new member in the "engine cutting out" club

[andy-ch]

I've done a search for previous posts about the problem, but mine seems to be a bit different...

During the last three outings I have experienced a very slight cutting out of the engine; more like a hickup, and I was not worried. Yesterday however it was different.

The car ran fine for the first half hour when all of a sudden it wouldn't rev over 3000 rpm. It completely lost power and would not pick up again until i depressed the clutch and let it rest at idle for a few seconds. This was repeatable and felt like hitting the rev limiter. When I tried to rev it with the car stationary however there was no problem. I switched the engine off, restarted and the problem was gone. Still leaves me a bit worried though...

The car will be in for servicing next week. Is the throttle sensor what they should be looking for or do you have other suggestions?

Thanks!
Andy

[shpub]

Could be but there are about 50 or so other potential causes. If the car is being serviced they can plug in the fault reader and see what is going on. If the fault is intermittent then it can be a swine to track down.

[wixer]

I had intermittent running problems on my Griff last year. All I did was clean up all the electrical connectors in the engine bay and checked all the wiring to the fuse box and ECU. Some of the connectors were in really poor condition and needed a good clean, the worst being the bullet connector from the airflow meter. Some others had loose wiring into their connectors. Never had a problem since. In the 18 months I've owned my car, most of the little problems I've experienced have been down to dirty electrical connections which have been free to fix.

[lazyitus]

Stepper Motor may require a good clean.

[tvr4ever]

Sounds to me like your coil amplifier is deadmeat. They can't stand the heat. Let the dealer change it, it's a simple job, and see how it runs then.

Fred

[shpub]

This is the problem... could be almost anything such as sticky injectors, bad connections on the air flow meter, duff ecu connections, failed lambda sensors, duff distrubutor, duff coil, breaking down ignition leads, blocked fuel filter, blocked fuel pump,duff throttle pot,balast resistor failures, faulty connectors, intermittent alternator fuses, defective immobiliser, sticky relays, duff stepper motor etc etc I could go on. You can also have failed regulator pack in the alternator as well. It becomes very easy to start changing these parts and find that it doesn't cure the problem. I would take advantage of the service to get the guys to check it out.

Most of these should be picked up on the ECU - the fault codes and explanations are in the bible and that should be a big help when they service the car providing they have the appropriate diagnostic kit. The biggest difficulty is if the problem is intermittent because everything may well be fine now.

[barbon]

Try the stepper motor, i had the same problem and eventually this is what it was.And a new stepper motor
(£20)solved it.

[andy-ch]

Quick update: Disconnected the ECU last night and went for a drive afterwards. It ran much smoother than before; I also noticed that at tickover there was much less vibration than what I was used to. Maybe my ECU was a little confused? I hope that it will continue to run fine... I'm a happy guy for now, thanks for all the suggestions!
Andy

[swissgriff500]