Car cutting out when stopping, but only intermittently?

Hi

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about this.

I have a Citroen Saxo (year 2000 model) with a problem. Recently, in the last couple of weeks, it has been intermittently cutting out when I come to a stop. It then takes several attempts to restart again.

Also, occasionally (again -- this happens completely intermittently), when I change gear all the revs will drop to 0 and all the lights on the dashboard will come on, only for a second though. This is obviously quite scary when you are driving on a motorway. I am barely using the car at the moment because I'm too nervous about it cutting out and holding up all the other traffic.

The car is fully serviced and MOT'd every year.

Now, I know mechanics don't like intermittent faults because they tend not to show up when they test drive them. This leaves me worried that if I take it into a garage or a main dealership, it is going to cost me a fortune. The car isn't worth a lot so I am reluctant to spend anything substantial on it. :frown:

Any ideas what it could be?

Reply 1

Left Hand Drive

Could it be the alternator?

Reply 2

Joinedup

Had something similar with the old focus which seemed to be related to the speed sensor somehow. The speedo would intermittently stop working and the engine seemed to lose a bit of power... If the speedo wasn't working again the next time i pulled up the enging would die.
At a guess your engine management system is getting confused, which could be one of it's input sensors being faulty. Generally main dealers charge a lot for diagnosing engine management problems.
(I eventually sorted it by checking reports of similar faults on ford forums and swapping the speed sensor myself when I was pretty confident that this had fixed the problem for other people.)

Reply 3

gbduo

Sounds electrical. Good luck.

Reply 4

Né Stig

On my car, I know this to the throttle body or MAP sensor. But I remember a friend with a Paxo once who had the same problem and IIRC, it was the fuel pump. I don't know how or why! But my other thought would be coils - which also happened to my old Pug 306.

So basically - a load of friggin answers!

Reply 5

A Mysterious Lord

Might be the spark plugs? It'd explain problems getting it started again after cutting out.

Reply 6

Landy Mann

All the lights coming on would signal an ECU problem, we had the same on the Megane, apart from the lights not coming on, however we could tell if it was going to restart or not depending on if the ECU light lit up and whether we heard the fuel pump.

The best method is to find a local garage who will put it on the diagnostics machine for free, or keep using it till it lets you down properly and then get it recovered to the garage, not the ideal solution I know!

Reply 7

Omar.Ebrahim

I had a Peugeot 206 with the same problem. It was the alternator, which when replace resolved the problem, then the catalytic converter started to leak. Patched it up and problem solved.

Reply 8

StaleMilk

Hi there,

It sounds to me that there is either something wrong with the ICV (Idle Control Valve), which is part of the throttle body on Saxo's I believe. This controls the speed that the engine idles at and when its faulty it can cause the engine to stall (especially noticeable when coasting up to junctions and on slow gear changes). Sounds to me that the lights coming on the dash is just because the engine is cutting out, nothing more.

So yeah its either that or there is a dodgy/split vacuum pipe under the bonnet somewhere but usually that causes a high idle speed and doesn't cut the engine out.

There are other things that would cause your problem but those are the most common faults.

Did you get it solved in the end?

Reply 9

dhutch

Original post by StaleMilk

It sounds to me that there is either something wrong with the ICV (Idle Control Valve), which is part of the throttle body on Saxo's I believe.

This would be my thought too, worse in the cold?

Assuming its a 1.4 or 1.6 petrol its a TU, the same engine i had in my first 1.6, which did exactly this. Interestingly my currently one (1.8 XU) is now also doing this.

There about £100 from a garage or £40 from ebay, with which people appear to have mixed results.

Cleaning out the throtal body, valve, and surround area can help for a short while.

Daniel

Reply 10

CurlyBen

Check for any loose connections or hoses in the engine bay as well (there will probably be some spare plugs but look for a socket nearby as well). My old 306 acted similarly when the hose to the MAP came off.

Original post by dhutch

There about £100 from a garage or £40 from ebay, with which people appear to have mixed results.

I'm not sure if I just got lucky but I picked up an ICV for a tenner at the scrappy for my old 1.8 XU - having said that the guy was a bit clueless and insisted the stepper motor was the throttle body!

Reply 11

trixster

Well I finally bit the bullet and took it to a garage (not a main dealership).

Apparently it is something to do with the throttle. They have cleaned it and have told me to see how it goes. If it continues I'll have to replace it which is apparently very expensive - fantastic!