1994 1.0 (M) Micra stalling

Hi all,

First post here and I know little to nothing about cars so please be gentle!

Me and gf picked up a Micra for £600 about a month ago, it's a perfect little car but does have one annoyance. It will stall (charge light comes on, followed by oil) as you put your foot on the clutch when coming to the first junction after starting, and then again at the second one, and sometimes up to about 5 times. At this final junction before everything is rosy, the charge light flickers dimly but the engine doesn't cut out. It appears that once it's warmed up it's no problem, and the lights never come on again - until the next morning!. Once it's started again it's a bit kangaroo-ey for a few metres.

It is especially bad on a cold morning (as above, up to about 5 or 6 stalls until it is OK) - it does have the problem during the occasional daytime as well, if it is left standing in the car park unused for a few hours (but then it will usually only stall once maybe twice)

I put a new air filter in as recommended by a mate, the old one was fairly crapped on. He had a look down the mesh into the throttle body and said it looked dead clean already so not worth the bother of cleaning as apparently this can be another cause of the problem? And it was also said it looked 'a bit of a #####' to get to the bit that you need to clean - is this right?

Since replacing the air filter it did seem slightly better for about a day but then deteriorated fairly sharpish back to near its original state

Has anyone got any ideas what this might be? And how to go about fixing it?

Any other info I need to provide I will happily do so

I've also noticed, there's a little pipe (couple of cms wide) coming from somewhere under the distributor, which isn't plugged in to anything but just hanging around... Should this be plugged in somewhere?

Thanks for any help
Jim
 
My bet is that the throttle body has died. You can repair them (Guide available somewhere on here) but if that doesn't work then it'll have to be replaced.
 

ollie240585

Ex. Club Member
Doesn't sound like a normal throttle body issue. If once warm it is OK this would rule out the throttle body, people just seem to always think it is this with no reason.

I would start with looking at the ignition parts, check the spark plugs, feel the HT leads, if they are solid they are crap, also check the dizzy cap and rotary arm.
 
Dunno if i should post in somebody elses thread, but i got a similar problem....my micra 10 has started stalling on tickover, if i switch the rear window heater on it ticks over faster but does not stall...........any ideas guys
 
Doesn't sound like a normal throttle body issue. If once warm it is OK this would rule out the throttle body, people just seem to always think it is this with no reason.

I would start with looking at the ignition parts, check the spark plugs, feel the HT leads, if they are solid they are crap, also check the dizzy cap and rotary arm.

Doesn't hurt to check just in case. Mine was quite temperamental and resoldering did the job nicely.
 
Thanks for your posts.

When you say feel the HT leads... I'm not sure what they should be like - they are 'solid' i.e. you can't squeeze them in but fairly flexible I assume this is a good thing?

We had the dizzy cap off the other week and sandpapered off some crud from the rotary arm and the contacts there, all looked OK

Thanks again
Jim
 
I got the car serviced the other day and that seems to have made a LOT better

It also, as a rule, gets much better in the warm weather anyway, and this is hopefully on its way...
 
Well i serviced mine and still have the problem. I may have a problem on the distributor... I put on new rotor and cap but no avail... Car starts first time always, but runs erratic on idle, constantly doing a hiccup symptom... :(
 
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