Stalling when cold

[neilbprater]

For the past couple of days my 98 Chim 450 has had problems in the cold wet mornings.
It starts up just fine, seems to idle ok, but after reversing off the drive it stalls when taking the foot of the gas. It is then a real bugger to start again, taking ten attempts this morning.
It is going in to Chris Neils' next week to fix a leak in the PAS under warranty, does this sound like a stepper motor prob? as I could get it fixed at same time.

[JamieBeeston]

Are you leaving the car to warm up sufficiently (5-6 mins for me) before driving off on cold mornings? I used to have this happen once or twice, just after reversing, It stopped happening once I let the car warm up (ie only happened when i was in a rush to move somewhere.. typical)

[neilbprater]

Always in a rush in the morning. Plus neighbours are not that keen for me to warm up for 5-6 minutes at 6.30

[jamieheasman]

This could be down to the stepper motor. Does the engine behave itself once it is warm? The reason it is a bugger to start afterwards is probably down to overfuelling. When you first start the engine the ECU primes the engine with a squirt of fuel which will vary according to engine temperature. If it is not getting past the cut-off stage for a completely cold start and the engine stalls you will get another squirt of the same duration. This will cause the engine to flood and therefore very difficult to start.

Other possible reasons for this are faulty ECU, road-speed sensor or any one of a number of other things.

You could take a look at the stepper motor and see if it's bunged-up - cleaning this can make a big difference sometimes.

Cheers

[incorrigible]

quote:
Are you leaving the car to warm up sufficiently (5-6 mins for me) before driving off on cold mornings? I used to have this happen once or twice, just after reversing, It stopped happening once I let the car warm up (ie only happened when i was in a rush to move somewhere.. typical)

I was told you shouldn't really warm the engine up with no load on it, just my 2ps worth

[trefor]

Not an answer to your problem on stalling, but hopefully a helpful hint: When the engine is started from cold it runs mega rich - if it does stall and you need to restart don't touch the throttle until it has caught on the starter. 99% of the time you will flood the engine - if you're lucky it will start immediately on the second try, but keep away from that throttle pedal!

This is not just a TVR thing. Audi V6s can do exactly the same thing.

T/.

[NeilBPrater]

It is absolutely fine when warmed up. Did it again this morning, much easier to start by not applying gas ie. not flooding the engine, doh.
Think it must be the stepper motor, as I said it is going in next week, may as well get new stepper as still under warranty.

[TVRwhoa]

I had this problem too 4.0L Chim, Chris Neil said start the car and leave to warm up for a minute or two. If I don't, get the dreaded flood, once blocked the road for ten minutes highly embarassing. Once warm its great, I'd be interested to see what Chris Neil says!