Rodeo Fuel Problem

[malcolm]

There is a weird thing going on with the Rodeo. I took it out to the supermarket at the weekend for it's first trip of the year (7km). It took a long time to start when I got back to the car. I moved it to the petrol station and filled up and it took a couple of minutes to start. Drove home. It was a bit hesitant on acceleration and it conked out on my driveway.

I opened the bonnet and the fuel filter was empty and turning over the engine didn't squirt any fuel into the fuel filter so I think the problem is fuel supply.

Today I checked the filter gauze in the carb inlet pipe. That was fine but I cleaned it anyway. I replaced the fuel filter just in case but the old one looked OK after I cut it open. Tried blowing through the pipe into the carb and that felt fine. Tried sucking fuel up the fuel pump inlet pipe and it comes through OK and holds fuel height so so sign of leaks.

The fuel pump is new but might have failed, but I tried turning the engine over again and it squirts petrol into the filter fine now. I'm a bit baffled. Float chamber vent blocked maybe? Any ideas?

 

[sdvcatfish]

Float Stuck it’s ‘ Winter ‘ slumber position, Airlocking the Fuel Line in the process?

 

[Piet]

I would second a dodgy float valve. I've had that before. Try replacing it. Even new ones can be a little suspect.

 

[John Edmonds]

Have you tried unscrewing the petrol cap? If the vent in the cap is blocked (or non-existent), the fuel pump will struggle to pump fuel through as a vacuum is formed in the fuel tank as you drive. This happened to me many years ago with my R4 GTL, just be careful when you release the fuel cap as I got sprayed with petrol!

 

[malcolm]

I'll have a look at the float chamber valve. If it is sticking closed I can see that causing the problems I had with both starting and driving.

 

[malcolm]

I checked the float valve and it seemed OK and I cleaned it up and blew air through just in case. Blew air through the filler cap vent hole just in case. The car seems to be working but I'm not sure I found any problem.

Probably is going to be something that got stuck or something to to with fuel vaporisation (or both). It had been slow to hot start in the past but never this slow. I'll keep monitoring and maybe start thinking about a heat shield or electric fuel pump.