Strange Problem with my 308

Maybe Oil temp switch and/or fuel bypass regulator...

Try bridging the oil temp sender for fuel injection... on the oil cooler hose/block banjo bolt near clutch housing.. NOT the gauge sender unit, which is near the gear selector shaft.

 

Maybe this is driven by the same thing Ferrarifixer suggested, I'd always take his suggestion over mine, but on my Mercedes which also has K-Jetronic (isn't that what the 308s have?), there's something they call a "Overvoltage Protection Relay" which seems related to startup operation and causes many unexpected driveability problems. Sorry I don't know more about it, I've never had to worry about it!

 

May be dirty fuel injectors..??? Backfire usually cause by incorrect mistures and fire. Too little fuel, too much air, not enough air, not enough iginition fire... since the car is left for sometime in the moist enviroment, there could be some unwanted thing accumulate...

 

There's really nothing wrong with the car...it's just pissed off and is continually reminding you so. All humor aside, when I haven't run mine for ~2 weeks, it runs a tad on the rough side for the first 5-6 minutes and then smooths out. These cars hate to not be run.

I would've replaced plugs like you did. One other thing to check are all of the electrical connections at the distributor, coils, ECUs, etc. In moisture-prone climates, these tend to corrode faster than normal.

Take her back on the twisties and run her hard for 20-30 minutes, she'll enjoy that.

 

Does battery hold a full charge? Maybe after driving it for awhile, the alternator gets it up to capacity to run right. Bad batteries usually driain quickly while sitting.

 

Sounds to me like a fuel issue, not ignition. The Kjet does various things to the mixture based on temperature, and they seem to be going away when teh car is warm. Do what Rifledriver says, I'm betting he is right!

Birdman

 

Jesse -- Is it a 2-valve "i" (K-Jet) or a QV"i" (K-Jet with Lambda)?

(Assuming that it's a QVi) Usually all of the thermal "events" that occur in the transistion from cold-running (open-loop) to warm-running (closed-loop) on the lambda-equipped K/KE systems happen (or have happened) by the time the water temp gets into the 150~160 deg F range, but your description of "30-40 minutes" seems much longer than that. Has the coolant temp reached, and been at, a high normal temp when this transition from bad-to-good running occurs, or does this bad-to-good transition occur as the coolant temp is still increasing (and is the transistion always at roughly the same coolant temp)? (If QVi) Your problem could be as simple as the base K-Jet mechanical A-F tweak-up is horrible so it runs bad cold, but when warm, the Lambda system can correct the A-F problem.

But please confirm year/model/version, and comment on the time vs temp vs bad/good behavior.

 

I'll leave the techie stuff to the guys who know, but on the low tech side I use Seafoam at 2x or 3x strength in the tank once in a while and it makes all my cars run better. Sounds like you have additional issues but this may help some as well....

 

The clicking sound is interesting. My first thought was fuel delivery...when I had a partially clogged fuel line the fuel pump made a loud clicking sound even though the car still ran (badly). Any chance that's it?

Ken

 

Er, I drive a Lotus; we don't HAVE relays! LOL But we have lots of shorts and fires to make up for that.

The clicking was from the pump itself. I have one of those little Facet cube pumps. It makes a soft tick when it's working correctly, but when the fuel line had a partial blockage it was very much louder.

Ken

 

Well, since it's a basic K-Jet (no Lambda), I'd be more suspicious of the warm-up regulator being "stuck" in a position that isn't too bad for warm-running, but isn't doing the right thing for cold-running -- just another thought (and good hunting)...

 

I get a tick from around the fuse box until it warms up when I pass a certain RPM number, although I don't have the problems you describe. This is on a 308GT4 with electronic ignition.

 

These things warm up slowly, but 30-40 mins seems very long. Does your thermostat work right?

Birdman

 

Which year car do you have? Will assume an i or QV.
It really sounds like your warm-up regulator. But since you have ticking from the fuel pump relay - you should eliminate the fuel pump as a source of the problem also.
If you don't have aligator cables - go to radio shack and get some first. these are the little foot or two foot small cables with aligator clips on the end. Get to the terminals on the fuel pump and clip on. I forget the 308 exactly - but a lot have boots that you can pull back - so you can keep the connection to the fuel pump and also clip onto it. Connect to a multimeter and see what you have. An analog meter may be best - you can see if it momentarily dropping voltage. The needle should be steady, and be of course about 12V. Note which is positive side and which is negative. Get a piece of cable - like speaker cable. And connect to the aligator clips and run it up the the battery. Turn on the car. Then connect up to the battery. Just be sure you have + to + and - to -. This should jumper a good solid voltage to the fuel pump. If this solves the problem - you need to check and clean all the wiring between the battery and fuel pump - and relays, etc.

Next is the warm-up regulator. (this may not apply for you car, I am most familar with the 328, your car may not have the heater?) It has a heater in it. It should warm it up in about 1 to 2 minutes. Pull the electrical connector and see if you have 12V with the car running - you should. Make sure the contacts are all clean and good. Spray with contact cleaner and you can stick a little di-electric grease on it to help prevent corrision. I just had this problem the other day.
The regulator changes the control pressure and makes the car run rich on start-up. The heater makes it only happen for the first few minutes. Without the heater - it takes the 20 minutes or so for everything to heat up. While running rich alone may not make it run as bad as you describe - you could have a combination of problems. Your mixture could be off to begin with.
I think electrical problems are the easiest to check first, if nothing comes from this the next step would be to check you mixtures and put a fuel pressure gauge on and check your system and control pressures.
Hope this helps - I am no expert - so take it for what it is worth.

 

have you checked your coils? ive had them run rough when cold and vice versa, due to breaks in windings which change with temp. just a thought.

 

Hello - I have the same problem here - If anyone is still around from this thread - any idea what resolved the issue??? Thanks

 

check the fuse in the trunk area ... passengers side under carpets. either that or connections are lose there.

if not there - check in passengers food well for connections. most likely electrical if its just popped up.

 

Passengers food well? I have one of those in my daily driver as I never clean it but not in the F

But, seriously isnt it annoying when people dont post the eventual fix for their problem

 

Back in my day, we called 'em "KFC Bucket"




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