Car problem

greyster

I bought an R Reg Colt in January and could not fault it in anyway until now.

For some reason when the car hasn't been started for a while, it takes a bit of gas while turning the key to get the engine going. If I let go of the gas the car shakes a little and then stalls.

Even if I get the car moving it goes very slowly and on occassion has stalled when going below 5mph.

However when I have past this stage after about 5-10 minutes the car is perfectly sound and has no problems. Even if I turn off the car and start it again a little while later.

During this 'bad' period at the start of the journey I can smell the fuel (if I rev quite hard) and notice some drops coming out the exhaust.

Any ideas?

Thanks

rdwarr

I'd get some carb cleaner and use it to clean off the butterfly valve on the air intake which can get carboned up.
It worked for my Mitsubishi, admittedly a Sigma but you never know!

tomstickland

Sounds like overfuelling when cold.

greyster

thanks for both your responses.

rdwarr, where is the butterfly valve lol.

tomstickland - if this is the case will the problem eventually go away? It has been very cold up here.

tomstickland

I don't know really. Condensation on the HT electrics could also be a problem. Depends on the age of the parts.

rdwarr

greyster wrote:

thanks for both your responses.

rdwarr, where is the butterfly valve lol.

You need to folow where the air goes once it's been past the air filter (assuming the air filter is nice and clean). At some point you'll find a round brass flap that looks like the thing you see when you look into a carburettor. If it's dirty then that could well be the problem.
This is related to greyster's "overfuelling" theorey as well. Not enough air in the mixture is the same as too much fuel.