My girlfriend's car was acting up today. When she tried to start it, it would sputter as if it was trying to start. I told her to put the throtle to the floor when starting it. Car started without incident. This is the first time this has happen. I believe it was not getting fuel. What makes it interesting is that she had just been driving it, gone into a store, then it would not start. I would think that the system should have had gas pressure still. Would anyone have any suggestions on where to look for the troubles if this persists? I am begining to wonder if injector cleaner would help. I do not have much faith in the stuff though.
btw, car is a 2.0l SOHC, 5 speed with approx. 370,000km Mike mlawrenc(at)rcc.on.ca
Doesn't "pressing the accelerator to the floor, releasing it, then starting the engine "trigger the engine to start under "cold" conditions? (Like - I think I heard somewhere that under extreme cold sitations, you're supposed to do that?)
Not too sure - maybe someone else will have feedback.
Well... to answer all the questions. The car had been off for about five mins. The temp today was average about
10'C, so cold temp and a cold engine would not be an issue. As I mentioned, it would sputter as if it wanted to start, but did not have the fuel to do so. There was no engine light that came on once the car started. Checked the for error codes once she got home today and there was nothing. As for tune ups, The spark plugs are about 3 weeks old, and maybe 1500km on them. I have not had a chance to pull them to see what they look like. Will do that tomorrow. There is a cold air intake on the car, with a clean filter. (cleaned it about two weeks ago)
I am wondering about the fuel filter. I was wondering if that may be the issue as I believe that it has never been changed by any of the previous owners of the car, and I have never changed it. I will check the plugs tomorrow, and run some injector cleaner through it. I hope it was a fluke occurrance.
Ok, so I pulled the plugs, they look nice and tanned as they should. The car has not acted up after that one time occurrance. I am out of ideas as to what could be the cause.
I doubt it actually turns the fuel off (unless WOT with engine off condition is an actual trigger for the engine computer to do so), but, in general, the reason pushing the pedal to the floor at startup clears a flooded condition is that the open butterfly gives free flow to air to purge the excess gasoline out of the combustion chamber and into the exhaust (rather than cutting fuel off per se).
Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my adddress with the letter 'x')
It doesn't. Maxpower is apparently operating under the delusion that the Neon is made by Ford. Some Ford vehicles *do* shut off the fuel if you crank them with the accelerator on the floor.
I am kind of doubt full that the car was flooded, as my gf never touched the throtle until I told her too, and that is when it started. I have seen this kind of condition happen before when the battery had ran completely dead over a weekend and was being boosted. I had to apply throtle to get the car to start during the initial boost, or it would just sputter and stop. My guess for the having to use the throtle while the car was being boosted was that the fuel system required the demand for fuel to get everything back to pressure. (this is just a guess) I know from my experence with 2-strokes, that when under cold conditions, or first start of the season (ski-doos) that you apply throtle to get the fuel system pressure to where it is required. I know this is not a 2-stroke, but I figured this would kind of apply. And it did work.
I guess the issue now is to figure out where to look for the possible cause of the issue. This appears to be a one time occurrance as it did not happen again after Monday afternoon. I had the car Tuesday, and it ran like a topp.
btw, I am becoming more and more doubtfull that this car has the original engine. I know the guy I bought it from had swapped the gauge cluster to one that read lower milage. (another long story). My doubts is that a 2.0l engine with 370,000km (approx. 231250 miles) should be getting really tire, low compression, and so on) The car does not display any signs of being old other then the bearings in the front wheels starting to go.
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