Hi all
My '53 plate Cabriolet Passion is my fab little run-around, but recently it is testing my love for it: With seemingly no pattern or regularity, it will cut out - everything on the dashboard will flash, almost all warning lights come on, and I have one bar of death flashing away in the middle. I think it happens more frequently when slowing down, or after slowing down and whilst waiting at traffic lights (right pain as then I have no momentum to get out of everyone's way), but it can do it whilst in motion once in a while too. Tapping/wacking the fuse box in the passenger footwell doesn't seem to jog it back into life (although it has done a handful of times - perhaps a coincidence), and the only option I have is to wait between half a second or a good couple of minutes before it finds itself again and springs back into life. No amount of turning on or off, locking an unlocking, or gearstick shifting makes any difference to recovery time. The gearstick can be moved into any position whilst it's upset, and it can fix itself with ignition on or off. When it fixes itself there is a noticeable "click" type noise and slight movement of the car which I'm guessing is it finding it's gear etc. Once happy again it will return to the same gear it cut out in, and I need to restart from scratch in order to ignite etc. Sometimes (not very often) the exclamation-mark-in-a-triangle and ABS warning lights stay on once I've restarted it, but then go away if I turn off and on again.
Merc did one of their free checks on it this summer, and only mentioned a small split in the manifold and a couple of other bits that my mechanic dealt with soon after. It had a full service around the same time. Once it never fixed itself, so I had to call out the AA, and he thought it could be the auto gearbox not being happy shifting itself down through the gears when slowing quickly and consequently getting stuck. Personally I'm not so sure considering it happens more often when idling. It is having a new battery fitted tomorrow also, as I know a poorly one of those can give similar symptoms (and with all the cutting out the current one isn't getting to do very many long journeys to recharge..)
Thanks!! Hope someone has an idea or two. I'm aware it could be hundreds of things.
My '53 plate Cabriolet Passion is my fab little run-around, but recently it is testing my love for it: With seemingly no pattern or regularity, it will cut out - everything on the dashboard will flash, almost all warning lights come on, and I have one bar of death flashing away in the middle. I think it happens more frequently when slowing down, or after slowing down and whilst waiting at traffic lights (right pain as then I have no momentum to get out of everyone's way), but it can do it whilst in motion once in a while too. Tapping/wacking the fuse box in the passenger footwell doesn't seem to jog it back into life (although it has done a handful of times - perhaps a coincidence), and the only option I have is to wait between half a second or a good couple of minutes before it finds itself again and springs back into life. No amount of turning on or off, locking an unlocking, or gearstick shifting makes any difference to recovery time. The gearstick can be moved into any position whilst it's upset, and it can fix itself with ignition on or off. When it fixes itself there is a noticeable "click" type noise and slight movement of the car which I'm guessing is it finding it's gear etc. Once happy again it will return to the same gear it cut out in, and I need to restart from scratch in order to ignite etc. Sometimes (not very often) the exclamation-mark-in-a-triangle and ABS warning lights stay on once I've restarted it, but then go away if I turn off and on again.
Merc did one of their free checks on it this summer, and only mentioned a small split in the manifold and a couple of other bits that my mechanic dealt with soon after. It had a full service around the same time. Once it never fixed itself, so I had to call out the AA, and he thought it could be the auto gearbox not being happy shifting itself down through the gears when slowing quickly and consequently getting stuck. Personally I'm not so sure considering it happens more often when idling. It is having a new battery fitted tomorrow also, as I know a poorly one of those can give similar symptoms (and with all the cutting out the current one isn't getting to do very many long journeys to recharge..)
Thanks!! Hope someone has an idea or two. I'm aware it could be hundreds of things.
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