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Electrical cut out? 
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Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:56 pm
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Post Electrical cut out?
The wife was out earlier today and the Rossa died, luckily she was only a mile from home so she was able to walk. When I went to get the car back there was plenty of battery power and fuel. The immobiliser appeared to be working ok and the engine would turn over no problem but no fire up.
Dragged the car home (not that easy but managed it in the end).
Took the timing cover off to ensure that the cambelt hadn't broken, all was fine. Checked that the coil was getting power again no problem, was just starting to think bugger need some test equipment for the engine management when I decided (for no apparent reason) to check out what looked like a relay with a rubber cover on it screwed to the nearside inner wheel arch, just touched the rubber cover and thought I heard a click so tried the ignition again and broom broom.
Disconnect the wires going to the unit and the car dies.
Is this some sort of accident/collision/roll over cut out switch? If so can they become faulty and cut in even though the road was fairly smooth? We live down an un-made road that is rather rough but this happened on the wifes return journey and it hasn't happened before.
Can it be bypassed?


Fri Apr 18, 2008 10:37 pm
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Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:44 am
Posts: 632
Location: Chester le Street
Post Re: Electrical cut out?
I'm not A1 on this modern electronic trickery but injected cars have an inertia cut out switch which switches off the fuel pump in the event of an accident so that fuel doesn't keep pouring out of any ruptured fuel lines. In the event of accidental triggering they also have a reset button. That sounds like the very chap?

I wouldn't run without one in the long term as it's obviously an important safety feature.

I did hear that the early FWD injected Escorts had their switch set a bit on the sensitive side so that a hard stop on the brakes would trip it AND I believe it was initially fitted outside the car so you had to grovel around to reset, it but that could just be an urban myth. Somebody on the forum will put me right I'm sure.

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Sat Apr 19, 2008 9:10 am
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Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 2:56 pm
Posts: 180
Post Re: Electrical cut out?
I have had this sort of thing on a jag and a cossie saffire both of which were injected but the Rossa isn't injected but I haven't looked any further to see if it has an electric fuel pump which would possibly account for it having a cut out switch.

As for the urban myth, what I can say is that the cossie one was in the boot under the spare wheel and the time it went off was coming out of an under ground garage in France that had a very steep up ramp that flattened out really quickly so everything in the boot lifted upwards at the top of the ramp. We realised what had happened and decanted loads of booze and the spare from the boot much to the annoyance of the rest of the garage users who had to wait till we sorted it out. Took longer to realise what had happened than it did to sort it but have you ever tried pushing a car up hill (not fun or in this case possible).

The jag switch was on the passenger side up under the dash area from memory.

On the up side, we have been using the Rossa for most of today with loads of stop starting and three different drivers and no issues so far. Fingers crossed it is just a one off event.


Sat Apr 19, 2008 6:19 pm
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Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:37 pm
Posts: 614
Location: RM13 ish
Post Re: Electrical cut out?
lyndiloo wrote:
looked like a relay with a rubber cover on it screwed to the nearside inner wheel arch, just touched the rubber cover and thought I heard a click so tried the ignition again and broom broom.
Disconnect the wires going to the unit and the car dies.


Thats the cut out - mine was mounted on the leading edge of the rear boot - hit any large bump or pot-hole and coast to a halt. I moved it so it is fixed to the tub and it's not tripped since (what's the smiley for crossed fingers?)

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Sat Apr 19, 2008 10:23 pm
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Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:57 pm
Posts: 14
Location: Shepton Mallet
GTM: K3
Post Re: Electrical cut out?
My K3 started to cut out pretty much at random a few years ago, but always restarted without needing to reset the cutoff, or do anything else. It's mounted on the tub and turned out to be dirty and loose terminal connections to the cutoff. It's a fairly wet area despite the wheel arch liners.

No problems since they were given a good clean, a bit of waterproofer and a cable tie added to hold it all together.


Sat Apr 19, 2008 11:24 pm
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