Starting after a stall problem
Discussion
Strange one this. A couple of times recently I've managed to stall the Chim about 20 seconds after starting it. Once I have it's a major p1sser to get it restarted. It takes about 2 mintues to start with a bit of cranking, a rest, a bit more cranking and another rest. It evetually catches on a few cylinders and gradually picks up on the others.
I've not no other starting or idling problems so I don't think it's stepper motor or battery related. Is it just because it's been pretty chilly recently? I think I'll have to start it and leave it running for a few minutes from now on to try and get it going before I try anything. Any other ideas?
Rob
I've not no other starting or idling problems so I don't think it's stepper motor or battery related. Is it just because it's been pretty chilly recently? I think I'll have to start it and leave it running for a few minutes from now on to try and get it going before I try anything. Any other ideas?
Rob
Must be the time of year, It has happened to me twice in the last couple of weeks.. I was up in the Lakes piping on to some friends on how reliable the car was only to have it stall and not start afterwards.. I ended up going in the watch TV for five minutes Started fine after that.. I have been running mine on normal unleaded recently so I was wondering if that was the cause of my problem..?
P.S.
Lakes great fun for driving Only 16 to the gallon though through the country lanes 
(well 'A' roads in the lakes)
P.S.
Lakes great fun for driving Only 16 to the gallon though through the country lanes (well 'A' roads in the lakes)tvrbob said:
Happens to me too. When it finally does re-start my idle speed is way down and cuts out if I take my foot off the throttle. I find that it all becomes OK again if I get it started, then turn off the engine, wait a minute, then re-start again. I guess this resets the ECU.
Mine did this last week.....it's almost like it's flooded...so I leave it for a couple of minutes and then off we go again to head-butt the horizon
Switching the engine off does not reset the ECU. Only disconnecting the ECU from the battery will do that. If the engine has flooded the delay may have helped clear it. Sounds as if there is a running fault somewhere. This is not normal. If a one or more spark plugs are fouling it could be a leaky injector that is dribbling into the cylinder and upsetting things but equally could be many others including fuel vapourisation.
When this happens to me the events are
>Cold engine - just started and been running for less than 2 mins.
>I'm reversing out of my driveway early on a cold morning. Keeping the revs down so the neighbours don't complain
>Keeping the tacho between 1000 & 1500 is not easy under load so it does sometimes stall.
>Try to re-start the engine straight away, engine turns but no fuel is not being ignited.
>Wait a 60 sec's or so and try to start the engine again. Engine starts but has very low tickover. So low that the engine stops if I take my foot off the throttle.
>Stop the engine with the ignition key and re-start it and all is OK again.
There are a lot of comments above that suggest this is not right and that it is unusual. I think that if you intentionally stall any modern Chim or Grif as described above, you'll always have this problem. It's a characteristic of the car. Before you say it's wrong try it with your own. I bet you can't get yours started either.
>Cold engine - just started and been running for less than 2 mins.
>I'm reversing out of my driveway early on a cold morning. Keeping the revs down so the neighbours don't complain
>Keeping the tacho between 1000 & 1500 is not easy under load so it does sometimes stall.
>Try to re-start the engine straight away, engine turns but no fuel is not being ignited.
>Wait a 60 sec's or so and try to start the engine again. Engine starts but has very low tickover. So low that the engine stops if I take my foot off the throttle.
>Stop the engine with the ignition key and re-start it and all is OK again.
There are a lot of comments above that suggest this is not right and that it is unusual. I think that if you intentionally stall any modern Chim or Grif as described above, you'll always have this problem. It's a characteristic of the car. Before you say it's wrong try it with your own. I bet you can't get yours started either.
tvrbob said:
>Keeping the tacho between 1000 & 1500 is not easy under load so it does sometimes stall.
Slightly off topic, but loading a cold engine heavily is not going to do it any good.
Must admit, I've never suffered any of the symptoms you describe - but mine is a '98 - You said new, don't know if that counts
yiw1393 said:By new I mean 'Serpentine' if that's how you spell it. So yes yours is.
>Keeping the tacho between 1000 & 1500 is not easy under load so it does sometimes stall.
