Right guys and girls a bit of help needed.

Its not hard to spot the newbie with the stupid questions lol

I have just got the series 1 and it is a really good condition car and everything was running well but I have just noticed that the fuel smell is quite bad over the last few miles and the idle has gone form 900 ish to about 1300 ish.

I have checked for any obvious leaks and cant see any.

Has anyone got any ideas as I want to learn as much about these cars as possible and do all the work myself.

Thanks

Lee

 

adjustment screw just behind the accelerator bracket IIRC

 

Will check in the moring then thanks

I take it that the screw adjusts the idle speed of the car by changing the amount of fuel that the car has on idle?

Any idea why the cars idle would suddenly change, and start smelling of fuel?

 

did you have your heaters on?

i assume thats what the screw does

 

No heater has been on fan setting one with the air on cold all the time I have been driving it.

The higher idle happened at the exact same time I noticed the car was smelling of petrol when driving

 

maybe a vacuum leak then, i am not sure of this but just an idea.
i am sure some one else will help out as im hardly a pro

 

Just been out again in the car and some more info for you people.

Car idles at 1300 till you turn the lights on and then it drops to 1000rpm.

Also when idling there is no fuel smell but as soon as you drive there is a big fuel smell.

Apart from this the car runs fault free and although it smells bad there are no problems at any point in the rev range.

Cant see any vacuum leaks and no fuel leaks so I am bit confused.

 

the reason it drops when you turn lights on is due to load being put upon
the alternator

 

Yes I had thought that the rpm drop was due to that but I have not had an older car for a while so I thought the drop was a bit high but then again the older cars due drop more.

I have had a suggestion that the cold start injector could be staying on which is giving the over fueling smell and the higher idle all the time.

Where abouts is the injector on the engine and can it be checked by taking a voltage reading on start up and then one after the car has been running for a while?

 

dont know about checking the cold sart injector, but it is in the middle of the
inlet manifold on the back

 

Thanks will check this

 

i have just bought a series 1 and am having the exact same problem!!! do u reckon u could just disconnect the cold start injector (for diagnosis purposes only) and see wot happens to the idle speed??

 

the car does not need the cold start, mine is disconnected