AstinaGT Forums - newbie Astina BJ & BA

Hi Paul from SA. I bought a $700 BJ Astina automatic about 4 months ago, its been great, no trouble, fitted new brakes, needed nothing else. The BJ is SOHC, 1.6 . The coil is located separately from the distributor.

I bought a 1995 BA Astina, 1.8 DOHC automatic 2 weeks ago. It test drove fine, it was a cold wet day. I drove for half an hour at 60kph. It went fine, as far as I could tell, but as things turned out, I should have driven it longer and at highway speeds.

The next day I took the BA to a friends place (driving from Aldinga to McLaren Vale which includes a 100kph zone). It was a warmer day and mainly dry. Five minutes after hitting a 100kph, the car just died. Thinking about it now, as if someone turned off the ignition.

I tried restarting, and that first occasion, it did restart after a couple of minutes. I made it to McLaren Vale without further trouble. I was a bit perplexed and worried, forgot my mobile phone too. My mate was going to come looking if I didnt answer my home phone in an hour and half.... with that in place, I set off for home. I got precisely half way been McLaren Vale and Willunga and the car stopped and refused to start. Again, in hind sight as if some one had turned off the ignition. As sudden as that. Half hour, still no start, an hour, no start. Luckily I was opposite the only building between the two towns, a restaurant . I rang the RAA and they gave me a free cup of coffee. I was thinking about what the trouble could be, but had little idea. I serviced my early astina, and it had been no trouble. Never worked on or diagnosed an EFI vehicle with engine management. Ive had heaps of old VWs and know them well.

Anyway the RAA rolled up and by this time the car was stone cold. My friend rolled up too, he had come looking. The RAA got the engine running by spraying instant start or something similar into the air intake. I took up the offer of a flat bed recovery truck trip home. (RAA Premium is good, it was free) . The RAA guy said it was a fuel problem, as I had spark. Well, in hindsight, it was too sudden for fuel I think maybe. He said get another pump and filters.

Did that, and in the time since, Ive test driven it a number of times, staying within walking distance of home. The original symptom was this: Car starts fine, idles fine, runs fine, until the car gets warmed up properly, and it that pointed it stopped every time. Sudden, as if sometime turned a switch (to clarify, only the engine stopped , everything else worked) . It wasnt fuel. So rather than doubt the on the spot opinion of the RAA mechanic, I persisted with that diagnosis for a bit too long. I rang the RAA technical advise line and the guy said , electrical , without a doubt electrical. Check all your electrical connections. OK.

At that point I thought where do I start. I checked the fuel pump relay - didnt really think it was that , but it was fine. I then disconnected the plugs on the distributor. The socket on one of the plugs was broken, one of the pins of the distributor side of the socket was not, could not have been, sitting inside its recieving plug. the little plug had been forced down and out of alignment, and the pin from dizzy was sitting along side of the little socket it was supposed go into and seat within. Well, I thought I had found the whole problem. when the motor and the dicky connection warmed up, the poor connection didnt work, and the motor stopped. Let the motor cool right down, right down to the needle of temp gauge hitting the base line, and it would start. I had previously tried it over the preceding days. drive till warm, engine stops, let it cool right down , engine restarts. So I got another socket from the wreckers and installed it. Expecting the fault to be fixed. But while one factor had been fixed, the problem persisted, but the symptom was different. No longer did the engine suddenly die, as if switched off, as soon as the temp reached normal, but the engine cut out whenever I revved it over 2000 rpm. Not straight away, but less than a minute of revving it more than 2000 rpm while travelling along, the motor would suddenly die, as if someone turned the key. The change was the engine would now down in response to rpm (more than 2000 rpm) , no matter what the temperature of the motor. from temp depended to rpm dependent. I checked it several times. It was repeatable. Everytime, exceed 2000 rpm, the motor died. However to restart, I only needed to wait 10 minutes or so and it would restart. Previously, I had to wait over an hour for full cool down.

Obviously I had more than one dickey circuit. the faulty plug was only part of the trouble. And at this point I made another mistake. I began again looking at the intake and fuel system again, and wasted time on the Idle Air Control. Whereas, as members did advise, the problem was and is electrical. (had it happened in an old beetle, I would have thrown in the spare coil I always carried , after checking the points - there was no missing or any sign of HT tracking. No blue flashes in the dark with the bonnet up. So I removed the IAC and cleaned and soaked it WD40 and put it back. I put new plugs and HT leads in. After those things, it runs better, but still, rev it passed 2,000 and it will cut out. Just the engine, it dies. Wait a few minutes , and restart.

The design of the BA distributor is something I have never seen before. The coil is inside the distributor. I suspect either the coil or some other component in the dizzy is breaking down when driven to a certain point. So far, everytime it happens, it recovers after cooling a bit. Like a bad transistor might. Anyway, I bought a new distributor. Hasnt arrived yet. No matter, I have yet to put the new pads and disc rotors on it, but the dizzy will arrive in the next two days. And at that, point, the car will be a goer.

Previously, as I worked through all the stuff, I wrote some posts which turn out to be wrong. Im about to delete them, in case I mislead others. This particular thread is about saying Hi and its also a little diary of the repair of the BA. Hopefully it'll be finished within the next two days. Thanks for the forum, it is a great thing to have access to. It has helped me a great deal. Im sure the dizzy , with its coil in dizzy design, which is the problem. This has yet to be confirmed. anyway, Im deleting the old posts, as they contain too much rubbish which might mislead, but I am leaving the comments left by those members who sought to help.

I spent 3 months trying to find an automatic BA Astina for my wife. When I found one, I bought it. I was going to have regardless. Im happy I bought it. Its a great car. Simply because I am ignorant of it doesnt mean I'm unhappy with it. Im very happy with it. I could have taken it to a mechanic, but it was an opportunity to learn. Though, when I have taken it as far as I can, it will go to a mechanic. And anyway, Im going to get it inspected by a mechanic before I hand it over to my wife. Astinas are great cars. I intend to keep driving them.