Car Stalling

james22 · 26-05-2006, 07:28 AM

Hey guys.

Something has been going on with my AU for weeks now and is starting to me off.

Every morning when i walk outside to start my car, it will start idle for about 3 seconds and stall. If you start it again it will get close to stalling and then fix its idle up a few seconds later.

Once the car is warm it will not do it. Purely only on COLD starts.

Has anyone else had this problem? If so wtf is wrong.

:evil3:

AWD Chaser · 26-05-2006, 07:53 AM

try some injector cleaner...

XR6-VCT-2000 · 26-05-2006, 08:12 AM

I haven't had this problem with my AU 'yet' ! , so im not to sure for sure - but in the past on an older car issues like that would of probably been caused by a 'sticky' automatic choke / or the auto choke was buggered alltogether , sounds like something along those lines though if it won't idle when cold maybe . gl

james22 · 26-05-2006, 12:52 PM

already tryed injector & throttle body cleaner, made no difference. It only does it when cold, if its been started for 30secs it wont do it anymore

**Mechan1k** · 26-05-2006, 01:04 PM

Idle control solenoid might be sticking when cold ... just a thought.
Is it petrol or LPG????

james22 · 26-05-2006, 01:43 PM

Petrol

JC · 26-05-2006, 03:47 PM

This happened to my parents car. I cleaned out the ISC after making sure it was working, tried swapping leads, plugs etc from my car to theirs, and finally they took it to a mechanic who checked the battery. The battery was holding 12 volts (just), but was not putting out enough amps. They replaced the battery and it fixed the problem.

ten[A]cio[U]s · 26-05-2006, 04:00 PM

I have the same problem... Bloody annoying. I got told something to do with the auto choke.. but i dunno

XR6-VCT-2000 · 26-05-2006, 04:45 PM

yeah autochoke or as JC mentioned it could even be the battery , and there is a good possibility its the battery too , cos you need also enough amps to run the ecu correctly , that few seconds of not enough amps to the ecu could cause it to not function propperlly , then the alternator kicking in a few seconds later could be backing the system back up again so to make the battery look fine , worth checking , good point JC . Is amazing how much the battery can effect newer cars compared to old 1's , as the ecu controls the lot , and it relys on the battery before anything else .

howesy · 26-05-2006, 05:57 PM

clean the throttle body. Thats how I used to tell it needed doing again. I live in a cold climate and in winter it was common to do it with a dirty one.

james22 · 27-05-2006, 08:44 AM

Can i check battery amps witha voltmeter? Worth looking at, i'm reasonably sure it's not my throttle body as i only cleaned it out 3 weeks ago, when i did the injectors.

Just to top it all off though, my central locking shat itself yesterday too, cant lock or unlock with the remote, can only use the key in door, and even then it will lock all doors but wont unlock them. If i want to open the other doors i have to leave my door open and hit the lock button on the console.

XR6-VCT-2000 · 27-05-2006, 01:38 PM

A volt meter will only measure volts , you need a half decent multimeter to be able to read amps too . And that problem with you central locking , not being able to unlock the car could have something to do with a half dead battery too , it could be causing more problems than realised maybe , thats if it is the battery, alsmost sounds like it though with the central locking dropping out too , or very coincidental it's happened around the same time as ya other problem .

james22 · 27-05-2006, 03:07 PM

thanks i'll check it out, see if thats the problem. i''ll chuck the battery on charge overnight

tudor_01 · 27-05-2006, 04:19 PM

Yep.............mate had same prob.Replaced battery and problem gone

james22 · 29-05-2006, 06:44 AM

Well it wasn't the battery, chucked it on charge and swapped new one out of parents XR, didnt do a bloody thing. I have no idea???

XR6-VCT-2000 · 29-05-2006, 04:46 PM

Not the battery huh, well i did a bit of reading about chokes on EFI, with EFI this can't happen cause there is no choke.The computer checks the water temp sensor which says I'm cold and richens the mixture by holding the injectors open longer until the car warms up, all automatic. So it aint an autochoke issue as i thought at first maybe ( on an older non EFI yeah maybe , but not in this case ). Maybe as mechanic mentioned at least check the idle solenoid next . The only other thing maybe that i could see confusing the computer is that if your water/coolant temp is getting to warm to earlly , thus making the car thinking it has warmed up and leans off on the rich mix while cold / causing stalling .

GK · 29-05-2006, 09:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XR6-VCT-2000

A volt meter will only measure volts , you need a half decent multimeter to be able to read amps too . And that problem with you central locking , not being able to unlock the car could have something to do with a half dead battery too , it could be causing more problems than realised maybe , thats if it is the battery, alsmost sounds like it though with the central locking dropping out too , or very coincidental it's happened around the same time as ya other problem .

Alright, in another central locking thread I thought it was odd that you asked someone to check the battery!

After reading through this thread, I conceed you had a point XR6-VCT-2000 and would be worth checking. I offer you my apologies!

Oh yeah James, hope you get it sorted soon mate. BTW, when was the last time you changed batteries!

GK

XR6-VCT-2000 · 29-05-2006, 10:36 PM

No worries GK , no need for apologies , no harm done ;) .

james22 · 30-05-2006, 07:09 AM

ok, so how do i check the ISC? I thought it was generally maintenance free. The last time i changed the battery was on the weekend, swapped batt out of parents XR and chucked myne on charge. Did engine / ecu relearn procudure, then started car next morning (cold at 5am :-) same problem again. It only seems to do it when car is STONE COLD, and first started. Once it stalls it wont do it again. I'm open to any more suggesations, and as you can see i'm not afraid of pullin it apart.

bodes-sh · 30-05-2006, 05:20 PM

the isc is that little thing in top of the throttle body, just undo the bolts and pull it off, then clean it out

GK · 30-05-2006, 08:40 PM

Yeah that's it, it's kinda got a cylinder (chrome / silver) in colour on it with a black knob as well. Disconnect the electrical plug, undo the two 10mm bolts (S1), S2 onwards had allen keys, and pull it off. Carby cleaner will dissolve the crud and give it a go.

A 15 minute job max if it's full of crud.

GK

james22 · 17-06-2006, 10:28 AM

Well, i finally narrowed the problem down.

My mechanic told me to try just turning the ignition to ON, so that the fuel pump would cycle before i started it. So this morning i cycled it 3 times then started it, not even a hint of the car stalling. Now i just need to narrow the problem down a bit. I cant check the fuel pressure as i dont have a gauge, and was not about to pay $150 for one that i would use only once. Anyone else got any thoughts on what to check. I'm gonna change the filter this afternoon.

james22 · 19-06-2006, 06:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by james22

Well, i finally narrowed the problem down.

My mechanic told me to try just turning the ignition to ON, so that the fuel pump would cycle before i started it. So this morning i cycled it 3 times then started it, not even a hint of the car stalling. Now i just need to narrow the problem down a bit. I cant check the fuel pressure as i dont have a gauge, and was not about to pay $150 for one that i would use only once. Anyone else got any thoughts on what to check. I'm gonna change the filter this afternoon.

thanks for the replys