Hi,
1st little niggle with my CS after 3 months of joyous ownership
Since taking the car to the dealer for a service (which was supposedly done before purchase but ho hum) whenever I start the car in the morning, as I pull away in 1st and 2nd it lurches a bit for a hundred yards up the road.
Dealer tells me there is nothing they could have done which would cause this - maybe it's normal? Also my fuel MPG seems to have gone done from 20 to 16.
Am i just being picky? Or is there something that could cause this?
Steve
It sounds odd to me; but I don't know your driving habits.
When I start my car, I let it sit until it drops down the idle a bit. That takes 1-2 minutes. Then I drive it. And it doesn't do what you describe.
Your car should not accelerate without direct input from your foot! Mine has never done this either, I would have it looked into.
I always start the car up and let it idle for several minutes before driving away. I've warmed up the engine as much as possible even in warm weather; after owning numerous Harleys and always letting them warm up to the touch before riding, it's more of a habit now.I don't feel it can hurt anything by getting the oil up to operating temperature and distributed throughout the block before getting the revs up. Your lurching may be trash in the fuel, injectors or the fuel lines. Did the dealer check for anything associated with that?
This is a guess and probably a bad one but your description sounds like the first problem is caused by giving it to little gas when you start off. The drop in MPG could be because you are not babying the car like you did when you first got it and now drive more aggressively? Maybe the first could be cured by more coffee in the morning?
Warming the car up is not required for modern cars as your Owner's Manual explains. That is just a gas waster.
And, an extra pollution creator.
To the Original Poster - Did they hook the car up to the computer? If there's misfires, then they'll be able to read them out... if you think it's mechanical, then have someone at the dealership drive the car with you in the passenger seat, ans see if it does the same thing for them... or drive another car on the lot, and see if it does the same thing as yours. If it's a problem with your "getting the car moving" style, you'll find out either way.
brad
There's also a line of thinking that suggests that warming the engine up too much does more harm than good. If the engine is close to operating temperature and the transmission is not, they claim that can be bad. I only allow the car to idle long enough for the idle to drop below 1K. Then I just ease into my trip. Avoid lugging the engine or high rev's until you've reached operating temperatures. I think chronic short trips do much more harm than not warming your car up.
As far as your lurching problem - That doesn't sound right at all. 16 mpg is way low, even if you're drivng spirited. Good luck!
Is that 16mpg UK mpg? Does sound very low if UK.
I've experienced this as well but only under certain conditions.
Do you start your car on any sort of incline, where the application of the gas pedal is not needed due to the weight of the car + gravity to move your car for the first "hundred yards?" I've experienced this "lurking" ONLY when I start my car on a slight slope where, I don't need to press the gas pedal since the car drives itself under 10mph (TipS), however my car only acts like this for the first 150 feet. It appears to stop once I hit the gas, but I'll check tomorrow to see if this is the remedy. This only seems to occur also from a cold start as well.
This lurching does not occur when I have a cold start on a flat surface and I use the throttle right away/ don't allow the transmission to pull itself at 5mph (1st gear) or 10mph (2nd gear).
Just to make sure our "lurches" are the same, to me it feels like someone is slightly tapping the gas every .5 seconds and the car jolts a bit forward, then backs off, then jolts a bit forward, backs off, etc for a total of 5-8 times.
As I said before, I'll confirm my new suspicions tomorrow, for I will immediately use the throttle to move my car, rather than allowing the transmission to automatically "pull it" at 10mph for the first 200ft.
Thanks for all the replys guys and appriciate the help and suggestions.
fmarshall - I'll give this a try today and wait for a minute or two and see if this fixes it. It's not that big a problem however it's just wierd it didn't do it before the service.
SantaFe - It was a OPC service so I would hope that they hooked it up to the computer however I do wonder as "they" were paying for it not me so would they cut corners? When I picked the car up the service indicator wasn't reset - did they even do anything or did they just forget this little thing???
Golfguy- It's started on a flat surface, I pull out my drive and round the corner with gas, and then it's as I begin to apply some more gas up the road.
While I do think It is probably me giving too little gas however I don't think my neighbors will appreciate me reving up the road a 7am
And again it seemed to be before the service.
Unfortunately it is UK MPG and I was getting say 300 miles to a tank now i'm down to 220. The main reason for metioning it is because I wondered if the two were linked. I know nothing about cars but the lurching sounds similar to what Golfguy describes and it reminds me of my first car with manual choke when it wasn't adjusted correctly. Holding the throttle steady the car accelerates, falls a bit, accelerates,falls a bit, until the end of my road where I can give it some more gas. Could the car be running a bit lean/rich affecting it when it's cold and reducing MPG?
Sorry for the long post and many thanks,
Steve
I wonder if it is a fuel injector issue. One would think that this would be all the time rather than just on start up.
"It's all ball bearings these days."
