Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction. Just recently particularly if the weather is damp, my Xantia 2.0i 8-valve VSX auto is refusing to idle properly.
The first indication is when you start the car and it doesn't go onto to choke, with the revs higher than normal before the engine warms. Then for the rest of the journey even with the engine warm the car will idle but only just if I am very careful. Any sharp release of the throttle and the engine will stall, even a slight tap of the throttle and releasing it will cause it to stall. But if you allow to revs to fall slowly to where it should idle, it will stutter for a moment with little or no revs shown on the counter before it recovers and slowly comes back to normal idle speed. As you can imagine in stop start london traffic I have become very adept at left foot braking, whilst using my right foot to keep the engine from stalling.
Now I know that the car has a stepper motor on the throttle body, should I be looking at this as the likely culprit. I know that the car will always look to idle at the correct engine speed, so I thought about adjusting the throttle to keep the revs on the engine higher than it is now and letting the stepper motor adjust the idle speed down to correct level rather than trying to up the revs to the correct speed after the engine has tried to stall.
Any ideas though on the cause of the basic problem would be useful though aswell as any cure. I have as a precaution recently used WD40 liberally over the ignition system to keep the damp out but to no avail so I'm not sure if its just a damp connection problem.
Xantia Throttle problems...
Moderator: RichardW
Had the same problem after my 72k full service. My car (Xantia 1.8i 16v) had difficulties starting and when touching the accelerator the engine would cut out. The only remedy seemed to be to get the engine on temperature and then drive. The idle speed when warm stayed around 1300rpm though. I went back to the garage (slightly pissed off after the 500 quit service) and they told me they didn't put the standard spark plugs in. Appearantly that can cause trouble and the engine management system can't figure it out. They put the original spark plugs in and my problem was solved. Might be worth to have a look at your spark plugs <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>
I read somewhere (Xantia related), that a faulty MAP sensor (manifold air pressure sensor) can give this problem.
My 1995 2.0 VSX 16 valves had this sort of trouble the whole summer, sometimes stalling, sometimes going to 2000 rpm.
Now the problem just disappeared.
My ignition lamp stays on for a while before going off, at start time, but unless I find a D.I.Y way to read the diagnostic I'll live with this. I am fed up of going to a Citroen garage for their usual suggestion for any problem "you should change your spheres.... (!)"
Ciao
Rico
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Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction. Just recently particularly if the weather is damp, my Xantia 2.0i 8-valve VSX auto is refusing to idle properly.
The first indication is when you start the car and it doesn't go onto to choke, with the revs higher than normal before the engine warms. Then for the rest of the journey even with the engine warm the car will idle but only just if I am very careful. Any sharp release of the throttle and the engine will stall, even a slight tap of the throttle and releasing it will cause it to stall. But if you allow to revs to fall slowly to where it should idle, it will stutter for a moment with little or no revs shown on the counter before it recovers and slowly comes back to normal idle speed. As you can imagine in stop start london traffic I have become very adept at left foot braking, whilst using my right foot to keep the engine from stalling.
Now I know that the car has a stepper motor on the throttle body, should I be looking at this as the likely culprit. I know that the car will always look to idle at the correct engine speed, so I thought about adjusting the throttle to keep the revs on the engine higher than it is now and letting the stepper motor adjust the idle speed down to correct level rather than trying to up the revs to the correct speed after the engine has tried to stall.
Any ideas though on the cause of the basic problem would be useful though aswell as any cure. I have as a precaution recently used WD40 liberally over the ignition system to keep the damp out but to no avail so I'm not sure if its just a damp connection problem.
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>
My 1995 2.0 VSX 16 valves had this sort of trouble the whole summer, sometimes stalling, sometimes going to 2000 rpm.
Now the problem just disappeared.
My ignition lamp stays on for a while before going off, at start time, but unless I find a D.I.Y way to read the diagnostic I'll live with this. I am fed up of going to a Citroen garage for their usual suggestion for any problem "you should change your spheres.... (!)"
Ciao
Rico
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>
Hopefully someone will be able to point me in the right direction. Just recently particularly if the weather is damp, my Xantia 2.0i 8-valve VSX auto is refusing to idle properly.
The first indication is when you start the car and it doesn't go onto to choke, with the revs higher than normal before the engine warms. Then for the rest of the journey even with the engine warm the car will idle but only just if I am very careful. Any sharp release of the throttle and the engine will stall, even a slight tap of the throttle and releasing it will cause it to stall. But if you allow to revs to fall slowly to where it should idle, it will stutter for a moment with little or no revs shown on the counter before it recovers and slowly comes back to normal idle speed. As you can imagine in stop start london traffic I have become very adept at left foot braking, whilst using my right foot to keep the engine from stalling.
Now I know that the car has a stepper motor on the throttle body, should I be looking at this as the likely culprit. I know that the car will always look to idle at the correct engine speed, so I thought about adjusting the throttle to keep the revs on the engine higher than it is now and letting the stepper motor adjust the idle speed down to correct level rather than trying to up the revs to the correct speed after the engine has tried to stall.
Any ideas though on the cause of the basic problem would be useful though aswell as any cure. I have as a precaution recently used WD40 liberally over the ignition system to keep the damp out but to no avail so I'm not sure if its just a damp connection problem.
