Stalling when cold.

[kalibre46]

Hopefully a quickie for all other owners out there. My Supersport (1.6 Sigma) will constantly stall when idling or when the clutch is depressed and revs drop sufficiently when cold. Within about 5 minutes of driving this will sort itself out, however I just thought I'd check that it was normal/common.

By my right knee under the dash appears to be a choke type plunger/lever, however my limited mechanical knowledge is dumfounded by the thought of a choke on a car without carbs. Anyhow, this doesn't seem to make any difference when used. Thoughts?

[gedG]

My duratec used to cut out when cold, I just tweeked the throttle stop slightly.
The knob next to your knee is the heater control, pull it out for a blast of hot air.

[downsman]

On my Roadsport 125 with the sigma engine it always idled really well from cold, then one day I had the same symptoms as you.
The first thing I did was change the spark plugs as they'd done 10,000 miles and it cured it.

[kalibre46]

downsman said:

On my Roadsport 125 with the sigma engine it always idled really well from cold, then one day I had the same symptoms as you.
The first thing I did was change the spark plugs as they'd done 10,000 miles and it cured it.

Interesting, thanks. Might have a word with Caterham as it's still under warranty.

[StEVEN7]

You've had Battery issues recently haven't you?...I had the cutting out on my Sigma Supersport which started after the battery was disconnected to clean the terminals, when disconnecting the Battery or you have a Battery issue it throws out the settings for the idle between the ECU and the throttle...the ECU needs to be reset on a laptop plugged in under the dash...i got Andy Jupp at PGM Motorsport to come out and reset it, it's been fine ever since. Andy is in Partridge Green, West Sussex his website is www.pgmsussex.com get to know him he's an ex Caterham Development engineer.

Edited by StEVEN7 on Wednesday 25th December 10:04

[one eyed mick]

Italian tune up required ?

[Remus35]

Have you tried reseting the ECU by turning the key to the on then off position 10 times. Apparently this resets it also. I had a problem with my Supersport and this is what Derek told me to do.

[Dr Slotter]

Sounds like the cold start part of the ECU map is a bit screwed. I had a similar issue, albeit on a Duratec and it did it when it was hot, and Caterham reloaded the original map and it was fine. It still needs the throttle stop screw turned out a touch though.

[Andy Bell]

one other thing to look at is the throttle body as there is a screw that is adjusted via an allen key. That allows you to set idle position but be warned apparently idling challenges on them is just one of the things you get from lightened flywheel.

[PiersR]

As Steven says about PGM. Contact Andy.

Piers

[kalibre46]

PiersR said:

As Steven says about PGM. Contact Andy.

Piers

I've mailed Caterham as there isn't much point bothering/paying someone else whilst it's under warranty. Is the '10 turns of the ignition' idea the same as someone reseting your ECU? Might give that a go later. I'll let you know what the outcome is.

[Remus35]

Not 100% sure, but it has worked on mine in the past.

[SBD762]

[By my right knee under the dash appears to be a choke type plunger/lever, however my limited mechanical knowledge is dumfounded by the thought of a choke on a car without carbs]

I am not being rude, I'm probably no more mechanically minded than you. On my S3 K series 7 the thing by your knee is a heater on/off (push pull)
stick you head under and see if connects via a cable through the bulkhead into the engine bay?

[kalibre46]

SBD762 said:

[By my right knee under the dash appears to be a choke type plunger/lever, however my limited mechanical knowledge is dumfounded by the thought of a choke on a car without carbs]

I am not being rude, I'm probably no more mechanically minded than you. On my S3 K series 7 the thing by your knee is a heater on/off (push pull)
stick you head under and see if connects via a cable through the bulkhead into the engine bay?

Thanks, someone mentioned that in another post, I was quite content with the heater even with this fully 'in' now that it's out it's like furnace heat!

[tomwoodis]

The SuperSport 140 I test drove at Caterham South did that too and it was hunting a lot at low revs. I mentioned it to the salesman and he said that its quite common for the lambda sensors to be the culprit. He reckoned it happened a lot with their demo vehicles because they were driven a lot by the journalists on track etc.

Yours was a demonstrater was it not? If so might be worth posing that suggestion when you speak to them.

Tom

[fondelli]

My supersport had this issue at very light throttle openings and it was indeed a faulty lambda probe. It's a Ford part and you will get a genuine one on the net much cheaper than Caterham. It would also stall when hot, but it was OK when cold as the cold start enrichment kept the engine running.

[framerateuk]

Just to add, mine would often start hunting and then stall when it was cold - it was fine after about 5 mins.

Ended up with new spark plugs and that solved the issue. Idles with no problems now. Started it on Sunday after it had been sat still since October and it fired first time and idled happily.

[kalibre46]

Caterham South have my car currently because of the immobiliser issue but are also checking out the stalling issue to. They are trying to imply that I should expect to have to apply (and maintain) some throttle to stop hunting/stalling on cold. I don't think that's right at all, surely any car should be expected to idle comfortably even in cold conditions??

[framerateuk]

kalibre46 said:

Caterham South have my car currently because of the immobiliser issue but are also checking out the stalling issue to. They are trying to imply that I should expect to have to apply (and maintain) some throttle to stop hunting/stalling on cold. I don't think that's right at all, surely any car should be expected to idle comfortably even in cold conditions??

I wouldn't expect that at all. It's a Caterham with a modern engine, not a classic that needs to be negotiated with to start properly!

Tell them to change the plugs and adjust the throttle to allow enough air in on idle.

[thequietone]

Supersport 140? Nothing to worry about really as long as it runs OK when warm. Should be a simple idle adjustment (1/4 turn on the throttle body?) as mentioned above if it bothers you.