It's definately pinking!

My local bike is quite cheap, though not as cheap as 82p. A few pints normally...

Is it possible to labour an engine in 1st gear?

It might be a shorter route on the way home :-)

Peter, can I ask are you currently undertaking a thesis on winding people up, or is it something you are doing for Uni?.......Psychology for example? I have to ask after reading your previous posts and now cannot genuinely believe you have a problem. You seem to listen, begin to rationalise and go off the cuff with a ridiculous question. Is it for real??...I'm beginning to believe not

Regards

Whoops.

Either floor the accelerator if it's safe, or floor the clutch if you sense it's about to stall.

If I'm pulling away normally I try to keep the revs around 1500rpm, it's all a matter of balancing how quickly you lift up the clutch and how much throttle you give it. This is basic learner driver stuff, surely you know this by now and can pull away without it getting anywhere near stalling?

Labouring is when you've got it in 4th gear doing 15mph and floor it (while not even touching the clutch).

Mass Air Flow sensor/meter. It basically measures the amount of air intake through your air box/filer and adjusts the fuel intake accordingly. Then 'clean' as possible combustion occurs etc.

I don't know if resetting the ECU has any "worth", but it's a good start with issues as you describe.

Fiat say about 20mins. I usually leave it disconnected over night or for a few hours.

When you do it, the car will feel underpowered even more for about 200 miles or so and might even use more fuel. This is normal as the ECU is basically learning new settings.

HTH.

Try pressing the pedal in the direction it's moving, not with any upwards or downwards motion. Your foot shouldn't slip. If it slips off the bottom then push upwards with your foot at the same time as pushing away from you to make sure it doesn't slip!!

Thank God I've never been driving infront of you as you've been waiting at a junction or anything!

:-)

er...

No, it should make less of a difference. If the engine is under heavy load then it will be generating more power, so the *constant* power taken by the fan should be less of a % of the power the engine is producing.

As a driver you should be able to compensate for this easily. Are you not able to pull away from a standstill in 2nd or 3rd gear? This is much worse than doing the same in 1st while the fan is on.

C.D ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

To be fair, he's not far wrong on it.

To reset an ECU's "learnt settings", if it has any, and to reset any stored fault codes, disconnecting the battery for 10-15 minutes is as good as any other way.

On the other hand - Is Peter a troll? I've leant towards "No" in the past, and still do, but I'm not as convinced as I was.

That's why I thought it was a wind up - Surely most people know the ECU gets erased somehow

Not sure 'troll' is a accurate representation, as I spent a good hour last night looking at the March Pinking thread - I actually find it funny reading. I'm not knocking you Peter, you seem a fairly educated bloke, and at times you take some s*it - I just think you think you're Beethoven when you can only play Chopsticks ;)

If it's not a wind up, I truly apologise, but there's some good advice in here, and you just aint listening

'course it is. Don't touch the accelerator, lift the clutch gently and it'll pull away, but if you're not gentle enough on the lift it'll end up labouring and approaching a stall. I reckon the vast majority of drivers would stall trying this.

Warwick

Peter wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance on 30 Sep

Is there a term for a hypochondriac, but imagining car problems rather than medical problems?

Look. Your car is a (IIRC) 998cc car. Assuming it goes in a straight line, stops sufficiently quickly, and actually reaches 70mph in less than a minute, what do you really expect it to do?

It isn't a highly tuned delicate piece of equipment really, it's a big metal block that houses around 50-400 explosions per second. Expect odd noises. They don't really matter.

Sure, they can give an indication that something is going wrong, before it goes badly badly wrong. But only if you know what you're looking for. Otherwise, you assume every noise is a bad noise, and waste time and money. In your case, I recommend waiting until the car stops working (i.e. it won't move) before doing anything to it.

At least you'll spare u.r.c.m (and u.r.d) your "pinking" threads...

Perhaps you'll also discover there's nothing much actually wrong with your car, either.

Precisely what I was just going to write. Probably just characteristic noises of the engine. My Audi when revved (not under load) makes some sort of rattly sound. But it performas and runs absolutely fine. I even went and looked at another A6 with the same engine and only 55k on the clock and it made the same noise when revved, so I can confirm it's just a characteristic noise of the engine and absolutely bugger all to worry about.

Heh! I'm just going on the "keep on top of the servicing and keep an eye on all levels" way of doing things and not worry about it until something breaks (which hopefully won't happen!).

Peter

-- "The truth is working in television is not very glamorous at all. I just go home on my own at night and sit alone and eat crisps."

Oh ok, I thought you had to have the thorttle open a significant amount for it to be called labouring. I'd have called what you desribe "just ticking over".

Not quite. The better way is to pull the ECU fuse. That way you don't lose all the radio settings etc. Mike.

My Golfs got the engine management set so that I can pull away without using the accelerator, on the idle at 1000rpm in 1st. It even copes with slight inclines. Handy for slow moving queues !

Daytona