Sticking Throttle? [was : S1 engine problems]

Sticking Throttle? [was : S1 engine problems]

Author
Discussion

Dr Bob

Original Poster:

637 posts

269 months

Thursday 20th June 2002
quotequote all
Noticed this for the first time this morning.

Put car in neutral and the revs stuck at about 3000, put car back into gear and straight out again, and they returned to normal idle speed (less than 1000).

Wondered if this was likely to be something to do with the Engine Management Unit, or possibly a sticking throttle?

Have had the car for about a week, its a 99/T, so I guess it has the metal rather than plastic throttle bodies?

If a tank of Optimax and a good run this weekend doesn't fix it, I'm going to hassle the garage, but I'm aware that on some cars this is a bit of a 'feature', and not an indication that anything is actually wrong.

Just wondered about anyone elses experiences, and if they had a similar problem and it's resolution.

TIA
Clive

Bit more info:
This is an intermittent problem, only happened twice ever - both times this morning!
Wondered if this could perhaps be a vunerability to damp conditions (wet morning, and I'd washed the car this morning)?

>>> Edited by Dr Bob on Thursday 20th June 12:32

Bonce

4,339 posts

286 months

Thursday 20th June 2002
quotequote all
Hi,

All S1s have plastic throttle bodies as standard. You can easily check what you have by opening your boot and looking at the bit between the air intake hose and the plenum. These are the bits nearest you when you're standing directly behind the car. You can identify the throttle body by the throttle cable attached to it.
Chances are you have a plastic one, but that still might not be the actual cause of this problem.
You should check things out because you do NOT want your throttle sticking fully open out on the road, especially mid corner.

Things to check.

- Get someone to depress the throttle pedal (engine off) and watch the movement of the body. It should move cleanly and not hit anything. It should spring back to closed when the pedal is released.
- Get your head under the steering wheel and check the amazingly convoluted throttle linkage - check that the cable is not frayed and all connections on the bracket are tightly done up and in place.

I had the same thing as you, and it wasn't caused by the plastic throttle body, it was poor cable adjustment. 10 mins with a spanner fixed it. I have since fitted a Trophy 160 throttle body anyway.

If you continue to have problems, my bet is

a) it was a one off occurence... the elise has lots of these!
b) your Idle Air Control Valve is blocked/dirty/broken

Good luck

ptc

80 posts

278 months

Thursday 20th June 2002
quotequote all
Can you fit the Trophy 160 throttle body to a 111S?

Bonce

4,339 posts

286 months

Thursday 20th June 2002
quotequote all
Yes, you can fit it to any S1 Elise, but the 111S and sport 160 will see more benefit than a standard (unmodified) S1.

ptc

80 posts

278 months

Friday 21st June 2002
quotequote all
Bonce can you get the body as a part from MG dealers?

MilesForrest

47 posts

269 months

Friday 21st June 2002
quotequote all
My S1 98R had the same problem. It got progressively worse but occurred intermittently. Solution was to just tighten the spring on the end of the cable. Good luck.

Miles

Bonce

4,339 posts

286 months

Friday 21st June 2002
quotequote all
quote:

Bonce can you get the body as a part from MG dealers?


Yes. You can also get it from www.race-speed.com but I understand that european stocks are a bit low at the moment due to it being the 'in thing' amongst Elise and MGF owners.

Dr Bob

Original Poster:

637 posts

269 months

Sunday 30th June 2002
quotequote all
cheers everybody, the garage is going to replace the plastic throttle bodie with aluminium ones under warranty!

It's days like this that paying the premium doesn't seem too bad!

Felix1

12 posts

276 months

Friday 12th July 2002
quotequote all
Bonce

Have recieved the throttle body am now awaiting fitment, did putting it improve the thorttle repsonse at all, sorry but lost your e-mail so cannot remember what you said?

Pat

Bonce

4,339 posts

286 months

Saturday 13th July 2002
quotequote all
Yes, the wider throttle body helps my engine rev more freely.

ptc

80 posts

278 months

Monday 15th July 2002
quotequote all
Had a look a the S2 engine at Goodwood yesterday and saw that they now use the alu throttle body as opposed to the placky version in the S1. The S2 190 Motorsport they had there looked good too although not sure about the £34K price tag when you look at other cars in this price bracket.

PC