[Chance]

Hi been running the cab now for a couple of months without an issue.





First picture the day i picked it up..7years off the road sitting under a tree.

Back on the road and MOTd now, was running well. But now it has started to play up.

When i dip the clutch the revs will drop well below idle and sometimes it will stall, especially when cold, or most of the time it will recover itself. When it does recover the idle moves around 800-1000rpm. I have cleaned the throttle body, removed the stepper motor, all clean and free to move.

Its an early 1.4 K series with alloy inlet manifold, 1993 car. Im not sure what else to try to eliminate things? One thing i can say is i dont think the stepper motor is moving at all? Unless it moves a tiny amount and i cant tell.

Anything to try would be a great help, Thanks.

[Johnny 216GSi]

Only time I ever had anything like that in the 1.6 variant (poor idle esp. driving from cold) it was put down to an oxygen sensor of all things. I'm going back about 18 years mind you.

[RoverRevival]

how old is your alternator because thats where i'd be pointing.

[Chance]

Ive seen 02 sensor suggested on other threads i found through google but none of them are conclusive.

Alternator Unknown...probably original. Its only done 65000 miles.

Would this upset some sensors or something if its goosed?

[RoverRevival]

if it can't replace the electric being used quick enough, you stall.

[Chance]

Im sure its idle related. Its perfectly useable if you catch it when its cold with a bit of throttle.

When warm it will nearly always catch itself. My metro slowly falls back to idle like a normal car. The cabby shoots straight down, ive never had this happen so have no idea what causes this kind of problem.

No other symptons of alternator failing either, i did mean to check charging voltage of the battery today but got distracted, ill do it tomorrow.

Its similar to if it was on a carb and the idle was set too low.

[cabriolet106]

I had a 1993 214sei with a multi point injection engine that used to get an erratic engine idle from time to time.
The fault I found was. There is a pipe that goes from the inlet manifold to the engine ecu. This block up. Some car the pipe goes straight to the ecu others have a valve on the bulkhead. Remove both pipes blow out with an airline and refit. This should cure it. If not check wiring and connections to crank and cam sensors. Also think if you may have disturbed any other pipes or wiring while you have been recommishoning the car.

[Johnny 216GSi]

Its perfectly useable if you catch it when its cold with a bit of throttle.

When warm it will nearly always catch itself.

Sounds EXACTLY like my broken oxygen sensor symptoms on the 1.6. I changed my route to work so I could keep the revs up a bit, until I could get it fixed. Idle was back with a vengeance once replaced... and the warm up peak revs from cold under engine management control too... they peaked slightly higher than with the broken one.

Can't you get like a cheapo oxygen sensor off Ebay? Or just a scrappy...

[cabriolet106]

The only way to check if the Lambda Sensor is faulty is get a code reader put on it and see what codes show up. That'll tell you straight away where the fault lies otherwise you could be changing a component that is not connected in any way to the symptoms and wasting a lot of money.

[Chance]

Cheers all, I did check the one pipe from the little valve on the bulkhead to the ECU and it seemed OK. I did not check the other pipe though.

Ill check all wiring, car was fine when I first started using it but maybe the shock of being used has upset a sensor or something.

Lambda is a suspect, maybe thats whats giving me poor performance too, bit hesitant/flat.