Hi everyone, I'm having stalling issues with my TR. When the car is cold, everything's good, no problem. But once the car is up in temperature (water and oil), the car stalls when I get to a stop if I press the clutch while the RPM are still higher than the idle level. If I'm stopped in neutral and blip the gas, the RPM will fall below the normal idle and the car stalls. Heck, sometimes if I take too long between gears, it stalls! I've done a little bit of research on Fchat, and found these two threads: This one is suggesting a possible issue with the microswitch, but the thread is a little inconclusive as the problem only temporarily disappear. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=248516&highlight=stalls This one suggesting the fuel system could be unbalanced and I would have to take it to the F-pimp (as Shamile says... ) to get it balanced with their special machine (apparently very few shops are able to properly balance the TR engine, is that true?). http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=193433&highlight=stalls Sounds to me like the second one might be it, but both threads are a few years old and maybe new knowledge that I haven't found came along since. Before calling the dealership, I just wanted to have your opinions. Thanks!!
Mine's been doing something very similar. If I let the engine slow down to below about 2,000 RPM or so, I don't have any issues, but any more than that is a gamble.
Have you done any work on the car recently (refresh my memory).. If not I doubt it would be the mixture or balancing. The balance and mixture pretty much stays put once set - unless you have a flakey or bad o2 sensor. Check your connections. Do you notice the drop when your foot is on the brake or off the brake? The connections under the 7-12 ignition coil really pose some problems. Check and clean your connections and ground connections. Also check the plugs under the coolant tank.. Sometimes they jiggle loose over time or build up a nice green mold.. I took care of that issue with Dave Helms assistance. I know have a twist style lock connection exactly like the box connections at the rt inner quarter panel and a nice water tight plug to replace that ugly dirt builder white plug. Steve M will chime in and get you going electrically. Be patient.. "if you build it he will come".. Steve has extensive knowledge on the electrics and know what tests you should run before sending her off to the dealer to get raped. R
If she was running fine before I would wonder how all of a sudden she is running rich.. Does not make sense to me. But if you have done some mods or changed some things around that may change things a bit. R
Thanks, Robbie. I'll try to check over the weekend all the points you mentioned. It's hard to tell when I noticed this problem for the first time, but I tend to think it's kind of been there since I got it. The first couple of months I mainly did longer distance drives on highways, which doesn't really raise this issue. It's more once I started using it more around the city, or going through the city, that I started really noticing it. At one point, and only for a couple of miles, it basically couldn't hold idle at all. Believe it or not, I was on my way to Ferrari of San Francisco to drop it for a service that Ferrari of Portland included in the sale... I didn't want to take the risk to drive it home like this and told them to also take a look at the issue on top of the service planned. They diagnosed the 7-12 coil as bad by swapping the two coils and changed it. It seemed ok for a little while, then it came back. After that I replaced the cats and put the Nouvalari exhaust, but the problem got neither better or worse. Maybe you're onto something with the 7-12 connector issue as I did have something going on in this area. One last thing, and I doubt it's related but who knows, I've had a little bit of an electrical issue developing with the lights and blinkers. When my lights are off, all is good, but if I turn on the lights (with or without the actual main lights popped-up), my right turn signals don't blink anymore and just stay on. Also, if I'm in reverse, with or without the lights on, both right turn signals turn on when I press the breaks! In terms of timing, the stalling issue and the right turn signals issue kind of came along at the same time... But it could be my imagination! I don't know if they could be related at all.
Sure it does. One minute it has a 'good' connection, the next, not so.... you were there some time back when a bank would drop. Selective memory... funny how the bad memories are lost once a sunny weekend drive is just a turn of the key away. Coolant temp sender, O2 sensor ECU, timing computer, AFM position, throttle sw..... heck, take your pick, any of these could give the same results.