Must admit, I've never suffered any of the symptoms you describe - but mine is a '98 - You said new, don't know if that counts
1000 - 1500 revs supplying power to a slipped clutch driving a car slowly in reverse is not serious load but it is enough load to drop it out of safe zone and cause a stall. Normal reversing is way more than 1000rpm, more like 2000 - 2500. So no I'm not overloading a cold engine, just trying to keep it quiet.
in my opinion it's the cold weather.
I'm in the exposed northern part of germany, and it's regulary below freezing temperatures at this time of year. I leave my car ticking, well, rumbling over for a few minutes, until sufficently warm so i can slightly depress the accelerator without the revs dropping. try that, it works for me everytime
Jeff
I'm in the exposed northern part of germany, and it's regulary below freezing temperatures at this time of year. I leave my car ticking, well, rumbling over
for a few minutes, until sufficently warm so i can slightly depress the accelerator without the revs dropping. try that, it works for me everytime Jeff
Like wot I said on a similar thread recently:
With the std fuelling chip these engines run VERY rich when cold starting. This makes them generally lumpy for the first few minutes driving. A Mark Adams Tornado chip/tuneup sort this out - my car is smooooooth from startup now.
The extra rich mixture is also why you can't restart sometimes if you stall reversing out of your driveway or whatever. They flood very easily - a warning to new owners coming up to their first cold weather - don't touch the throttle as you restart after a cold stall.
(BTW, a lot of cars have a similar problem - even my A6 has flooded in this way).
With the std fuelling chip these engines run VERY rich when cold starting. This makes them generally lumpy for the first few minutes driving. A Mark Adams Tornado chip/tuneup sort this out - my car is smooooooth from startup now.
The extra rich mixture is also why you can't restart sometimes if you stall reversing out of your driveway or whatever. They flood very easily - a warning to new owners coming up to their first cold weather - don't touch the throttle as you restart after a cold stall.
(BTW, a lot of cars have a similar problem - even my A6 has flooded in this way).
tvrbob said:
There are a lot of comments above that suggest this is not right and that it is unusual. I think that if you intentionally stall any modern Chim or Grif as described above, you'll always have this problem. It's a characteristic of the car. Before you say it's wrong try it with your own. I bet you can't get yours started either.
I think you will find this is not a TVR thing at all, there are lots of cars that do this, late Jags are famous for it. It has something to do with that fact that the temp senders have not caught up with the heat of the engine for the first couple of minutes. If it passes this point then all will be well. A lot of garages leave cars running when they are moving them about short distances for this reason.
Ivan
ribol said:That sounds right. I'm concerned by folks suggesting that there's something wrong with my car. I don't believe that, I think it's just a set of circumstances that the engine management system hasn't got right and most people have never experienced. No big issue once it's understood. Reading that this happens to several other people leads me to believe that this is normal behaviour. Problem is folks are commenting without having experienced a forced stall within moments of starting from cold. Theory is great in its place but reality suggests something is happening and to many people.
I think you will find this is not a TVR thing at all, there are lots of cars that do this, late Jags are famous for it. It has something to do with that fact that the temp senders have not caught up with the heat of the engine for the first couple of minutes. If it passes this point then all will be well. A lot of garages leave cars running when they are moving them about short distances for this reason.
Ivan
Well now, over the course of my first 12 months experiences with the Griff I had several similar sounding issues. Dave Batty (
) traced part of it to corroded ECU connections; then we replaced HT leads and cleaned dizzy. Happy to report that by and large the symptoms have never reappeared!
Oh and what a sod when you stall it within a minute of starting. Apparently the lambda sensors tell the ECU that neat fuel is escaping and the ECU says "I don't want to risk bu££ering up the cats" - result: a non-starter for 15 minutes. I've learnt to be patient (although only happened on a couple of occasions since the ECU problems)!!
) traced part of it to corroded ECU connections; then we replaced HT leads and cleaned dizzy. Happy to report that by and large the symptoms have never reappeared! Oh and what a sod when you stall it within a minute of starting. Apparently the lambda sensors tell the ECU that neat fuel is escaping and the ECU says "I don't want to risk bu££ering up the cats" - result: a non-starter for 15 minutes. I've learnt to be patient (although only happened on a couple of occasions since the ECU problems)!!
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