rough start / idle

[Guest squiretom]

Hi guys ,

Well , this is now the fourth time this has happened.

Car cold starts fine , idles fine , runs fine . Occasionally when starting a warm engine , it feels like an old carburetor with the choke stuck closed. I do not smell fuel or see black exhaust. Engine idles poorly for 5 to 10 seconds and abates when the accelerator is depressed as in trying to free up a carbureted choke plate.

Car then seems to run fine and subsequent warm re starts are uneventful.

Diagnostic shows ' no e code ' .

This has never happened on a cold start , so far , only after some city driving , once when the engine was toward the hot side and today temp gauge was nominal.

Any precursor to a major problem ?

squiretom

[BrentS]

I would say that the mass airflow sensor is a likely culprit in a miriad of running, idling, and starting issues.

But, maybe some of the experts will soon chime in for ya, and possibly provide some troubleshoot suggestions.

[Guest NEMO]

Leaky injectors

[Guest squiretom]

leaky injectors ?

is that a replace / or fuel additive fix?

easy fix ?

how can i find out which one(s) ?

only happens occasionally ( when warm) and mileage is about the same as it has been.

[padgett]

"toward the hot side" sounds like a problem itself. OTOH I never heard of vapor lock in a Reatta.

[sfair]

You should check fuel pressure and see how long it holds after a hot shut down. If it drops quickly, could have an intermittant dribbling injector(s).

[Guest NEMO]

Some try the fuel injector cleaner. It connects directly to the fuel rail . and with a can of cleaner .

[rick60]

Remove the vacuum line from the fuel pressure regulator and check for fuel leaking past the diaphragm. Also look at the spark plug wires. A light misting of water on the wires will cause them to arc to ground and create a random misfire. Intermittent problems are the hardest to diagnose.

Good luck.

[Guest StevenHull]

I had a similar problem as you, we replaced the TPS sensor and that made it Better for me. Might be something different though.

[Guest russ barrett]

HAS ENG BEEN OVER HEATED EVER. If it runs hoter than norm.check for leaking headgasket.Or a bad spark plug.

[Guest Telco]

This sounds like a leaking fuel injector to me. Does it take a few seconds to start in the mornings, but run fine once it does start? That would be a sign that the injector is bleeding off requiring that the fuel system needs a reprime, but after an overnight the leaked fuel will have evaporated. A cold engine needs more fuel anyway, so any that doesn't evaporate won't be noticed. Extra fuel in a hot engine will make it run rough because it'll be trying to choke down too much fuel, until the excess is burned. I'm not familiar with the extra diags the CRT allows, might check to see if it has a way of checking misfire. On the OBD2 stuff you can get misfire codes that indicate what cylinder is misfiring to help isolate it, but I think you'd probably need to just have all the injectors checked/replaced.

[Larry Schramm]

Do an injector leak down test. That would start the discussion on if it was fuel related or electronics like the MAF of TPS.

[Guest G Froelich]

Question: Have you checked to see if the problem is timed with the car going into closed loop? I've had a problem very similar to yours with the exact same "cure" of revving the engine. My fuel pressure was fine, had cleaned the IAC, TB, etc., but then I noticed that the chugging/hunting idle occurred exactly when diagnostics indicated the car went from open to closed loop. Just a thought. Might be worth checking.