Ah yes the good old days, pre gold connector kit.. Once you got gold baby, its all good.. It sucks you had to buy a new 7-12 coil when it is probably the connections being the gremilin. Stepping on your brakes while in reverse and your rear lights are doing something funky? I would check the grounds at the left tail lamp area. Many times they get loose from vibration. I would check those connections, clean and re-install. I know I sound like a broken record but the gold connector kit is a must.. The biggest reason is it will solve all your connectivity issues and second, when the time comes when you do have some sort of issue you will have a solid electrical foundation. No more second guessing if its the connections. You may or may not have a connection problem. I am guessing you do. The gold kit will allow you to eliminate that concern. The car without a gold kit is taking you on a never ending ride.. I cant stress enough the importance of the kit.. Its a fun project too.. My wife loved it.. R
But its gold Robbie and you know how much the ladies like gold and other sparkly things. I bet she did the fitting, but are you sure all the gold actually went into the car P
Thanks guys. Ok, Gold Connector Kit it is! Let's start with this. (Dave, PM sent!) Just a quick question, spring is here and the summer fun is coming up so is the gold connector kit something that will take the car off the road for a while, or I can just progress one connection at the time and take the car out for a spin whenever I want?
Its actually the best way to do it.. Do two plugs at a time then fire her up and take her for a spin.. this way if you mess up you'll know which connector you meesed up right away vs. doing them all and back tracking thru all of them.. Dont forget to ask for the hat.. R
Well the weird turn signal/rear light/stop light issue is solved, kind of. It was indeed the rear right light assembly white connector that got loose. All the lights are working fine again, until next time, so one more reason to get Dave's gold kit. Who knows what else is going on like this... Still looking into the stalling issue.
I ordered the Gold Kit this morning. Dave and I spoke for 30 minutes about the TR, and about cars in general. It was my first time talking to Dave over the phone, and he is so genuinely passionate about Ferrari, it's really amazing. What a great guy and an amazing asset to the Ferrari community. I'll document well the kit process and share it as I go. C.
I just wanted to give a little update on this. The issue seemed to get a little worse and it was making the car less and less fun to drive as I always had to try to "catch it" before it stalled. I started installing the gold kit, but it's going to take me a quite a while to complete it as I have little spare time outside of work and family. I spoke with Ferrari of San Francisco and they also suggested the banks were probably out of balance; they really are great guys, they never pushed to "fix it all", so I dropped the car off. They solved the problem through a thorough inspection, and I have to say, the car runs really smoothly now. It feels soft though strong! Here is the summary of what they've done in case someone runs into the same issue: "Test drove the vehicle and confirmed that when at operating temperature, coming to a stop or when clutch is pressed and held that engine will drop rpms and stop running. Difficult to restart. Visually inspected, removed cold start air bypass valves below intake and inspected. Operating properly. Checked vaccum at both banks, were similar at 15 ingh idling. Checked connections to ECU's and for oxygen sensors. removed oxygen sensors and performed 4 gas analysis. Found cylinders 1-6 had very high CO reading, 2.6. Adjusted to 1.05 CO. Adjusted idle speed and test drove again. Vehicle now running properly and not stalling" I don't quite understand the whole CO thing, does it mean that it was running very rich on one side? Oh and by the way, the bill turned out to be more than reasonable, actually the smallest bill I've had on my TR!
++++ Infinity!!!....CANNOT emphasis what a Tremendous ASSET!!!... both "Dave" & "Steve" are....Truly PRICELESS!!!......Mark
It most likely means they adjusted around a differential pressure problem, the computer controls the mixture on a KE-jet system, not "the mixture screw" You need to first set proper differential pressure, then adjust the "mixture screw" to get proper current draw on the EHA. In other words, put the mechanical setup where the computer wants it, then it can properly do its job. This is very hard to do in the shop because you just cant get to the fuel distributors on a TR very well. Larry Fletcher www.cisflowtech.com
I agree, they just worked around the issue.. The crazy part is that once you complete to gold kit install you'll probably have to do it all over again from the years and years of compensation on the adjustments. Just another work around. glad she back up and running but finish the kit. Its worth it.. R