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Thank you for your help so far.
As a temporary fix I have adjusted the throttle cable so the car idles just above the normal speed (its set to idle 750-800rpm), this way the stepper motor which seems to be fully functioning will always adjust the revs lower (usually to around 650rpm) rather than trying to catch an almost stalling engine. Hopefully should the car decide to play up in the future with the idle adjustment it won't get the chance to stall. I made the adjustments whilst it was playing up and it refused to stall then, so fingers crossed as it hasn't played up since.
Regarding engine management warning lights, they always go out once the car is started. So I'm at a loss to know what is the cause of my car's malaise, here's hoping my cheap and cheerful bodge mechanics will work.......
As a temporary fix I have adjusted the throttle cable so the car idles just above the normal speed (its set to idle 750-800rpm), this way the stepper motor which seems to be fully functioning will always adjust the revs lower (usually to around 650rpm) rather than trying to catch an almost stalling engine. Hopefully should the car decide to play up in the future with the idle adjustment it won't get the chance to stall. I made the adjustments whilst it was playing up and it refused to stall then, so fingers crossed as it hasn't played up since.
Regarding engine management warning lights, they always go out once the car is started. So I'm at a loss to know what is the cause of my car's malaise, here's hoping my cheap and cheerful bodge mechanics will work.......
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Let me get this straight. You paid £500 for a service (plus another load of work, presumably), and they put the wrong spark plugs in?
Somebody recommend this man a better garage!
Mike
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Yep, I agree, a bit stupid of this garage! The should have done it right from the start as they do know it does cause troubles at times. Anyway, the price included a new timing belt and a new trim on the bottow of my front windscreen!
But does anyone know a better Citroen garage around Northampton? The car has been serviced all his 5 years of life with this garage.
Cheers,
John
Dumped my Escort XR3I for a Xantia <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
Let me get this straight. You paid £500 for a service (plus another load of work, presumably), and they put the wrong spark plugs in?
Somebody recommend this man a better garage!
Mike
<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>
Yep, I agree, a bit stupid of this garage! The should have done it right from the start as they do know it does cause troubles at times. Anyway, the price included a new timing belt and a new trim on the bottow of my front windscreen!
But does anyone know a better Citroen garage around Northampton? The car has been serviced all his 5 years of life with this garage.
Cheers,
John
Dumped my Escort XR3I for a Xantia <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
Reffro,
Fraid I don't know too much about this (my cars have been diesels for many years) but your symptoms sound exactly the same as on my son's petrol Clio. Stepper motor was at first suspected but this appears OK. It has been suggested to me that it is the CTS -Coolant Temp Sensor which only costs about £12 on the Clio. Since my son is in the States for a few weeks I haven't yet replaced the CTS - I'm waiting for a weekend when it isn't p*ssing down! Might be worth checking the CTS on yours?
Phil
Fraid I don't know too much about this (my cars have been diesels for many years) but your symptoms sound exactly the same as on my son's petrol Clio. Stepper motor was at first suspected but this appears OK. It has been suggested to me that it is the CTS -Coolant Temp Sensor which only costs about £12 on the Clio. Since my son is in the States for a few weeks I haven't yet replaced the CTS - I'm waiting for a weekend when it isn't p*ssing down! Might be worth checking the CTS on yours?
Phil
Hi,
There is an easy way to check the CTS. As well as the CTS you also have an air temperature sensor which lives in the throttle housing (on my Xm 2.0 16v anyway) If you were to measure the resistance (they are basically variable resistors which use the temperature to put out a different resistance (fuzzy)) over both of them before using the car (they should both have the same approximate temperature when the car has been sitting overnight) the resistance should be just about the same on the both. If it isn't one of them is probably off and if it is they are probably ok (or both gone but that's quite unlikely).
About the problem at hand, there have been alot of posts about this lately. I've had similar problems which seem to have disappeared at the moment (cleaned out the throttle housing).
The stepper motor is only used to regulate the idle speed when the engine is cold or when you turn on things like AC. The MAP sensor could cause problems like this and I suppose the TPS(throttle position sensor) could as well. Maybe disconnecting these would show you something. (I have heard about damaging the ECU though when disconnecting a sensor with engine running, don't know if it's true though (anyone any thoughts on this???))
Have fun
There is an easy way to check the CTS. As well as the CTS you also have an air temperature sensor which lives in the throttle housing (on my Xm 2.0 16v anyway) If you were to measure the resistance (they are basically variable resistors which use the temperature to put out a different resistance (fuzzy)) over both of them before using the car (they should both have the same approximate temperature when the car has been sitting overnight) the resistance should be just about the same on the both. If it isn't one of them is probably off and if it is they are probably ok (or both gone but that's quite unlikely).
About the problem at hand, there have been alot of posts about this lately. I've had similar problems which seem to have disappeared at the moment (cleaned out the throttle housing).
The stepper motor is only used to regulate the idle speed when the engine is cold or when you turn on things like AC. The MAP sensor could cause problems like this and I suppose the TPS(throttle position sensor) could as well. Maybe disconnecting these would show you something. (I have heard about damaging the ECU though when disconnecting a sensor with engine running, don't know if it's true though (anyone any thoughts on this???))
Have fun