Idle and stalling issue

Idle and stalling issue

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jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Friday 28th November 2014
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Been having problems with an intermittent idle/stalling problem which came to a head tonight resulting a long recovery trip home!

Quick history is that after the last engine disintegrated, got this replacement engine. Had troubles setting it up, which lead to me replacing the rose joints on the throttle linkage cable. It's also had new plugs and leads just a few miles ago.

Engine has now been set up as per the engine manual and was running lovely last night. However this morning, drove through town, then 10-15 minutes of brisk motorway driving. Came off the motorway, sat at traffic lights then went off round a roundabout, car suddenly wants to die. Manage to keep it going by dipping the clutch and revving it (a lot). Get on to the dual carriageway and straighten up, splutters a bit and is then fine again. Go through town, fine. Get to my destination and as soon as I'm going slowly, manoeuvring to park again it starts to die on me and stalls on multiple occasions. No misfire, no bangs or backfires, just feels like I've suddenly stuck my hand over the intake. This isn't the first time it's done it either (in fact this is twice either side of being laid up for a month or two).

I've also had the problem where by I can leave it to idle, which it will do fine, and then all of a sudden it will die after several minutes. Not always. Sometimes it will keep going, sometimes it will die sooner.

I've also noticed that generally, from cold it will idle at roughly 1200rpm. After a long run and being properly warmed up it will idle at about 1800rpm.

Haven't had time to put the laptop on the car tonight but I'll do that tomorrow to see if there are any sensor faults.

Any one had issues like this before?

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Saturday 29th November 2014
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Thanks guys.

I did wonder whether it might be a fuel venting issue, especially as it generally occurs after a long run, not necessarily just when the engine is hot.

I would have thought anything else might be apparent all the time, like dirty injectors - though I doubt they've ever been cleaned so probably good to get them cleaned. I'll get the laptop on it this morning to check for fault codes and report back!

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Saturday 29th November 2014
quotequote all
That's a good point...

1) Where is the fuel filter? Up by the charcoal canister?
2) Is it even possible to test either the pump or the filter or is it just a case of replacing them and hope it works?

Could it be a blocked charcoal canister?

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Monday 1st December 2014
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Just managed to get the laptop on it. Two faults logged, one is the battery and one is the "BaroPressure".

Is the BaroPressure the rubber pipe that comes from the passenger side of the bulkhead and connects to the airbox?

frown From my searches on PistonHeads (it is the rubber pipe), it seems, as it is only measuring atmospheric pressure, I think it is unlikely that the pipe being disconnected (just noticed the plastic connector has snapped) would be the cause of the car not starting!

Edited by jammy_basturd on Monday 1st December 14:59

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
I did wonder about coil packs, however, news flash...

Just had to drive across town. Had the same problems about half way through my journey. Luckily there was a place to pull in and I already had my laptop plugged in. I'd cleared the faults before I set off, but the BaroPressureLog fault was back. Looking at the reading it was fluctuating quite quickly from around 200 to 350+. After a couple of minutes I turned the ignition off and back on, the reading was back up to 900+ and when I started the car it seemed fine again - got to my destination OK after that.

So I guess the barometric sensor is my first port of call in tracing the problem.

Could the pipe being disconnected cause these fluctuations in readings?

When I got to my destination I blocked the pipe with my finger and it made very little difference to the reading on the laptop. Which suggests two things to me:
1) The pipe maybe blocked.
2) It takes more than a finger over the hose to change the reading, which suggests a faulty sensor/wiring for me to get such a wild fluctuation in reading?

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
I did wonder just how much difference a reading of 200 would make to ~900. Incidentally, when I started the car briefly this morning it was reading 1000 - so I guess the reading was out of range.

I'll unplug the sensor tomorrow and see if I get any more problems.

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
Yea, I've already found where the sensor is - zip-tied to the dash cross member above the passenger footwell.

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Wednesday 3rd December 2014
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Unplugged it yesterday and managed to do a few miles around town last night without any problems, so early indications are good.

I'm away this weekend so I'll leave it for about a week to see how things are going before looking to replace the sensor.

jammy_basturd

Original Poster:

29,778 posts

213 months

Wednesday 17th December 2014
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Please to announce that I've had the barometric pressure sensor unplugged for a good couple of weeks now and the car has been running beautifully!