Stuttering Cerb

[Noodles 4.2]

Hello all,

Just went out for a summer evening spin in my 97 4.2. I had a good drive and decided to stop at a riverside pub for a drink. After half an hour I jumped back in the motor and fired her up - starts up fine, then dies. I wait for a while and try again - same outcome. The car was starting fine then just dying when the revs dropped below about 1.2k.

I managed to drive the car home with it stalling at every stop. On one occassion I thought it wouldn't start - then it did. It didn't die at the next set of lights and has been fine ever since.

The car was not cold or too warm - all fluid levels are fine. Does anyone have any insights as to the cause of such a problem?

Tony

[stevefield]

Hi mate my cerb does exactly the same when the weather is hot.I,m told it can be something to do with vapourising fuel or some such problem.Any way it is very intimitent on my car and after running for a few minutes the problem goes away so unless you have a lot of wedge to throw at it i would learn to live with it.

Cheers

Steve

[Noodles 4.2]

Thanks Steve,

How have you found the best way to deal with it - just start it up and hold the revs for a few mins?

Tony

[philadcock]

Had a similar problem with mine which started the day I was best man and tried to run the groom to the wedding. Nice. Had some useful advice from Joolz (joospeed.net) and it would be worth talking to him. He basically told me that the fuel lines run through the car interior so they are generally pretty well protected against vapourisation, but it is worth checking the heat protective insulation on the flexi hoses in the engine bay.

My problem got progressively worse and it went to TVR last week - turned out that my ignition coil was on the way out and a replacement has apparently cured the problem. I say "apparently" because I'm stuck on the Isle of Man and the car is in Harrogate - don't get it back for another two weeks

[Noodles 4.2]

Do you think this may something that can get looked at under the warranty?

[philadcock]

My experience is that warranty companies expect you to foot the bill for the diagnosis work, and they pay for the labour to repair the problem and any parts (as long as it isn't a wear and tear item).

For the ignition coil, it cost me a couple of hours for diagnosis and the rest was covered.

[leszekg]

Does it run ok at higher revs? If so, could be a faulty throttle pot. Quite common, same happened on mine. Search the TVR forum and you'll find a number of threads on the topic.

[flasher]

Noodles

I'm guessing that you bought the green 4.2 from TMS?? If so take it back to them and get them to look at it. From my experience they will sort the problem for you under the warranty, they always help me whenever I have a problem....and I'd be mightily suprised if they didn't treat you the same.

[Noodles 4.2]

Hello,

Yes I did get it from TMS. I shall take it up there when I get the chance as it is under warranty.

It did run fine under higher revs - although it sounded like it was about to cough up something nasty.

I just hope that it won't be necessary for the car to be away for too long as it will be sorely missed.

Thanks

[yellowperil]

Sounds like fuel vapourisation. This was/still is a potent fault of the Rover V8 and seems to affect the AJP8 to a certain extent to. I nursed a Rover P6 through London traffic for 10 years and had it down to a fine art (in the Rover they ran the (unlagged) fuel pipes right over the engine which compounded the problem - duuuuh. Basically, if you can't maintain sufficient forward motion to keep the engine cool, you've got to keep the fuel flowing. This requires careful ABC control when you're gunning the throttle and trying to brake to a standstill at the same time without stalling!

[madasahatter]

Noodles.

I believe that if you have A/C on your Cerbie, that it will cool the fuel lines for you, which helps when you stop and switch the car off a little, but comes into its own in town.

If you have A/C then switch it on, and hopefully your problem will go away.
Cheers,

Steve

[Noodles 4.2]

Have just got back from a long drive to Morzine in the Alps - had severe vapourisation probs oneday -Hill starts were a nightmare when it stalled because the handbrake was crap.

My keyboard is not working -have had to paste this message word by word. I will get a new one tomorrow and re-live the Mont Blanc Hill start / vapouristaion nightmares.





>> Edited by Noodles 4.2 on Sunday 25th August 18:07