How naive?

[SPRIDDLER]

My younger son who commutes on his regularly serviced Kawasaki 650 twin called last night to say that the bike started misfiring in this week's heavy rain. Very unpleasant on these wet and leaf-strewn roads when one cylinder cuts in and out at random. He'd sprayed WD40 on anything looking slightly ignition related with no improvement.
"Not to worry" I assured him, "Drop it round on Saturday. Just a bit of damp I expect".
The bike's 7 yrs old so I planned to replace the HT leads and plug caps as a matter of course. Having never worked on a bike less than 50 yrs old and also having no idea where to find the Kawasaki's coil(s) or even what it/they looked like I thought a quick glance at the Workshop Manual might be helpful and I found one on the web.
It has 563 pages crammed with abbreviations and component names and littered with complex hydraulic and electrical diagrams, diagnostic codes, torque settings, special tools, references to stick coils, sensors, ECU, STF's and AGT's and Gawd knows what else, all of which meant absolutely nothing to me.
I have a sneaking suspicion that he'll be booking it in to a dealer.
I do feel very ancient.

[Plugsnpoints]

I felt the same when my (cough!) Astra started missing. I was lost, until my mate plugged his diagnostic 'puter in. It showed number one cylinder wasn't firing.


It was the coil pack breaking down due to my (now ex) friend not servicing it properly over a long period. He hadn't changed the plugs in years, and the coil was working too hard so it failed. It could be something like that-i.e. someone hadn't changed the plugs as it was running ok".


I took a gamble and bought and fitted a new coil pack and it was all fine after that. I never went back for a service there. The only reason I paid for a service was to keep the service book up to date.


I bought a plug in computer for my latest car and it paid for itself when a wheel sensor failed and the ABS/cruise control etc did daft things. It sounds a bit voodoo without plugs, points etc to play with. but even I could do it so it can't be hard.

It might be worth considering before taking it to a stealer (I mean dealer...!)

[Plugsnpoints]

P.S. The first thing I would check is the plugs and gaps. When I took them out of my neglected car the gaps were about 40 thou!

[Peter Morris]

Wouldn't feel too bad Nev, even main dealers have to plug them in to find out what is wrong.

We had a Merc a few years ago that after a while developed fault starting when the engine was even slightly warm, it started straight away when cold but would not start at all afterwards until it had completely cooled down. After several times hanging around for ages while it cooled down, I bit the bullet and took it to the dealer.......... Crankshaft position sensor (who knew?) had gone west.

80 quid later it was fine.......... should have taken it in earlier

[Rob Harknett]

Anything wrong with my car and it gets plugged into a computer. Sometimes gives more than one cause that may be the problem. Quite often there's nothing actually wrong with the car. Just a sensor that detects a problem, is the problem. Exhaust sensor quite the problem and cost over £300 to replace. Last time one of those went my car would unexpectedly cut out. That's not funny doing 70 on a motor way. As you need to turn the ignition off, to re start the engine.. You just have to hope you can cruise, perhaps from outside lane to hard shoulder to do that. I downloaded the software for my last car to detect problems on my PC. But would have needed a laptop to use it. I've never bothered using it. No point really, as cars too complicated to work on, without ramps special tools and know how.

[robcurrie]

These modern vehicles are great, the computer pinpoints the problem in seconds, like my car had a faulty starter motor. You can't even see the starter if you look in the engine bay, you have to drop the engine down to reach it, which means removing the exhaust etc., so I told them to change the cam belts while the engine was half out as that is the requirement for that job as well.

Rob C

[Rob Harknett]

That reminds me, I must get my cam belt changed, its done 112,000. I must admit, the belt I have been checking was not the cam belt. As tghat cannot be seen just looking under the bonnet.

[Expat]

I do feel very ancient.

It's not us that are ancients SPRIDS, it's the rest of the world that has zoomed light years ahead.

[SPRIDDLER]

... the belt I have been checking was not the cam belt As that cannot be seen just looking under the bonnet.

Hidden behind the starting handle?

[spookefoote1956]

What's a cam belt?