an inch for the unmetrucated) shorter than "new".....under lload the pump was therefore unable to provide sufficient fuel to pull the car along, hence symptoms and failure, seemingly cured after a rest and restart. I think the replacement he supplied from stock was £8 back then and the car went on for another 40k without further related troubles.
Now I'm guessing your 2.3l engine is a V6 with a single cam....perhaps using a similar fuelling set-up...or not..so this may be totally useless information...and if so I apologise, but the symptoms you describe are so similar to my experience, I thought it worth a mention.
best wishes, Bill

[peterboat]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

In days of yore when I owned and drove a Sierra, on a trip with the elderly parents on board my engine lost power and cut out in a very similar way....so I phoned the RAC and sat at the roadside to wait. Upon arrival the friendly RAC "man who can" twiddled the key and the engine fired up...red faces all round. However, the guy went on to check a few things and finally diagnosed a worn pushrod....the fuel pump on that car was mechanically driven from the camshaft and the pushrod turned out to be fully 11mm (half an inch for the unmetrucated) shorter than "new".....under lload the pump was therefore unable to provide sufficient fuel to pull the car along, hence symptoms and failure, seemingly cured after a rest and restart. I think the replacement he supplied from stock was £8 back then and the car went on for another 40k without further related troubles.
Now I'm guessing your 2.3l engine is a V6 with a single cam....perhaps using a similar fuelling set-up...or not..so this may be totally useless information...and if so I apologise, but the symptoms you describe are so similar to my experience, I thought it worth a mention.
best wishes, Bill

The Hunter has a 2.3 four cylinder fuel injected double overhead cam engine fitted into Granadas and galaxies, It was built as a new car and had to meet the emission standards of the day. Mine has a high pressure electric fuel pump to feed the engine.
The Hunter is a new car or mine was in 1997, it has a little plate on it next to the chassis plate from ford powertrain products everything on mine looks brand new [ its done 35K ] and has always been garaged.

[jpmillington]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Thanks both. Peter is right about the engine. I spoke to the Marlin workshop yesterday and they said they had seen a similar issue with a Hunter. The solution was to clean out the filter at the rear fuel pump. I can’t look at this, as the car is at the garage, but I have passed on the information to the garage.

[dogoncrazy]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Any progress?

[jpmillington]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Yes!

Just retrieved the car from the garage - seems to be running well and the garage has given it a good run as well (the proprietor likes taking it out!). Fuel filter and crank sensor replaced. Time will tell if all is OK, but let's hope so.

Thanks everyone for your interest and advice/suggestions.

John

[peterboat]

Re: Marlin Hunter - engine cutting out

Glad its been sorted it was typical crank sensor behavior when they are going down