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Posting this from the hard shoulder of the M4!
Driving along and the car starts juddering, with revs dropping. Pulled in and it is ticking over badly so decide to turn it and restart. The car catches and runs for a couple of seconds before cutting out. Now it doesn't even have enough power to keep the hazards flashing! Alternator? Something else?
The AA are on the way so typing to keep my fingers warm if nothing else!!!
Last sentence "hazards not even flashing" would lead me toward alternator but first part of the post sounds like a coil pack failure
Its a weird one but id be leaning toward alternator did the dash light up like an xmas tree when you lost power ?
No Gar, no lights which is what I would have expected too.
When mine went i had the dash light up lost all power couldnt even indicate to the hard shoulder scariest 2 minutes of my life
Iv no experience with a chain snapping or giving up but it could be a possibility its not a common issue but not completely unheard of dont want to scare you just thinking out loud [emoji1]
Was there pop, bang or a loud metallic rattle when you got to the hard shoulder it might even be a belt
Hopefully it is just belt, we'll see! No bangs, pops or rattles thankfully...or not!
Home 3 hours later than usual and the problem was pretty fundamental...it appears I ran out of petrol. Although the OBC gave a range of 50km and there was still nearly a gallon in the tank (it took just over 66ltrs to refill), the engine had other ideas. Odd no?
The frustration I felt standing around for nearly 3 hours waiting for the AA man to appear is offset by the fact I'm not facing a big bill of some sort...just!
[emoji1] [emoji1] [emoji1] not a bad outcome at least no bills await thats the last time you drive on reserves
No very common on the E39s, one of your tank units is reading incorrect. Usually it's the one with the fuel pump built into it, the one on the drivers side. It can be taken out and you can clean the contacts on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by pauliE3X
can you give a bit more info on that conor, i have noticed on my e39 that when i start up the car the gauge reads slightly less than what it is than after a minute of driving off it moves back to where i thought the the reading should be
Mine does that too and always has or when its warm if I'm stuck in heavy traffic the needle drops but when I hit the open road it goes back up. I've never run out of fuel.Quote:
Originally Posted by claudio
Its constantly calculating how much fuel its using at that moment and what the range will be so if started up cold its using more fuel resulting in a shorter range and less fuel on the fuel gauge its accurate by the time the temp gauge hits 12 ,nothing to worry about and cant be fixed just a characteristic of the car
If it took 66 ltrs to fill back up that means it only had just over 3 litres left in the tank probably not enough to even be sucked up
Oh just to add you can recalibrate the obc mpg readings using the hidden menu but easier to just keep her out of reserves
Lesson learnt I guess! After all these years of playing fuel light roulette with Alfas (and not losing!), I never expected a German would let me down!