I'm not talking exclusively about Subarus here. Just wondering, can you push start a car with a stick if it has fuel injection? (I tried to help a friend this way recently, and the car would not start.)
- posted
19 years ago
I'm not talking exclusively about Subarus here. Just wondering, can you push start a car with a stick if it has fuel injection? (I tried to help a friend this way recently, and the car would not start.)
Yes you can and speaking from personal experience. I think know what you are thinking but if you have enough battery power to prime the injectors you should be fine and there should be enough gas anyways in the line.
Shouldn't a proper push start also fire up the alternator?
Yeah but... if it's trying to charge a dead battery there might not be enough juice left to run the injectors, fuel pump, ECU and ignition.
You might be able to do it, but I'd sure not bet on it.
I hear you Guys and I concur.
I've push started a completely dead FI Honda Civic.
91 Liberty wagon push &/or roll started several times, ditto several other cars. IME biggest problem is usually the car getting around the initial confusion when the motor first fires up and can't work out what the hell is going on or quite where it is for a few seconds! Cheers
Because it MAY introduce unburnt fuel into the exhaust system and cause a fire on start up.
There is nothing about a car being Fuel Injected that prevents it from being started. Why would this be true?
One thing to consider; fuel not being were you need it prior to starting. With a carb you might trickle some gas down the venturi to goose things a bit prior to starting, with a FI car you would need the fuel pump to run for awhile to purge any bubbles out of the feed line (Most FI that am aware of is a continuous run of gas in and back to the tank, what is not used by the motor gets sent back to the tank.)
TBerk
As long as the battery is not completely dead and the fuel pump can pressurize the fuel lines, it will work fine. The other thing to remember is that some cars have a clutch lockout switch; the clutch must be fully depressed in order for the ignition to fire. If the battery is completely dead, it can't detect that the clutch was fully depressed.
The problem with push starting a FI car relates to the available voltage and current from the presumably dead battery. The lower the voltage the more likely that either the voltage will be insufficient to fire the injectors or the fuel control computer itself may not operate properly or at all. If the injectors won't fire, or if the ignition system won't fire because of insufficient power to the computer, then you can push the car all you want it it will never start. Even if the alternator turns there's no guarantee that power will be generated because modern cars frequently use the computer to activate the alternator only after the engine is running.
Now if you're push starting because the starter is defective then it's a whole different game.
JazzMan
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