My 97 1.3 MPi Felicia failed to start one morning. It had already been started that morning without a problem a few minutes before, but as I hasd to get out to lock the front door to my house I had to stop the engine. The car then refused to start.

It was towed to the local garage who changed the crank sensor which didn't cure the problem. They then changed the temp sensor and sparkplugs which cured the problem and the engine sprung back into life.

The problem I am having now is the engine is rough on idling and often stalls under braking when stopping. Reading through this forum I read that the throttle housing may need cleaning, I have checked the housing and it sure do's look dirty, but which is the best way to clean it and how do's it being dirty effect the engine?

Also I have read that some people have had success by resetting the ecu. To reset I believe I disconnect the battery, but for how long. 1min, 10min, 1 hour or as I have read overnight.

Thanks in advance for any info you guys may be able to give

Andee

I should be enough with 10 min, just take the minus or positve cable of the batteri for that time, and remount it after 10 min.

Then let the car be at Ignintion, for 20 seconds, to let the throttle body adjust, and then start the engine.

If I reset the ecu would I then have an imoboliser issue? Would I still be able to start it with the same key and not have to recode it?

I dont want to reset the ecu and be left with a dead car.

Thanks

Andee

I had my battery disconnected yesterday for 30 mins, it started fine again yesterday and today

It won't reset the ECU entirely... the keys etc will be programmed into it.

I would check all hoses around the air intake for any air leaks... and if you're going to be cleaning the throttle body i would suggest changing the gasket for it and for the manifold (only a couple of pounds each).

They generally do have a bit of a rough idle anyway these engines.

It only resets the sort of learned values rather than the programmed ones.

Thanks for the advice guys. I will give it a try when I have more light and let you know how I get on.

Andee

One thing popped into my mind.

Does the car have the same performance as earlier?

I came to thinking that maybe someone connected two plug leads wrong. At least it could be a easy thing to check.

Use carbourator cleaner to clean the throttle body if needed.

With the ECU reset - I was told leave the battery disconnected overnight, and then on reconnection leave the ignition on for 2 - 3 minutes. Hasn't always solved my problems (which have usually been sensor related), but it is definitley a quick and cheap starting point!

Check the quality of the throttle body gasket and also the rubber seal on the temp/pressure sensor behind it. I had similar problems and found that the rubber seal was completely missing from the sensor. i bought a rubber washer in the hardware store and now its sorted...much better.